Connor McDavid did everything his reputation promises on Saturday night, and the Edmonton Oilers still lost 7-2. McDavid recorded two assists to extend his season opening points streak to 11 games, giving him 33 points in 11 games, yet the Toronto Maple Leafs routed Edmonton in its own building for their fourth straight win.
McDavid’s numbers are difficult to grasp even by his standards. He has eight goals and a league leading 25 assists this season, and his points streak has now survived 11 games without a blank night. Leon Draisaitl, his linemate and the league’s leading goal scorer with 12, also scored twice on Saturday, giving the Oilers’ top line four points in a game their team lost by five goals.
When stars produce and teams still lose
That paradox is the story of the game. Toronto scored from six different players, with William Nylander reaching 300 career goals on a two goal night, Jack Roslovic adding a goal and an assist, and Auston Matthews, Troy Stecher, Zack MacEwen and Vinni Lettieri also scoring. Edmonton scored from its stars and almost no one else, and its goaltending could not keep the game close: Tristan Jarry made 25 saves in the loss, while Toronto’s Anthony Stolarz stopped 30 shots for his fourth victory.
The Oilers, who had won three in a row before Saturday, fell to 8-2-1. Their record is still strong, and a single heavy defeat does not undo a good start. But the manner of it matters, because it showed what happens when a top heavy team meets a deep team on a night when the depth scores and the stars, for all their points, cannot cover for everyone else.
The streak goes on
As NBC Sports reported, McDavid’s two assists kept his remarkable run alive, and Draisaitl’s two goals kept him atop the NHL goal scoring race. Individual brilliance is not in doubt in Edmonton. The question the Oilers must answer, before they host Detroit on Monday night, is whether a team built around two generational players can win when the rest of the lineup is outscored this heavily. Saturday suggested the answer, for now, is no.
