Connor McDavid has given the most remarkable Christmas gift to Edmonton Oilers fans: himself, at his very best, for the entire month of December, arguably the best month any NHL player has ever had.
All the more astonishing, it came just as most fans and commentators were starting to doubt the Oilers, with good reason, and some were even doubting McDavid himself.
On December 2, 2025, hockey pundits were saying Connor McDavid was trending down, moving out of his peak years. He was 10 points behind league leader Nathan MacKinnon in the NHL scoring race, 46 to 36. And his Edmonton Oilers were struggling, having just been shutout 1-0 by the Minnesota Wild to bring their record to 11 wins and 16 losses.
The Oilers had been slow starters in other recent years, but nothing like this. In previous years, even as they had struggled to win in October and November, they had still had the edge in play, getting more Grade A shots than their opposition.
But this year wasn’t like that. The Oilers were scoring just 3.0 goals per game while giving up 3.5 per game. Edmonton’s Grade A shots differential was -0.8 per game, 13.3 for, 14.1 against.
They looked like a team in real decline, with iffy goaltending, poor defensive play and a lacklustre offence, save for the power play.
In the loss to the Wild, McDavid had been lacklustre. He’d talked about shooting more entering the year but he passed up two dangerous slot opportunities to pass the puck to no good effect. He mustered just one shot on net himself.
But on December 4th, things turned fast for McDavid and the Oilers. They beat the Kraken 9 to 4 with McDavid pounding in a hat trick, shooting from here, there and everywhere.
In the 27 games up to and including the 1-0 loss to the Wild, McDavid had 36 points, with 2.4 Grade A shots on net per game, and a major contribution to 6.4 Grade A shots per game. All this spoke of McDavid still being in his prime, though his defensive play had dropped off this year.
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The problem really wasn’t him. But the solution was him, that and getting back together on a line with long-time partners Zach Hyman and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Hyman coming back mid-November and RNH against the Wild.
In the 11 games since the Wild loss, McDavid has scored 31 points, averaged 4.0 Grade A shots on net himself, and made major contributions to 9.9 Grade A shots per game.
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The Oilers are now at real .500, 19 wins and 19 losses, and tied for first in the Pacific Divsion. McDavid is six points ahead of MacKinnon in scoring, 67 to 61.
But it’s not just that McDavid has become a point scoring machine. It’s the spectacular nature of his scoring plays: monster chiller thriller end-to-end rushes, Larry Bird through-the-legs passes, and Minnesota Fats seeing-eye snipes from wild angles.
He’s been hockey’s Human Highlight Reel for some time, but he’s taken that to a new level in his 28th year.
What to make of it? Well, as an Oilers fan it simple: gratitude.
We’re blessed to have a player such as Connor McDavid in Edmonton.
And just when you thought he could not raise his game, nor ramp up his pyrotechnics, he’s done so.
Merry Christmas indeed.
P.S. And Merry Christmas to all Oilers fans, including those who read my posts and Kurt Leavins’ at the Cult of Hockey and listen to our Cult of Hockey podcast. I would like to reach out in particular to Anna and Kevin McCurdy. Not a day goes by when I don’t remember with gratitude but grieve the loss of my friend and brilliant colleague Bruce. His attention to detail, restraint in judgement, word power, thorough analysis, and passion for hockey and the Oilers marked me deeply. It marked all who knew him.
But, mostly, he was simply a good man, which made him a great man.
As a poet once said:
When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
I summon up remembrance of things past,
I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,
And with old woes new wail my dear time’s waste:
Then can I drown an eye, unused to flow,
For precious friends hid in death’s dateless night,
And weep afresh love’s long since cancelled woe,
And moan the expense of many a vanished sight;
Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,
And heavily from woe to woe tell o’er
The sad account of fore-bemoaned moan,
Which I new pay as if not paid before.
But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,
All losses are restored, and sorrows end.
For you Anna and Kevin…