While goals have not always been easy to come by this season, the Edmonton Oilers’ offence erupted on Saturday and filled their opponents’ net seven times.
Now the hockey club hopes to keep its offensive swagger intact as it prepares to face the New York Islanders at Rogers Place on Tuesday night.
“It was a step in the right direction, for sure,” captain Connor McDavid said of the Oilers’ 7-3 win over the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday. “Not an easy building to win in, a team that obviously we’ve got lots of history with and this is a great win.
“Hopefully it’s something that we can build on.”
The Oilers’ offensive woes have been hampered by the club’s lack of success on the power play. Edmonton’s power play came into Saturday’s game running with a 14.3 per cent success rate and ranked 26th in the NHL. In the last two seasons, the Oilers have had the league’s most effective power play, operating at 29.5 per cent.
Get breaking National news
Six Oilers had a multi-point effort in the weekend road game. McDavid collected three points on Saturday night, boosting his career total to 995. He is now just five points away from becoming the NHL’s 99th player to reach 1,000 career points.
As the Oilers get ready to begin a two-game homestand on Tuesday, the club hopes to improve on its scoring rate at Rogers Place, where this season has seen Edmonton score two or fewer goals in six of eight home games.
The Oilers currently have a 2-5-1 record at home and a 7-7-1 record overall. The Islanders are 4-3-1 on the road this season and 6-6-3 overall.
“We’re right around .500,” Oilers forward Mattias Janmark said over the weekend.
“We don’t think we’re a .500 team, so we’ve got to show it to everyone and show it to ourselves that we’re not and that goes by winning some games.”
— with files from The Canadian Press’s Gemma Karstens-Smith