There’s a lot of people wondering if Connor McDavid can hit 100 points in this shortened 56 game season.
McDavid isn’t one of them.
“We want to play good team hockey coming down the stretch,” said the 24-year-old after the game. “That’s the most important thing.”
The Oilers superstar captain posted his third hat trick of the season as the Edmonton Oilers routed the Winnipeg Jets 6-1 Monday night at Bell MTS Centre.
“I think we talk about him enough,” said his teammate Leon Draisaitl. “He’s a very special player.”
This game was full of milestones for the Oilers.
Forward Alex Chiasson scored his 100th career goal with 3:38 left in the first, firing home a one-timer off a pass from Adam Larsson.
Only 2:09 later, McDavid poked a backhand past Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck, and the Oilers were up 2-0 after the first.
The Oilers poured it on in the second period. McDavid scored again, then Draisaitl ripped home a pass from Ryan Nugent-Hopkins to make it 4-0.
Edmonton defenceman Darnell Nurse drove home his 15th goal of the year with 6:42 to go in the second.
Mark Scheifele put the Jets on the board with a power-play goal.
McDavid buried a shot on a breakaway less than two minutes later to complete the hat trick.
Oilers netminder Mike Smith made 36 saves to improve to 17-5-2.
Edmonton forward Ryan McLeod played his first NHL game while defenceman Dmitry Kulikov suited up for the Oilers for the first time since being acquired in a trade with New Jersey.
Draisaitl had two points in this game and they were history-making. He now has 488 career points, making him the highest-scoring NHL player from Germany of all time.
“It’s big,” said Draisaitl. “We’ve had some really good hockey players in Germany and there’s more and more coming. It means a lot to me to be at the top of that list.”
The Oilers (28-16-2) move one point ahead of the Jets for second in the North Division.
The two teams meet again on Wednesday.
– With files from David Boles
Comments