EDMONTON — If there was one thing in Game 1 of Anaheim-Edmonton that stood out as strange, it was Connor McDavid not being able to gain the zone on entries during an Oilers power play.

The Edmonton Oilers went 0-for-2 with the man advantage, and McDavid looked a tad mortal as the Ducks penalty killers stripped him of puck after puck on his way into the offensive zone.

Was it some new strategy that the Ducks devised? Or was it simply McDavid mishandling pucks? (Game 2 is Wednesday, 8 p.m. MT / 10 p.m. ET on Sportsnet and Sportsnet .)

“That was me just not being clean enough,” McDavid said. “That's an area we're obviously very good at, (and I am) not too concerned about it. That being said, they threw some different things at us, and we'll adjust.”

McDavid’s assessment of a 4-3 win in Game 1 was blunt: “The first period was good, the second period was no good, and (in the) third period we found a way to win a game. There's positives in that, and lessons as well.”

The one unique situation in this matchup is that Anaheim assistant Jay Woodcroft spent two-plus seasons as Edmonton’s head coach from 2021-23, and another three as Todd McLellan’s assistant in Edmonton (2015-18). The guy we call “Woody” would definitely provide the rest of Ducks staff with plenty of Oilers intel.

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