McDavid leads Edmonton with 22 points (five goals, 17 assists) in 16 games but is minus-6 due to his team’s inability to generate at even strength. Leon Draisaitl has 18 points (10 goals, eight assists), and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins has 16 points (five goals, 11 assists) but is minus-11, along with defenseman Evan Bouchard, who has 10 points (two goals, eight assists).
The Oilers will be without Nugent-Hopkins on Monday; coach Kris Knoblauch said he’ll be out one week because of an undisclosed injury.
“I think there’s a belief in the room that we’ll always figure it out,” McDavid said. “That being said, enough is enough here and we have to find a way to just put a good game together. It starts with a good start and go from there. We have to find a way to put a good game together here.”
Last season, the Oilers started 1-1-2 but were able to right the ship quickly and were 9-4-3 after 16 games. They went on to finish third in the Pacific (48-29-5) and advanced to the Cup Final. In 2023-24, they dropped to a share of last in the NHL standings with a 2-9-1 start, which led to the firing of coach Jay Woodcroft on Nov. 12, 2023. Woodcroft was replaced by Knoblauch.
Helped by a 16-game winning streak from Dec. 21-Jan. 27, the Oilers went on to finish second in the Pacific (49-27-6) and went all the way to the Cup Final.
“There’s lots of belief in the room that we’ll figure it out,” McDavid said. “We’ve kind of let things get to this point, I guess, and I think [Saturday] night was the accumulation of a lot of different things. Last night is a great warning to the group of what happens when you’re not ready to roll in this league; it’s humbling and we stand better for it. We have to move on tomorrow.”
