How did the ‘pillow fight’ Pacific Division get this hard for the Edmonton Oilers?

In late March, Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid said, “A lot of teams are fortunate to play in this division. It’s a bit of a pillow fight right now.” He was correct; the division title was a three-way futility fight well into the final two weeks of the regular season.

McDavid’s words land a little differently now. The Pacific was a farce in 2025-26, with the Oilers finishing in second place. If the team is unable to get past the Anaheim Ducks, does that make the Oilers one of the softest teams in a pillowy soft division?

The Oilers have been a powerhouse team, making the Stanley Cup Final in 2024 and 2025, and boast three elite talents in McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Evan Bouchard. The first time the club delivered that kind of dominance in this first-round series against Anaheim was on Tuesday night’s Game 5 in Edmonton, in a 4-1 victory. The series is now 3-2 in favor of Anaheim, going back to California on Thursday.

Why are the Oilers having such a tough time against the Ducks?

Goaltending

The two top teams in the division, the Oilers and eventual regular-season champion Vegas Golden Knights, had a terrible time stopping pucks. Here are the division’s teams and save percentages (five-on-five and overall) during the regular season:

Team5-on-5 SPOverall SP

Seattle Kraken

0.917

0.893

Los Angeles Kings

0.917

0.893

Calgary Flames

0.906

0.896

San Jose Sharks

0.897

0.881

Anaheim Ducks

0.893

0.876

Vancouver Canucks

0.892

0.871

Vegas Golden Knights

0.89

0.879

Edmonton Oilers

0.89

0.879

All numbers via Natural Stat Trick

The Oilers almost won the Pacific with the lowest five-on-five save percentage in the division. That’s impressive, but from a team-building point of view, it’s an epic failure. Three general managers (Peter Chiarelli, Ken Holland and Stan Bowman) invested money and trade assets liberally in net. The hand-picked goalie options have fallen short most seasons, including this one.

A reasonable assessment of Edmonton’s goaltending situation since McDavid arrived in 2015 has Cam Talbot and Mike Smith as the best pure puck stoppers of the era to wear Oilers silks. Math would seem to confirm the assertion, with Mikko Koskinen and Stuart Skinner also in the photo.

Bowman’s choice was Tristan Jarry, who has been less than hoped for since being acquired from the Pittsburgh Penguins.  This year, in a division that offered two teams (Seattle Kraken, Los Angeles Kings) among the league’s top 10 in five-on-five save percentage, the Oilers finished No. 32 in the 32-team league in five-on-five save percentage.

That’s pillow soft. If not for Connor Ingram, acquired in a minor trade early in the season, the position would be a complete disaster.

Those draft picks are all grown up

The last first-round selection of the McDavid era to be drafted, developed and deployed for a large portion of his career with the Oilers is Bouchard. He turns 27 in October and was drafted No. 10 in 2018. Edmonton has traded dozens of picks since then, and the selections used who turned out are playing for other NHL teams. Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway, lost to dual offer sheets by the St. Louis Blues, plus Ryan McLeod and Mike Kesselring (chosen the same year as Bouchard but sent away in trades), could all be helping the Oilers in this year’s series versus Anaheim.

Meanwhile, the Ducks have the following members of their team on the roster who were drafted (or acquired for a significant Anaheim draft pick) after Bouchard’s 2018 draft year:

