Neither of the forwards took part in the morning skate. The Oilers currently trail their best-of-7 series by a margin of 3-1 and are on the brink of elimination.
McDavid, the team’s captain, suffered an ankle injury in Game 2 that appears to have impacted his agility. He concluded the NHL season as the leading scorer with an impressive 138 points (48 goals, 90 assists) across 82 games.
On Tuesday, he was announced as one of three finalists for the Ted Lindsay Award, an accolade presented annually to the League’s most outstanding player, as voted by his peers in the NHL Players’ Association. A fifth victory would place him alongside Wayne Gretzky as the sole players to achieve this distinction.
McDavid has accumulated four points (one goal, three assists) throughout the initial four games of the series. His injury occurred at 3:57 of the second period in Game 2 when he became entangled with teammate Mattias Ekholm and Ducks forward Ian Moore near the Edmonton blue line. He briefly exited for evaluation but rejoined the game later in the same period.
“When you’re missing someone, you need others to step up,” remarked Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch. “We addressed this when Leon (Draisaitl) was absent at the season’s end; we were without an exceptional player, one of the NHL’s elite. Our team isn’t the same without him, and everyone was required to elevate their performance, which I believe they largely did.
“No single player can entirely fill his void, and we have several players who are banged up but continuing to play and doing their utmost. However, ultimately, everyone must enhance their game slightly. The playoffs are a challenging time to compete — it’s tight-checking, there’s minimal space, and we’re facing a strong Anaheim team. Right now, we need our healthy players to pick up the slack for those who cannot perform at their desired level.”
Dickinson returned for Sunday’s 4-3 overtime loss, notching an assist in Game 4 after sitting out the previous two contests due to a lower-body injury. He recorded four points (one goal, three assists) in 17 regular-season games with Edmonton following his acquisition from the Chicago Blackhawks on March 6.
NHL.com staff writer Derek Van Diest contributed to this report.