Connor McDavid had four assists Friday afternoon as the Edmonton Oilers pummelled the Washington Capitals 5-0 in D.C.
Stuart Skinner made 25 saves, for his third career shutout.
“I thought it was a simple game,” said McDavid, who now has 14 assists on the year and 20 points overall. “We did a lot of things well, a lot of things we could do over and over again.”
In the dominating win over Alex Ovechkin’s Capitals, the Oilers snapped a three-game losing streak.
The Oilers came out of the gates strong, outshooting the Caps 21-6 after the first period and as a result, staked themselves to a 2-0 lead they wouldn’t look back on.
Evander Kane muscled in a puck in the crease for his ninth. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins tallied 1:14 later when he batted the puck out the air and past Charlie Lindgren.
“It felt great,” said Kane, who’s up to nine goals on the year. “We were up two to nothing and we played like we were up to two to nothing. You couldn’t have drawn it up better.”
With Tom Wilson in the box for roughing, Evan Bouchard blazed in a power play goal to make it 3-0 with 16:16 left in the second.
John Carlson took an abuse-of-officials penalty after the goal to hand the Oilers another man advantage.
Leon Draisaitl beat Lindgren up high to give the Oilers two goals in 1:04.
Late in the second, Nic Dowd was flagged for delay of game for flipping the puck over the glass.
Draisaitl struck again to give the Oilers a 5-0 cushion after two.
The third period was scoreless.
“We didn’t shoot ourselves in the foot,” said Kane, when reflecting on how things went early. “We kept pucks going north and we got pucks in behind their defense.”
After the game, the Oilers new bench boss reflected on the simplicity of his teams play and how it benefitted his group throughout the night.
“All four lines, all the defensemen, nothing too fancy, just played a simple game and played hard,” said Kris Knoblauch, who’s now 3-3 since starting as the Oilers head coach on Nov. 12.
However, Knoblauch believes this team can do more and a win like this should give this group more confidence going forward.
“Getting three powerplay goals, our team play and how well we checked,” said Knoblauch. “It wasn’t perfect, but it was a lot more of what we wanted and what we need.”
It was the fifth four-assist game of McDavid’s career.
The Oilers were 3/4 on the power play. The Capitals were 0/5 and have just three power plays in 18 games this season.
The Oilers, 6-12-1, will host Anaheim on Sunday (630 CHED, Face-off Show at 5:30 p.m., game at 7 p.m.).
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