EDMONTON — Connor McDavid was keen to lend a helping hand on Tuesday.
McDavid recorded a career-high six assists as the Edmonton Oilers continued their strong play at home by blitzing the Detroit Red Wings 8-4.
“It’s unbelievable. You can only dream of a game like that,” said Oilers forward Dylan Holloway. “It’s pretty incredible. It’s fun to watch. He deserves it, too. He brings it every day in practice, brings it every game. He had a great game tonight.”
McDavid shrugged off the performance even though only two players in NHL history have bested the performance by getting seven assists — Wayne Gretzky (three times) and Billy Taylor Sr. (for Detroit in 1947).
“I play with some good players, obviously, and tonight was a good night,” McDavid said.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had two goals and Leon Draisaitl, Cody Ceci, Evan Bouchard, Holloway, Zach Hyman and Evander Kane also scored for the Oilers (31-17-1), who won their eighth straight game on home ice, leaving them one win shy of tying their franchise record of nine home wins, achieved twice — in 2017 and 2022.
Edmonton is 26-5-0 in its last 31 games.
Alex DeBrincat, Joe Veleno, Patrick Kane and David Perron replied for the Red Wings (27-19-6), who have lost two of their last three but are 10-3-2 since Jan. 1.
“We just lost it in the third, which is really disappointing,” said Detroit defender Moritz Seider. “Up to that point I thought we had the better chances, we were rolling and in the end, it’s a devastating result with a lot of mistakes we have to correct.
"It’s still a long road trip and hopefully we can flip the switch here pretty quick.”
Edmonton started the scoring nine minutes into the opening period as Draisaitl went for a bit of a skate in the zone before unleashing a snapshot through traffic at the top of the circle that beat Red Wings goalie Ville Husso for his 25th of the season. Husso was injured on the play, with Alex Lyon coming in to take his place.
The Oilers added to their lead a couple of minutes later as Ceci’s long knuckler from the blue line caromed off of defender Moritz Seider and past Lyon. It was Ceci’s first goal of the season and the first time he has scored since Oct. 15, 2022, a span of 127 games, which was the longest active scoreless drought in the NHL.
McDavid picked up an assist to extend his home-game point streak to 19 games.
Detroit battled back with a power-play goal coming with 4:21 left on the clock in the first period as Patrick Kane made a beauty of a long cross-ice pass to allow DeBrincat to blast a one-timer past Oilers starter Stuart Skinner for his 19th.
The Red Wings controlled most of the play for the first half of the second period, but Edmonton was the team that scored midway through the frame as Ryan Nugent-Hopkins spotted Bouchard wide open in tight in front of the net and he beat Lyon stick-side for his 12th of the campaign.
Detroit quickly responded with another power-play goal just over a minute later as Veleno slammed home a rebound for his 10th during a scramble in front of Skinner.
The Red Wings continued to pour it on and tied the game with 5:30 left in the second as J.T. Compher made a nice backhand pass through to Kane who scored his eighth before Skinner could get back across.
Edmonton regained its lead just 44 seconds into the third as Holloway made a dangerous diving lunge to direct home a big rebound from a Bouchard shot for his third goal of the season, almost taking out captain McDavid in the process.
“That was a little scary, but I saw him coming last second,” McDavid said. “Holler is a little bit like a bull in a china shop sometimes. But you’ve got to go to the net hard and he got rewarded there. That was a huge goal for our group and got us going.”
McDavid picked up his 600th career assist, making him the fourth fastest player in NHL history to hit the milestone.
McDavid chalked up a fourth assist 3:27 into the third when Nugent-Hopkins picked the bottom corner for his 13th with a shot sent through a defender’s legs.
The Oilers third-period explosion continued with seven minutes remaining as Hyman poked a rebound that snuck under Lyon for his team-leading 32nd goal.
Just 46 seconds later McDavid picked up yet another helper as he spun around and sent a backhand pass in front to Kane who chipped his 19th into the net.
Detroit got one back with five minutes left as Perron tipped a Ben Chiarot shot past Skinner for his 11th.
McDavid added another assist with 2:11 left, setting up Nugent-Hopkins’ second goal of the game.
“I think his stats sheet says it all: Six assists, plus-six, no power-play time and he was skating,” Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch said of McDavid.
“He was one of the few guys who was skating for a full 60 minutes and the plays that he made tonight were pretty phenomenal. If he’s not on top of his game, we’re probably not winning that one.”
The Oilers’ captain now has 603 assists in 616 career games.
NOTES
It was the second and final meeting between the two teams this season. Edmonton won the first game 3-2 in overtime last month in Detroit in a game where they outshot the Wings 47-18. … Detroit goalie Ville Husso was a surprise starter, playing his first game for the Wings since Dec. 18, although it turned out he didn’t last long. Lyon had started Detroit’s previous eight games. … Wings’ forward Robby Fabbri didn’t play due to personal reasons. Subbing in was former Oiler Klim Kostin. … The Oilers sat forward Mattias Janmark, bringing in veteran Sam Gagner to take his place. … Ceci recorded his 200th career NHL point on the night.
UP NEXT
Red Wings: Face the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday in the second game of their four-game road trip.
Oilers: Start a three-game road trip in St. Louis on Thursday against the Blues.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 13, 2024.
Shane Jones, The Canadian Press
