Todd McLellan knows the feeling of riding Connor McDavid on a 24-minute night like this one. And the funny thing is, the spectacle didn’t look much different from behind the visitor’s bench.
“It was the same as when you’re riding him,” McLellan said. “You’re kind of in awe.”
Drew Doughty, meanwhile, has forged quite a personal rivalry with McDavid, as a No. 1 defenceman on a Pacific Division foe who draws the toughest matchup in hockey four times a season.
“I love it,” the Los Angeles Kings defenceman said, before diving into a self-deprecating monologue about his Saturday evening exploits in a wild, 6-5 loss to the Edmonton Oilers. “It’s almost impossible sometimes, honestly.”
Upon McLellan’s return to Edmonton, fittingly, this was anything but a coach’s special. Instead, a we saw a game that had almost as many mistakes as it did entertainment, as the Kings dropped their season opener and Edmonton moved to 2-0.
The Kings blew four leads, while new Oilers goalie Mike Smith — lauded as a puck-handling wizard — literally handed the Kings a pair of freebies, then battled to the dying seconds as the Kings pressed for the equalizer with the goalie pulled and two-goal man James Neal serving a tripping penalty incurred about 180 feet from the Oilers goal.
One second Neal was rushing up the right-wing boards, about to ice the game with an empty-net goal. The next he was deep in prayer, watching the final seconds from the sin bin.
“I was trying to get the puck over (to Draisaitl),” began Neal. “Oh my God, it was bouncing like hell. And then I get a penalty after. Oh my God, what a sequence that was! I was saying prayers in the box.
“I’m like, ‘How is this possible? I went from (nearly) getting a hat trick and being a hero to being the worst person in the building.’”
This was, to be honest, a sloppily played game played between two teams figuring out their identity under a pair of new head coaches. But man, was it fun to watch.
The two captains were the two best players on the ice, as Anze Kopitar (goal, two assists) dominated with his smarts and power game, while McDavid (goal, three assists) simply blazed around the Kings defence all night, logging 24:07 in ice time to Kopitar’s 23:55.
“Some people say he’s the best player in the league, some people say that other guys are,” Doughty said of McDavid. “I love playing against guys who have that vision, and they compete hard. But, if they don’t have that speed they’re not as intimidating as a Connor McDavid, who has all those tools WITH that speed.
“I took that penalty… He was literally gliding by me, and I was bagging myself to get there,” Doughty shrugged. “I love playing against Connor, but I realize a lot of the times he’s going to make me look foolish.”
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Neal popped his first two goals as an Oiler, both assisted by McDavid on the power play. With the opportunity he appears to be getting here in Edmonton, it seems impossible to think that he won’t at least double the seven tucks he had as a Flame last season — if not triple it.
But perhaps the best news on the night for the Oilers was some production from the bottom of the lineup. Joakim Nygard scored his first NHL goal on an assist from Swiss import Gaetan Haas, while Darnell Nurse rifled home the 5-5 goal after a deft rush by Slovak Tomas Jurco.
“It just shows that we’re willing to do anything to win,” said Neal, after his first multi-goal game since October of 2017. “We made mistakes and kind of shot ourselves in the foot a few times but we did the right things to get ourselves back in the game and give ourselves a chance to win. We got the two points and we’re going to move on with two wins.”
Next stop, New York state, where the Oilers roll through the three New York-area teams next week, a four-game trip that ends in Chicago.
This one wasn’t pretty, but the standings won’t reflect that. They never do.
