Star player Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers was not happy with his team’s 4-0 drubbing at the hands of the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday night.
He therefore took action. The Oilers defeated the Detroit Red Wings 8-4 on Tuesday to win their 18th straight game. Connor McDavid recorded a career-high six assists in the victory.
Defenseman Cody Ceci of the Oilers remarked, “He won us the game.” “He gave an amazing performance. He was obviously upset about being shut out in the previous game, in my opinion, and it showed tonight. He played incredible and came out with some fire. I have never before witnessed that.
On Thursday night, when the Oilers play the Blues in St. Louis, they want to try and ride this offensive wave.
McDavid is playing at the peak of his abilities when they come. In his last 15 games, he has eight goals and twenty-one assists.
Coach Kris Knoblauch of Edmonton stated, “I think his stat sheet says it all: six assists, plus-6, no power-play time and he was skating” following the Red Wings game. “The plays he made tonight were pretty phenomenal, and he was one of the few guys who skated for the entire 60 minutes.”
However, in order to defeat the Blues, Knoblauch will want to see his team tighten up defensively. In 19 games, the Oilers have not allowed four goals to be scored against them.
Knoblauch stated, “We were just standing and watching.” “We gave up as many odd-man rushes in one period of time as the entire month of January.” Thus, we made some progress in that area. While the goal scoring was evident tonight, the defensive specifics still require improvement.
Prior to Tuesday night’s 4-1 loss to the Maple Leafs in Toronto, the Blues had won seven of their previous eight games. They had been winning with outstanding special teams play until they were defeated by the inexperienced Maple Leafs.
The Blues were 7 for 18 on the power play and 12 for 14 on the penalty kill in their previous five games. In three of the five games, their special teams scored more than the opposition. They were tied in the other two games.
Drew Bannister, the Blues’ interim coach, feels his squad ran out of gas in Toronto. The Blues were outshot 32–15 by the Maple Leafs.
Bannister remarked, “We didn’t find a lot of energy in our game.” “Our feet were not moving. We were unable to recover any pucks after that. We had to play more defense because pucks won every race. We were unable to launch an offensive.
“We couldn’t move pucks beneath to establish a forecheck. We overdefended in the end, leaving us with insufficient players as we attempted to get pucks beneath. There was no connection between us. We simply gave off the impression of a team lacking motivation tonight.
This will be the first meeting of the Oilers and Blues this season as they continue their bid to reach the playoff bracket. Through Tuesday’s games, Edmonton held third place in the Pacific Division and St. Louis sat in the second wild-card slot in the Western Conference.