• Jackson LaCombe leads Anaheim in points (1-7-8) through five playoff games and five-on-five ice time. He’s 7-6 goals in the discipline. Through five games, he has played 51 minutes against McDavid, and the Ducks were outscoring Edmonton 4-2 in those minutes. Anaheim has outshot the McDavid line 30-15 at five-on-five.
• Cutter Gauthier, acquired for Anaheim’s 2020 first-round pick, Jamie Drysdale, has three goals in the first five games of the series.
• Leo Carlsson is 2-3-5 and is showing well at centre on a featured line with Gauthier and Troy Terry.
• Pavel Mintyukov has played on the second pairing while filling a feature role on the penalty kill.
• Beckett Sennecke, the No. 3 pick in the 2024 draft, who is playing on the second line and has scored a goal.
• Mason McTavish, who scored a goal and drew three penalties during the first five games of the series.
• Ryan Poehling, who was acquired for Anaheim’s 2019 first-round selection, Trevor Zegras, and who has three goals in the series through five games. His reaction to the winning overtime goal in Game 4 may have aided the on-ice call by the officials.
• Ian Moore, a natural defenceman who has found an effective role as a fourth-line forechecker.
• Olen Zellweger, who has been a healthy scratch through the first five games of the series.
• Tyson Hinds, who is playing on the third pair in regular rotation at five-on-five and is getting time on the penalty kill.
• Vyacheslav Buteyets, a prospect goalie who played one regular-season game with the team and is one of two extra goaltenders being carried on the roster during the postseason.

That’s an enormous cache of talent, and a group that will only get better. The Oilers have been offloading young assets and draft picks for so long that the years have finally caught up to them. The contrast between the two teams and the choices in the team-building approach is stark. Time does not favour Edmonton’s plan, and the team is down 3-2 in this series.

The future in the division belongs to the Ducks and the younger teams like them. Bowman has been doing a good job in procurement outside the draft, but the team would be wise to hold on to what little youth is on the roster.

Coaches decisions

Ducks coach Joel Quenneville is a veteran behind the bench who has been through many grueling playoff series over the past three decades. Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch has far less experience, but has guided the Oilers to two straight appearances in the Stanley Cup Final. Both men have solid reputations for problem-solving.

Based on the first five games of the series, it’s fair to say that line-matching has been in favour of the Ducks. Although the goal share at five-on-five is close, Quenneville has been able to turn Knoblauch’s established habits to Anaheim’s advantage.

An example: Through five games, McDavid played 85 minutes at five-on-five. Quenneville has used his best defenceman (LaCombe) against Edmonton’s captain for 51 minutes, with a 4-2 advantage in goals. When McDavid is away from LaCombe, his line owns an expected goal share of 74 percent.

Knoblauch has expressed a preference for rolling his lines out whenever McDavid and Draisaitl are fresh, making the job easy for a veteran such as Quenneville. Line matching, avoiding the McDavid versus Lacombe option, could benefit Edmonton materially.

Tuesday night

The Oilers set a furious pace early in Game 5, reflecting the desperate circumstances. Edmonton built a 3-0 lead in the first period, with the team exchanging power-play goals in the second period.

Connor Ingram played brilliantly in goal, stopping 25 of 26 shots and delivering the kind of calm feet and fast glove the Oilers have been looking for (and not finding) over the last decade. Ironically, Ingram was passed over in Game 4 of the series, the only game Jarry has seen the net this postseason. With a stellar performance on Tuesday, expect Ingram to get the start in Game 6.

Knoblauch had some interesting tweaks among his forward lines. Placing McDavid and Draisaitl together hasn’t worked so far in the playoffs, but the two men combined with Finnish winger Kasperi Kapanen to score a five-on-five goal and keep Anaheim at bay. Veterans Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Zach Hyman teamed up with young Vasily Podkolzin to score twice at five-on-five.

Some things remained the same. Knoblauch didn’t get McDavid away from LaCombe in Game 5. The two men matched skills for over eight minutes. The Ducks outshot Edmonton in those minutes (6-1), but the Oilers outscored Anaheim 1-0. Sometimes the hockey gods smile on a team.

The Ducks are emerging as a big, fast and young team that is becoming battle-hardened. The Oilers finally delivered the game fans were looking for five games into the series. Can the team get it back to Edmonton for Game 7?

Is Ingram the right man for Edmonton? Is McDavid-Draisaitl at five-on-five back in a big way? And perhaps most importantly, can Knoblauch find McDavid some clean air in order to allow the magic to happen?

No matter what happens the rest of the way, the pillow talk is over. The Ducks are bona fide and the Oilers are in chase mode.