Connor McDavid had two assists to extend his season opening points streak to 11 games in Edmonton’s 7-2 loss to Toronto on Saturday, giving him an incredible 33 points in 11 games. That line, eight goals and 25 assists in 11 games, at a rate of 3.10 points per game, tells the story of Edmonton’s season so far: even in a five goal defeat, its captain still produced, and its top centre still scored twice. The problem on Saturday was everything around them, because Toronto outscored the hosts 4-1 in the third period and won going away.
A streak inside a blowout
McDavid entered the contest scoring at a staggering rate, and the Toronto game did nothing to slow him. Leon Draisaitl scored twice for the Oilers to push his NHL leading total to 12 goals, recording his third consecutive two goal game and extending his goal scoring streak to six games, during which he has scored nine times. Yet Edmonton dropped to 8-2-1, its three game winning streak halted, because hockey is not won by two players alone. Tristan Jarry made 25 saves in the loss but faced sustained pressure as the game wore on, and the Oilers never found the sustained level that had carried them through their winning stretch. Toronto, by contrast, scored from Roslovic, Matthews, Stecher, MacEwen, Lettieri and Nylander twice, and won with depth as much as with stars.
Why the streak matters anyway
A points streak is not a consolation prize when it reaches this level. Eleven games, 33 points, is the kind of start that defines a season’s scoring race before November, and it means Edmonton enters every game with a player who can change it in a single shift. The Oilers host the Detroit Red Wings on Monday night, and the question is not whether McDavid will produce, because he has produced in every game so far, but whether the rest of the lineup will produce with him. On Saturday, Toronto’s answer was to let the stars have their points and win everywhere else. Edmonton needs a different answer on Monday, because a team cannot win a season on two players, no matter how extraordinary those two players are.
