Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid good to go in Game 3 after ankle roll

Two games into the Western Conference Finals, the Edmonton Oilers are struggling to beat the Anaheim Ducks in the second period. Their head coach isn't worried.

ANAHEIM — Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid wheeled through Friday morning’s skate, showing no outward ill effects from rolling his right ankle two days earlier at Rogers Place.

“Even if he does have something, it still looks like he’s flying around,” Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch said. “He’s able to play and yeah, he’s good.

The best-of-seven, first-round playoff series between the Oilers and Anaheim Ducks was tied 1-1 heading into Friday evening’s Game 3 at Honda Center.

McDavid, the NHL’s top points man in the regular season, was uncomfortable in the second period of a 6-4 loss in Wednesday’s Game 2 after colliding with teammate Mattias Ekholm.

McDavid finished the game and said afterward he’d “rolled up on it a little bit.” The captain was held off the scoresheet in the first two games of the series in Edmonton.

Knoblauch said third-line centre Jason Dickinson, who didn’t skate Friday morning, was a game-time decision.

The 30-year-old Dickinson from Georgetown, Ont., scored twice in Edmonton’s 4-3 win in Game 1, but grimaced in pain after he went down following a faceoff. He didn’t play in Game 2.

Fourth-line centre and penalty-kill specialist Adam Henrique didn’t travel with the team to Anaheim.

He was injured 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 into Game 2 for the injured forwards. Both skated Friday morning.

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The Edmonton Oilers were set to play their first playoff game at the Honda Center in nine years in Friday’s Game 3 of their first-round series against the Anaheim Ducks

Current Oilers forwards Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, and defenceman Darnell Nurse were members of the 2017 edition that lost 2-1 to the Ducks in Game 7 on May 10 and were eliminated in the second round.

The four men, all under the age of 23 then, made their NHL playoff debuts that year.

“What I remember most was losing, unfortunately, but it was intense, it was a great atmosphere,” Nugent-Hopkins said Friday.

“They had some really high-end players that were big guys that really made you pay. We had a hard-fought battle against that team that year, and unfortunately didn’t find ourselves on the winning end of it.”

No Ducks remain from their 2017 roster that reached the Western Conference final before falling to the Nashville Predators in six games.

Anaheim was set to host its first playoff game Friday since April 14, 2018. The Ducks were swept in the first round by the San Jose Sharks that year despite having home-ice advantage, and missed the post-season the next seven years.

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The start of the Oilers-Ducks series was called tame in part because of a combined 22 penalty minutes — the Oilers 10 and the Ducks 12 — over the first two games.

The next closest teams, the Vegas Golden Knights and Utah Mammoth, had 22 penalty minutes apiece over the first two games of that series.

“Our messaging is let’s play hard during the whistles,” Ducks head coach Joel Quenneville said.

“We can’t take penalties. Took four last game and maybe all of them could have been prevented, and that’s too many.”

Added Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch: “I know a lot of the teams, it’s part of their identity to really muck it up and probably more of getting the other team distracted. This series has been more of ‘let’s play our game’ and I don’t think any team feels like they’re a heavy underdog that they have to disrupt the other teams’ rhythm and flow.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 24, 2026.

Donna Spencer, The Canadian Press