OK, Edmonton Oilers fans, you can breathe again, though not easily for the next 2-3 weeks. That’s the amount of time the NHL club will be without captain and superstar Connor McDavid will be out of action with an ankle injury sustained during the first shift of Monday’s game at Columbus.
That’s a lot better news than it might have been. At the same time, it’s a major blow for a team that currently ranks 32nd and last in offensive production to go without the five-time scoring champion.
On their face, the two components of that last sentence are incompatible with one another. How could a team with the game’s top offensive star have fallen to such depths, even in the short term?
It’s an odd scenario, for sure. The Oilers are currently the #1 team in the NHL in shot attempts per 60, but dead last in goal scoring. The superficial answer, rather obviously, lies within conversion rates, where the Oilers are also dead last with a terrible 6.4% shooting percentage. This from a club that finished second, first and tenth in the NHL in that same category over the past three seasons.
Obviously McDavid has played a big part in that, by finishing his own shots at a 15.1% rate over those seasons (140 goals), but also consistently setting up high-grade scoring chances for his mates (268 assists). So far in 2024-25 the captain has had a slow start with “just” 3-7-10 through 10 games. But now the club faces their next 10 or so games without him in the line-up at all.
That puts the onus on McDavid’s healthy teammates to raise their game. Foremost among them, Leon Draisaitl who will move into the 1C role. Oil fans will remember how he rose to the challenge the last time McDavid was sidelined for a significant period, a 6-game absence in 2019-20. Draisaitl responded with 4-8-12 and first-star performances in all 3 Edmonton wins during that span. Their 3-2-1 record was solid enough to sustain their playoff position at the time, while Draisaitl’s performance minus his captain helped elevate him to the Hart Trophy that season.
But Leon didn’t do it on his own then, nor can he be expected to now. The sad fact is that Oilers forwards not named McDavid or Draisaitl have produced a measly 6 goals to date this season. Newcomer Jeff Skinner has 2, veterans Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Corey Perry, Adam Henrique and Connor Brown 1 each. Five other forwards including top-six right wingers Zach Hyman and Viktor Arvidsson have none at all.
Obviously that has to change, and soon. The latter two have been all around it in recent games, but no joy. Others are simply not playing up to snuff. Perhaps the shock of not having their captain around to do the heavy lifting will spark the rank-and-file players to raise their own games. That includes Tuesday recalls Noah Philp and Drake Caggiula, at least one and likely both of whom will draw into the line-up at Nashville on Thursday night.
Obviously, no one player can be expected to fill the void offensively, even as the entire team from the goal on out should be expected to buckle down on the defensive side of the puck. It will take all hands on deck to keep the club afloat in the coming weeks.
How many weeks? Time will tell. But if McDavid’s absence extends to the longer end of today’s estimate, that will be 10 games.
Given the current foundation of a 4-5-1 record, currently 7th in the Pacific Division and 13th in the Western Conference, there’s not a lot of margin for error. Nervous times.
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