Playing on home ice for the first time in nearly two and a half weeks, the Edmonton Oilers extended their overall win streak to six games with a 5-2 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday (Jan. 2) at Rogers Place.
Connor McDavid factored in on all of Edmonton’s scoring, with one goal and four assists, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored twice, and Leon Draisaitl and Zach Hyman also had goals for the Oilers. Philadelphia got goals from Travis Konecny and Marc Staal. Stuart Skinner made 35 saves for the Oilers, while Flyers goalie Carter Hart stopped 31 of 36 shots.
With the win, the Oilers improve to 19-15-1 for a total of 39 points through 35 games. Edmonton has won 17 of its last 23 games and is 16-6-0 since changing coaches on Nov. 12 when they replaced Jay Woodcroft with Kris Knoblauch.
Edmonton never trailed in the game, jumping in front 2-0 and finishing the game with three unanswered goals after Philadelphia had rallied to tie the score. Here are three takeaways from the Oilers’ latest victory:
Oilers Close to Wild Card Position
Edmonton is now just one point back of the Western Conference’s second wild card spot, currently held by the Arizona Coyotes with a record of 19-15-2 for 40 points. It’s been a dramatic surge up the standings for the Oilers, who at one point in November were tied with the San Jose Sharks for fewest points in the NHL.
The Oilers are looking to buck the historical trend of NHL teams going on to miss the postseason when they are outside of a playoff position at US Thanksgiving. When they woke up on Black Friday, they were 10 points out of a playoff spot. They’ve since gone 14-3-0 and have the most points in the NHL over the last 40 days.
Milestone Night for McDavid
McDavid came into the game with 898 career points, and it didn’t even take the Oilers captain half the game to reach 900. He scored the game’s opening goal in the first period, then got his milestone point with an assist when he made a spectacular pass to set up Hyman’s team-leading 22nd goal at 8:12 of the second period.
McDavid joins Hall-of-Famers Wayne Gretzky, Jari Kurri, Mark Messier and Glenn Anderson as the only players to record 900 points as an Oiler. And after picking up three more points on Tuesday, he’s just three points back of Anderson (906) for fourth in franchise history.
The 27-year-old is also the fifth fastest player to reach 900 points in NHL history, doing it in 602 games. Gretzky (385 games), Mario Lemieux (463), Mike Bossy (582) and Peter Stastny (599) are the four quickest to 900. Meanwhile, Nugent-Hopkins is now up to 668 career points, leaving the 13-year veteran just one point back of current Oilers assistant coach Paul Coffey for seventh place in franchise history.
Oilers’ Superstars Lead the Way
Edmonton is nearly unbeatable when getting contributions from up and down the lineup, as evidenced during its current win streak. Almost every player on the roster is chipping in right now: Over the last six games, 13 Oilers have at least two points, nine have at least four points, and six have at least seven points. Ten different players have scored a goal, and seven have scored at least twice.
Earlier in the winning streak, it was the supporting cast carrying the Oilers. Ryan McLeod had three straight multi-point games for the first time in his career, and had the winning goal in back-to-back games, against the New York Rangers on Dec. 22 and the San Jose Sharks last Thursday (Dec. 28). On Sunday (Dec. 31) against the Anaheim Ducks, Warren Foegele had a career-high five points, with two goals and three assists. McLeod and Foegele each have eight points during Edmonton’s run of six wins in a row.
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In most recent action, the big guns have really stepped up, particularly on Tuesday, when Draisaitl and McDavid combined for seven points. The dynamic duo now has 14 points between them over the last three games.
Draisaitl, who also had an assist to go with his goal against the Flyers, is scorching hot: he’s got goals in four straight games and has scored in all but one of Edmonton’s last seven contests. McDavid has a team-leading 12 points over the six-game win streak.
The Oilers have never lost a game when both Foegele and McLeod score, and they’ve won seven consecutive games when both Draisaitl and McDavid score.
Edmonton will look to keep this momentum going when it next plays, Saturday against the Ottawa Senators at Rogers Place.
