ST. LOUIS — Connor McDavid has spent an entire training camp trying to just be one of the guys.
It was a sometimes-ridiculous pursuit, considering the wattage of the spotlight in Edmonton. But in his sheer dedication to the cause he has earned the respect of the Edmonton Oilers veterans — if not the applause of the media who hound him daily.
Where was he going to live this season? How many points might he get? Does he think he and Taylor Hall can forge their chemistry by American Thanksgiving?
If the question presumed that he was going to make the Edmonton Oilers’ Opening Night roster, McDavid wasn’t giving you the answer. He was a rookie, and if we didn’t know his place in the dressing room order, he certainly did.
On Thursday night in St. Louis McDavid had no points, went minus-1 and had excellent scoring chances on both of his shots on goal in a 3-1 Oilers loss.
“I had a couple chances that I need to score on,” he admitted post-game, reticent to talk about his own game after a team loss.
In the process of a responsibly-played National Hockey League debut however, McDavid cemented his place in Edmonton’s dressing room as a teammate — not simply the next 18-year-old superstar who is coming to town to save the day.
“I see a guy who’s coming back. He’s not cheating,” said veteran winger Matt Hendricks. “The best players in the league play that way, and they end up winning Cups.”
Unlike the game played by Taylor Hall or Nail Yakupov as 18-year-olds in Edmonton, McDavid does not play with a score-or-be-scored-on mentality. That puts McDavid well ahead on the learning curve in a league where every successful coach or top scorer will admit that offence is created only when the game is played properly in the defensive zone.
“In my opinion,” agreed Hendricks, “that is exactly spot on.”
You couldn’t have handpicked a bigger, more oppressive opponent for McDavid’s debut than St. Louis, that Western Conference power that has taken the Oiler roster’s lunch money for years now. They are a heavy, heavy club, as hockey people say, that eats young, flashy teams for supper.
McDavid went 0-for-6 in the faceoff circle in the first period, for instance. But then he won three out of seven the rest of the way.
“It’s just bearing down,” he said. “I think they might have been the best, or at least the second-best at face-offs last year. You’ve got to get the puck somehow. Why not do it off the draw?”
There were flashes after a slow opening period. He caught Jay Bouwmeester, one of the best skating defencemen in the NHL, a tad flat-footed and flew past him for a semi-breakaway in the third period. He dangled in front of the net with the score still 1-1 early in the third, nearly slipping one short-side on Brian Elliott.
The junior goalies allowed that one, but they weren’t going in at the Scottrade Center on this night, against a team that could well be playing late in next June.
“When you’re 18 years old and you’re playing against guys sometimes twice your age, not every play, not every game is going to be easy,” reminded Hall. “Tonight was no different, but I think you saw a lot of pushback from him and that’s great to see.”
Robby Fabbri, the St. Louis rookie who played on Toronto-area teams with McDavid since the two were nine years old, scored the game-winner for the Blues. That the two made their NHL debuts in the same game was a neat sidebar.
“I guess I’ve got some bragging rights,” Fabbri said after the game. “We’ll see how long that lasts.”
For the Oilers as a team, there is already a semblance of improved structure here under new head coach Todd McLellan. The passes in the defensive zone are shorter and more easily completed, because the Edmonton players haven’t flown the zone. The five-man unit already moves as one far more often than we’d seen in Edmonton for many a moon — and as such, a giveaway or mistake does not necessarily concede a great scoring chance, because the group is in position to recover.
The offshoot of that, of course, is a lack of offence. Edmonton will have to figure out how to score while learning how to keep the puck out of their net.
McDavid showed on Thursday that he knows that the defensive net must be taken care of first, before the offensive come into play.
“I thought his best period was his third,” McLellan said. “When we needed him to be an offensive threat, he was. He almost scored there in the third. We’re talking 60 minutes into a 15, 20-year career. He’s going to get a lot better as time goes on.”