The Edmonton Oilers and Connor McDavid just got knocked down by a gut punch, and to make things even worse, their playoff chances may be dwindling. Yesterday they faced the Winnipeg Jets in a very interesting game, but the harsh moment came when Kyle Connor scored the OT goal at 1:13 of the period. His wicked wrister, set up by Mark Scheifele, beat Calvin Pickard, who had barely gotten his skates warm after stepping in for Stuart Skinner—forced out late in the third after a nasty fall on the crease against Gabriel Vilardi. Although Jeff Skinner managed to score two goals and Darnell Nurse contributing two assists, Edmonton couldn’t hold off Winnipeg’s relentless attack.

And now, as if the loss wasn’t bad enough, the Oilers are only two points ahead of the Kings for second place in the Pacific, but the Kings have two games in hand. Talk about nerve-wracking! And just when you thought things couldn’t get messier, the latest update on Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl has fans spiraling. They are now questionable for their health, and without their stars at their best, the Oilers’ road to the playoffs is bumpy.

B/R Open Ice hit up X on March 21 with some news that had Oilers fans gripping their jerseys a little tighter. They dropped the latest update, saying, “Both Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid are OUT against Seattle on Saturday. McDavid is getting an MRI Friday, the team announced.” And just like that, a wave of panic swept through Edmonton. Losing one superstar is rough, but both? That’s like taking a slapshot to the soul.

One fan was not shy to give a dose of reality with the comment: “Edmonton become Blackhawks overnight.” And honestly? As things stand now, Connor McDavid and his team may well be following in the same path as that of Chicago. Just a day ago, the Blackhawks officially became a team that will not be participating in the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the fifth consecutive year.

The Blackhawks (20-40-9) lost their last hope after being defeated by the Kings with a score of 3-1 in a game that was held at United Center on Thursday. This once-powerful team, who ruled from 2008-09 to 2016-17 and secured three Cups in the process, has only made the playoffs once in the last eight years. Talk about a brutal fall from grace. If Edmonton is not careful, they are likely to find themselves going through the same motions. But this was just the beginning!

Connor McDavid’s team playing on thin ice!

Another fan jumped into the conversation, dropping, “Horrible blow for the #LetsGoOilers.” And let’s be real—it absolutely is. Leon Draisaitl, one of Connor McDavid’s biggest weapons on the ice, took a nasty tumble after colliding with Utah’s Olli Määttä a few days back. And now? He’s stuck on the bench—a brutal loss for Edmonton, especially considering he was on fire with an 18-game point streak when they hosted Utah. No surprise that fans are debating how this shakes things up. One put it perfectly: “As a Kraken fan, this is going to be interesting and a 50/50 game. The Kraken uses this as an advantage to win and beat Edmonton, or it’s the opposite, like we saw with Wild, where the home team strengths up and beats the Seattle Kraken.”

Another fan jumped in, rolling their eyes and saying, “This gonna be the excuse for this year🙄.” Well, well, well, given the current situation of the Oilers, one cannot blame them for thinking like that. First, they were without Leon Draisaitl due to an injury and then their captain, Connor McDavid, was hit. McDavid had to leave the game in the third period of the game against the Western Conference-leading Winnipeg Jets after suffering a lower-body injury.

It all went down when he was chasing the puck in the Jets’ zone and took a bump from Winnipeg’s Josh Morrissey. Before that, though? McDavid was still cooking. He continued his point-scoring run in the season to 13 games and scored four goals and made 15 assists in the process. However, when their top guys were down, the fans could not exactly be cheerful. As one bluntly put it, “They were cooked anyway.”