2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs: Round 1, Game 1 – Ducks vs. Oilers Gameday

The day is finally here. After eight years, the Ducks are back in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Their opponent, the battle-tested Edmonton Oilers, have finished the previous two seasons as the Stanley Cup Final runner-up.

“You look at the regular season, it’s a big grind,” Oilers defenseman Mattias Ekholm said. It’s long, especially when you have two deep (playoff) runs in recent history. It’s hard to get up for every game, I’m not gonna lie. But this time of year, everybody, you’ve got to do everything. You’ve got to get yourself geared up and get going here.”

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“It’s the best time of year,” Oilers forward Zach Hyman said. “This is the time you want to play in. It’s a long season, and we’ve had a lot of experience in the playoffs, so it’s nice to be back.”

The Ducks and Oilers finished the season one point apart in the standings, with the latter taking advantage of the former’s slump in the final 10 games of the regular season (2-6-2) to close the gap and grab home ice.

“Yeah, absolutely,” Ducks forward Beckett Sennecke said on being able to turn the page and get off to a fresh start in the playoffs. “A lot of us, this is our first playoff game, so we’re all super excited. This is something we’ve been looking forward to for a long time.”

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A majority of Anaheim’s roster has never played in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. None of their top-5 points leaders this season has ever played in an NHL playoff game before, though Chris Kreider (sixth) and Mikael Granlund (seventh) have a combined 200 games of NHL playoff experience between them.

Another player on the Ducks roster with plenty of playoff experience is captain Radko Gudas, who has played in 57 playoff games. His last playoff appearance was in 2023 with the Florida Panthers, when they lost to…