The Edmonton Oilers are headed back to the Western Conference finals after defeating the Vegas Golden Knights in a five-game series. One would expect Connor McDavid to be cheerful after Wednesday's series-clinching, 1-0, overtime win, but that did not appear to be the case postgame.
McDavid addressed reporters after the game, but he had a rather grumpy response to a question about the Oilers' defense.
"I mean, how many times are we gonna answer this question, really, like honestly? It's frustrating that we keep talking about this. We can defend. We can. We've shown that time and time again. Come into a tough building and win a 1–0 game when it matters most. We can play that way, we can score goals. Whatever it takes, we can win games," McDavid said when asked about the team feeling more comfortable on defense."
Connor’s extra pissy tonight haha pic.twitter.com/FK4mptOt7Z
— Adhi (@OilerAlert) May 15, 2025
The Oilers shut out the Golden Knights in consecutive games to close out the series, including a 3–0 win in Game 4 and Wednesday's 1–0 win in Game 5. Despite convincing performances to book their ticket to the conference finals, McDavid was still asked about the team's defense, and he wasn't having it.
Considering Edmonton conceded 24 goals in the first round against the Los Angeles Kings, it's reasonable that there are some lingering concerns about the team's defense. The Oilers surrendered just nine goals in five games against the Knights, and McDavid wasn't interested in further discussing the topic on the heels of their series-clinching win.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Connor McDavid Was So Frustrated by Reporter’s Question After Oilers’ Thrilling Win.
