Oilers loss in Game 7 of Final will 'take some time to get over,' McDavid says

EDMONTON -- The wound of losing Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final is still fresh for Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers.

“It’ll take some time to get over, but at the end of the day, you are going to have to get over it at some point, and we’re going to carry on and get ourselves ready for another important season and get ourselves ready to do it all over again, and that’s all you can do,” McDavid said. “Will there be a time to look back? Yeah. There were lots of happy moments throughout those playoffs for sure, a lot of great moments that I’ll remember for the rest of my life."

The Oilers came close to writing a storybook ending this season.

After qualifying for the Stanley Cup Playoffs following a 3-9-1 start, which led to the firing of coach Jay Woodcroft, Edmonton advanced all the way to Final for the first time since 2006. And although it fell behind 3-0 to the Florida Panthers in the best-of-7 series, it rallied with wins in Game 4 (8-1), Game 5 (5-3) and Game 6 (5-1) to force a decisive game for the Stanley Cup.

However, the Oilers lost 2-1 in Game 7 on Monday, failing to win their first championship since 1990 and leaving the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs (against the Detroit Red Wings) as the only team to overcome a 3-0 series deficit in the Final.

“It’s obviously disappointing. You can’t really be much closer than we were, and if you’re that close I think it stings a little extra sometimes,” Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl said. “We obviously accomplished a lot this year. I’m really proud of the way we’ve been written off so many times by so many people over and over again and always seem to find a way to bounce back and create some momentum for ourselves. But we’re playing to win and there’s one team that’s happy right now.

“Of course it was a special run, I think anytime you can get pretty much a full country behind you it’s special. It’s obviously a lot of fun being in those games, and the stakes don’t get any bigger than what we were playing for. It’s disappointing. It’s frustrating. ... But I’m very proud of what we’ve been through this year.”

Although Draisaitl finished third in the NHL with 31 points (10 goals, 21 assists) in 25 playoff games, he only had three assists in the seven games against the Panthers. Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said on Wednesday that he was playing through injuries to his finger and ribs, which nearly kept him out of the lineup.

McDavid won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player of the playoffs after he led the NHL with 42 points (eight goals, 34 assists) in 25 games, but he was also hampered by an injury, though Knoblauch would not get into the specifics of it.

“It’s a very difficult thing to go through, but we’ve done it (long playoff runs) enough times that it feels very normal,” McDavid said. “I think the hardest part about it is being patient while you’re going through the run. You can only play one game at a time and there is only one day at a time that goes by. You can’t ride the wave of ups and downs because there are a lot of ups and downs throughout a playoff run. I thought our group learned a lot from this year.”

It was yet another lesson for Edmonton, which has been eliminated by the eventual Stanley Cup champion the past three seasons. The Oilers were swept by the Colorado Avalanche in the Western Conference Final in 2022 and were eliminated in six games by the Vegas Golden Knights in the second round in 2023.

McDavid still believes Edmonton has the pieces in place to make another run at the Cup. Forwards Zach Hyman, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Evander Kane are all under contract for next season, as are defensemen Darnell Nurse, Mattias Ekholm and Evan Bouchard, and goaltender Stuart Skinner.

Draisaitl has one year remaining on an eight-year, $68 million contract he signed on Aug. 16, 2017, and would not speculate on his future with the Oilers on Wednesday.

“Looking back, we’ve been up here before talking about how much we want to win, and we were miles away from it and now we were one shot away from it,” McDavid said. “The belief has never been higher, not just with us two (Draisaitl), but with everybody. That’s the main thing.”