This season’s first full game without superstar Connor McDavid was a roaring success. Now, the goal for the Edmonton Oilers is to replicate their latest performance when they visit the Calgary Flames on Sunday.
The Oilers somewhat surprisingly limped out of the gates when the season kicked off, but thanks to a dominant 5-1 victory over the Nashville Predators on Thursday, they have won three of their past four games.
Winning in such emphatic fashion without McDavid, who is expected to miss two to three weeks due to an ankle injury, is a confidence boost.
“We don’t want to play without Connor, but everyone was just a bit better,” Edmonton coach Kris Knoblauch said after his team’s practice on Saturday. “Also, we were able to finish on our opportunities, which is something we haven’t been able to do earlier.”
The Oilers had huge expectations after reaching the Stanley Cup Final last season but opened the new campaign with three straight losses, including a 4-1 setback against the Flames on Oct. 13. Edmonton managed only two victories in its first seven outings.
Beating the Predators has the Oilers believing the ship has been righted.
“We’re pretty confident. We’re not just a one-man team,” Edmonton forward Zach Hyman insisted. “We have a lot of pieces that can step up. It’s nice to get that win, and before that we were confident as a group.
“Every team goes through injuries. It’s unfortunate we have the best player in the world and he’s not playing. It doesn’t help, but it does give others opportunities to step up and play better. That’s a good thing for this team. … Hopefully, when he comes back, we’re a better team.”
The Flames are coming off an impressive win of their own, a 3-0 home-ice victory over the New Jersey Devils on Friday, which snapped a four-game skid.
“We deserved to win, I thought our effort was much better all around,” said Calgary forward Blake Coleman, who scored twice against New Jersey. “I thought we checked tight, didn’t give up a whole lot and when we did, Vladdy (goaltender Dan Vladar) was great. That’s the way we’ve got to play, we know that, and we know we got away from it for a couple games. It’s a tough brand of hockey, but when we’re on, that’s what we look like.”
Vladar, who stopped 22 shots to post the shutout, will likely be in net against the Oilers, breaking the rotation the Flames had been using.
“It’s a huge win for us after a couple losses in a row. I want to point that out,” Vladar said. “Obviously, this is a nice day for me … but the most important thing is two points.”
The Flames returned home after a horrid road trip in which they lost two games by a combined score of 10-1, with the second setback coming in Calgary captain Mikael Backlund’s 1,000th career game. Backlund was honored prior to puck drop against the Devils.
“Mikael’s an emotional guy, too, so I think it means probably more to him than people would think, just because of the way he is,” Flames coach Ryan Huska said. “We didn’t play well the last game in Utah, and I felt like we got a little bit closer to the way our team needs to play to have success, and it was even nicer to see it done on a special night for Mikael.”
