EDMONTON – With a three-point night against the Florida Panthers, Connor McDavid registered his 100th, 101st and 102nd career points in career game No. 92. On his only goal — a thrilling, video-reviewed overtime breakaway with 2.6 seconds left in the session — linemate Leon Draisaitl earned career point No. 100 as well.
After all the highly drafted bonus babies that have rolled through The Big E, these two are nothing short of the real deal. One hundred percenters, if you will.
But as if to remind folks that he’s still here too, Jordan Eberle wired home the crucial game-tying goal at 17:01 of the third period.
Did that goal have any links to the number 100 as well? Well, that’s how many games it seems like it’s been since Eberle last scored, even though his goalless streak was actually 18 long games.
“When you haven’t scored in a while and you find a way to put the puck in the net, it gives you a jolt of confidence,” said Eberle, usually a lock for 25 snipes, after just his ninth of the season. “It’s been tough. You are known as a goal scorer and that’s what you like to do. The frustrating thing is that I have had so many chances and just haven’t been able to finish.”
With Blue Rodeo’s Jim Cuddy in attendance, chatting up Hall of Fame defenceman Paul Coffey in a Rogers Place luxury suite, McDavid dazzled in OT, grabbing Draisaitl’s breakaway pass and laying a deke on goaltender James Reimer.
The ex-Leaf caught McDavid’s backhand, but not until his entire glove was in the net. The Situation Room in New York ruled it a goal, and Edmonton ran its winning streak to four games.
“I thought it went in, just because he was already in his net, basically,” said McDavid, who has had two other goals disallowed this season as they came within 0.5 after time had expired.
McDavid set up Zack Kassian for a goal (first in 37 games), then sat on 100 career points for about seven minutes before assisting on a Mark Letestu goal. It took him 92 games to reach his 100th point, bested in Oilers history only by Wayne Gretzky (61) and Blair MacDonald (85).
“I guess it’s nice, but it’s not much of a milestone. I definitely hope to keep going,” he said. “It’s tough to be excited about it when you see a guy like (Jaromir Jagr) coming in, and you see all the numbers he’s got.”
Jagr had set up the go-ahead goal by 2010 Maple Leafs third-rounder Greg McKegg (his eighth point in 45 NHL games). But as he is wont to do, McDavid stole the thunder with a dramatic dash late in OT.
“You see him get away, and there are six seconds left. He just shines in those moments,” marvelled Eberle. “There are maybe five or six players who can play by themselves and take the game. Be a difference maker every night. He is one of those guys.”
Against a Panthers squad missing several of its top players, McDavid rescued two points the Oilers surely did not deserve.
“It kind of hurts to say it, but I thought we were outworked tonight,” evaluated head coach Todd McLellan. “We were outhustled. They probably valued the points more than we did. They deserved them more.”
There was a time when, if Edmonton was outplayed that way, it was a lopsided loss. That they can harvest points on a sub-par night is a sign of improvement, no?
“Certainly, in the past we would have gotten beat 5-2 and moved on. Progress there,” McLellan allowed. “But disappointment in … if you want to keep your number between one and 10 in the league, you’ve got to be prepared every night.
“To get outworked … for a whole game basically, you don’t keep your upper stature. We’ll have to learn that.”
The Oilers will awake Thursday tied for eighth in the NHL with the New York Rangers.
There was a time here, not so long ago in this town, when that accomplishment seemed 100 light years away.