Connor McDavid’s start to the playoffs has been usually disappointing

The Edmonton Oilers dropped Game 2 of their first-round series against the Anaheim Ducks with a 6-4 loss Wednesday night, tying things up at one game a piece.

Many are looking to Connor McDavid, who is pointless with seven shots and a plus-minus rating of minus-two through the first two games of this series. Is the Oilers’ captain injured? Has he run out of gas after leading Edmonton to back-to-back Stanley Cup Final appearances? Or are fans blowing things out of proportion and he’ll come back with a vengeance in Game 3 on Friday?

On Thursday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discuss the Oilers’ Game 2 defeat and what — if anything — is wrong with McDavid.

Carter Hutton: He hasn’t been the player we’ve come to expect. We sit here and we just wait for McDavid to be McDavid, and if he’s playing through something — it’s been a long year, it’s been a long run of Stanley Cup runs, an Olympic year — I just don’t know how much juice is left in the tank, and it looks very concerning for the Oilers.

Tyler Yaremchuk: Listen, I think he’s fully capable of making us look foolish for having this conversation. He could go out in Game 3 and pop home four points and the Oilers win this series in five or six games and we’ll be chuckling going, “Oh man, remember the first two games? When we were worried about Connor McDavid?”

As far as him being “exhausted,” there were stretches of the regular season where he looked better than he ever looked, so I don’t know if I want to point to that. I saw people saying, “Well the injuries may be why he’s struggling” — the injury happened halfway through Game 2, that doesn’t excuse the four-and-a-half periods before that where he didn’t look good.

You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…