Five points on eight goals.
Sound familiar?
It should.
That’s pretty much the same rate Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl have been producing at in Edmonton all these years. And they were again on Thursday, only this time they were front and centre on the world stage.
The two best players on the Oilers were two of the best players on Day 2 of men’s hockey at the Olympic Games, with McDavid notching three assists in a 5-0 win over Czechia and Draisaitl potting a goal and an assist in Germany’s 3-1 win over Denmark.
“The Czechs were great, honestly,” the Oilers captain said post-game. “They came out hard, as expected, they have great players over there.
“Binner (Jordan Binnington) held us in it early, we found a way to get our legs under us and we pulled away a little bit at the end.”
The Oilers captain, who’s been waiting his whole career for this tournament, led all forwards in ice time at 18:04 on a line with Macklin Celebrini and Tom Wilson.
“Both of them were amazing,” said McDavid, who led the Canadians with six shots on net. “Willy is just a forechecking dog, he’s so hard on guys, creates so much space out there. It was fun. And Mack was really impressive, kept so many plays alive. He’s dangerous, he’s a great player.”
McDavid helped put Canada on the board late in the first period, setting up Celebrini, then put the game on ice by sending a perfect saucer pass to Nathan MacKinnon to make it 4-0 on a power play and sending a nice feed to Nick Suzuki to make it 5-0.
This is pretty much what Oilers teammate Zach Hyman predicted before the Games. He fully expected his captain to stand out even among the best players in the world.
“Any room he’s in, he has the skill set that is just elite and above,” said Hyman. “On Team Canada everybody has an elite skill set. But the way I’d put it is, if you watch our skate everybody kind of looks the same but there is one guy who looks different. That’s him. And no matter what room or what ice surface you put him on, that is always going to be the case.”
In goal, Binnington shook off the critics and posted a 26-save shutout.
“Never a doubt, never a doubt,” said McDavid. “I had all the faith in the world in him, honestly. He’s been solid in those big moments and another one today.”
Draisaitl, skating much of the time with Oilers teammate Josh Samanski, needed just 23 seconds to open the scoring and added an assist on Tim Stutzle’s goal to make it 3-1.
It’s a nice win on a big stage for a program that is moving forward every year, with Draisaitl leading the way.
“German hockey has come a long, long way,” he said. “I’m just going to try to do my part to help the team be as successful as we can.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to represent my country and be around those guys. That’s partly what I’m most excited about, being around my friends and getting to experience this with them.”
E-mail: rtychkowski@postmedia.com
Related
Bookmark our website and support our journalism: Don’t miss the news you need to know — add EdmontonJournal.com and EdmontonSun.com to your bookmarks and sign up for our newsletters.
You can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribers gain unlimited access to The Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun, National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites. The Edmonton Journal | The Edmonton Sun