ANAHEIM – Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid rolled through his skates Friday morning, showing no ill effects from the sprained right ankle two days earlier at Rogers Place.
“Even if he has something, it still looks like he’s flying,” Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch said. “He can play and yes, he is good.
The best-of-seven first-round playoff series between the Oilers and Anaheim Ducks ended in a 1-1 tie heading into Game 3 Friday night at Honda Center.
McDavid, the NHL’s top points scorer in the regular season, felt uncomfortable in the second half after falling 6-4 in Game 2 on Wednesday after colliding with teammate Mattias Ekholm.
McDavid finished his game and said afterward that he would “do a little bit of it.” The captain couldn’t score in the first two games of the series in Edmonton.
Knoblauch said third-line center Jason Dickinson, who did not skate Friday morning, is a game-time decision.
The 30-year-old Dickinson from Georgetown, Ont., scored twice in Edmonton’s 4-3 win in Game 1, but winced in pain after he went down following the fight. He did not play in Game 2.
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Fourth-line center specialist and penalty killer Adam Henrique did not travel with the team to Anaheim.
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He suffered the injury in the first period of Game 1 when he collided with teammate Kasperi Kapanen.
Josh Samanski, who scored his first NHL playoff goal, and Curtiz Lazar drew Game 2 for injured forwards. Both launched Friday morning.
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The Edmonton Oilers will play their first playoff game at the Honda Center in nine years in Game 3 of their first-round series Friday against the Anaheim Ducks
Current Oilers forwards Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and defenseman Darnell Nurse were members of the 2017 edition that lost 2-1 to the Ducks in Game 7 on May 10 and were knocked out in the second round.
All four men, all under the age of 23, made their NHL playoff debuts that year.
“What I remember most is the loss, unfortunately, but it was intense, the atmosphere was great,” Nugent-Hopkins said Friday.
“They have some top class players who are big players that really make you pay. We struggled against that team that year, and unfortunately we didn’t find ourselves on the winning side.”
No Ducks remaining from their 2017 roster reached the Western Conference finals before losing to the Nashville Predators in six games.
Anaheim will host its first playoff game on Friday since April 14, 2018. The Ducks were eliminated in the first round by the San Jose Sharks that year despite having home field advantage, and missed the post-season the next seven years.
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The start of the Oilers-Ducks series was considered tame due to a combined 22 penalty minutes — Oilers 10 and Ducks 12 — over the first two games.
The next closest teams, the Vegas Golden Knights and Utah Mammoth, each had 22 penalty minutes in the first two games of the series.
“Our message is let’s play hard as long as the whistle blows,” Ducks head coach Joel Quenneville said.
“We couldn’t take penalties. It took the last four games and maybe all of them could have been prevented, and that’s too many.”
Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch added: “I know a lot of teams, it’s part of their identity to really disrupt it and maybe disrupt the other team even more. This series is more of a ‘let’s play our game’ and I don’t think any team feels like they’re the underdog that they have to disrupt the rhythm and flow of the other team.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 24, 2026.
© 2026 Canadian Press
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