EDMONTON — The goal in Edmonton is to build a team that Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl don’t have to carry every night. And they’ll get there one day — just not on Opening Day.
Draisaitl was the best player on the ice Wednesday, playing an astounding 27:00, and McDavid capped an Oilers comeback with a dynamic dash, splitting the Vancouver Canucks defence to roof the game-winner with 5:23 to play.
Edmonton walked away with a 3-2 win, because, as the old hockey cliché goes, their best players were their best players — something it didn’t take a 1,200-game coach like Dave Tippett long to figure out.
“What you like about (Draisaitl) is he’s a dominant player out there,” Tippett said. “You’re in a tight game. He’s got lots of juice, so we kept (putting) him out there.”
With defensive centre Riley Sheahan out (concussion), Draisaitl stepped in to take 24 faceoffs, winning 11. He was full-time on both special teams, played almost 22 minutes at even strength, and was in on every Oilers goal.
Draisaitl opened the evening on the left wing with centre Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and right winger Zack Kassian, who was an absolute beast against his old Canucks team. Tippett started McDavid between newcomer Joakim Nygard and James Neal, and in the coach’s perfect world this Oilers team will learn to win hockey games with their top two players on separate lines.
That day may come, but it did not come in Game 1 of the 2019-2020 season, and by the third period they were reunited.
[snippet id=4748264]
“I’m so used to it by now,” said Draisaitl, who had three points in his first game back after a 105-point campaign last season. “Sometimes you have to coach — sometimes you can’t play four lines. We’d all love to, but sometimes it’s just impossible.”
Everyone knows how dangerous this duo is when they are together. But it’s also a fact that the pair combined for 91 goals and 221 points last season and the Oilers were not close to being a playoff team. Tippett wants a team that wins, not just a pair of annual award winners, and he’s challenged McDavid and Draisaitl to make the players around them better — not just each other.
On Wednesday, Draisaitl forged some lovely chemistry with the big winger Kassian, who sniped a lovely goal to tie the game and won a battle to feed Draisaitl with a deft pass early in the game, which the big German buried.
“Leon was a horse, as he always is,” McDavid said. “Kass brought a lot of energy tonight, like he does as well. Real good start for those two and something I look forward to watching all season long.”
When he’s on, Kassian is one of the more difficult players in the league to play against. He’s big, fast, has the skills of a former first-round pick, and is scary tough.
“The guy that comes to mind in that category would be like a Tom Wilson, Josh Anderson,” mused McDavid. “Micheal Ferland to some extent as well. Those guys clear up so much space for their linemates, they clear out a lot of space for themselves and they can do it themselves.”
“Those guys are, in my opinion, the hardest guys to play against,” added Draisaitl. “Guys that protect the puck, guys that when you cut around the net, you know he’s coming fast and hard. I can’t imagine it being very much fun for a defenceman.
“He’s tough. He backs it up. He’s got a pretty skill set on him.”
Quiet for much of the night, McDavid burst through the pairing of Quinn Hughes and Chris Tanev like a javelin, finishing nicely behind Jacob Markstrom for the winner, a typical McDavid thriller.
“He makes something happen out of nothing,” said Draisaitl. “It’s pretty incredible. I wish I was like that, sometimes.”
On Wednesday, Draisaitl was just fine being himself. He is a superstar in his own right, whether he’s playing with McDavid or on his own.
[relatedlinks]
