Few people outside of Edmonton expected the Oilers to go on another deep playoff run, but that doesn't make the sting of losing back-to-back Stanley Cup Finals any less painful for head coach Kris Knoblauch.
"There's no silver lining to this. It's still heart-wrenching. It's very difficult to handle right now," Knoblauch told reporters after Edmonton's season-ending 5-1 loss Tuesday. "Just because we were maybe the underdogs going into the L.A. series, underdogs against Vegas, Dallas series - it hurts right now and I don't think it's going to let up for a while."
The Oilers limped into the playoffs with a 16-14-1 record from February onward as they dealt with several injuries down the stretch.
Leon Draisaitl, who missed Edmonton's final seven games of the regular season, said the pain of losing is equally as bad as it was in 2024.
"It always hurts," he said. "Not more or less, it's just the same."
When asked for his takeaway from the series, Draisaitl concluded that there are no moral victories.
"The takeaway is that we didn't win," he said. "Nobody cares, nobody cares. We didn't win. Try again next year."
Goaltender Stuart Skinner was also gutted after the defeat, saying: "We need to learn from this right away, right now. Letting it happen two times in a row is devastating."
The Oilers are the third team in the expansion era (since 1968) to lose in back-to-back Stanley Cup Finals, joining the St. Louis Blues (1968-70) and Boston Bruins (1977-78).
