McDavid reveals lessons learned from Edmonton Oilers' 2023 series against Vegas
The Edmonton Oilers are looking for revenge against the Vegas Golden Knights, and they’re drawing on a previous defeat to help them through it.
On Tuesday night, the Oilers will face the Golden Knights in Game 1 of their second-round series. In doing so, they will be reenacting a 2023 second-round series that saw the two teams battle through six games before Vegas eliminated Edmonton en route to a Stanley Cup victory.
It was a heartbreaking loss for an Oilers squad that truly believed they had what it took to win a championship. It was especially difficult considering the Oilers had the lead in Game 5 with a chance to take a 3-2 series lead, but blew it and eventually had their season end the next game.
Connor McDavid told reporters on Sunday that this team learnt a lot of lessons from that experience and will be drawing on that during this rematch.
“You gotta learn from your failures, and that was one of them,” McDavid said. “Definitely change some things more system-wise from that series.
“It was a good learning experience for sure.”
"It's supposed to be a fast kind of skating penalty kill, one that puts a lot of pressure on teams. I can move pretty well, so if I can help in any way, I'm willing to do that."
Connor McDavid on being part of the #Oilers PK crew.@Enterpirse | #LetsGoOilers pic.twitter.com/lEzGO3llX9
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) May 4, 2025
This is not the same Oilers team that fumbled that series back in 2023. Edmonton came back the very next season and made an incredible run to the Stanley Cup Final before eventually losing to the Florida Panthers in a hard-fought Game 7.
The Oilers also managed to get past a favoured LA Kings squad that jumped out to a 2-0 series lead in this year’s first round. McDavid said that Edmonton cannot afford to have another slow start against Vegas.
“All learning lessons along the way… Hopefully, we can use them moving forward in this series,” McDavid explained. “We got as good a chance as anyone, so looking forward to getting to Vegas and getting started.
“Gotta find a way to start the series better.”
One of Edmonton’s biggest weaknesses in that first playoff series against Vegas was their inability to show up in key moments. They let the Golden Knights dictate the flow of the game, which caused the Oilers to fumble leads and allow Vegas back into games.
After posting four straight come-from-behind wins, the hope is that Edmonton can flip the script on Vegas, similar to how they did with the Kings.
“Managing the game better, understanding certain situations. Think about that Game 5 [in 2023], we had the lead, find ourselves on a five-on-three. Can’t put ourselves in that position,” McDavid said.
“They’re a proven group, battle-tested, it’ll be a great series.”