Look out, January.<\/p>\n
Connor McDavid<\/a> is about to turn things up in the lead-up to his inaugural Olympic appearance.<\/p>\n In preparation for him and his fellow NHL superstars on the roster Team Canada announced Wednesday, McDavid said he\u2019s game-on from here on out.<\/p>\n And that means a lot coming from the Edmonton Oilers<\/a> captain, who just put together one of the best individual months an NHL player has ever had, carrying a point streak of 13-games and 33-points (13 goals, 20 assists) into the final game of the 2025 calendar on Wednesday at Rogers Place against the Boston Bruins.<\/p>\n The streak rocketed him to the lead in the overall points race with 69 points (24 goals, 45 assists) in 40 games, which has him on pace for 140 \u2014 good enough for the second-best season of his illustrious career.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s playing extremely well, and if he\u2019s ramping it up even more, I\u2019m afraid for the opposition,\u201d said Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch. \u201cHe\u2019s just been tenacious, wanting to make something happen every shift, hungry to score goals. Every time he has the puck, he\u2019s driving the net, and if he can\u2019t get to the net then he\u2019s looking to make the next play.<\/p>\n \u201cA very driven player, very focused, which is the case for him all the time. But he\u2019s taking it to another level right now with how he\u2019s playing.\u201d<\/p>\n And that\u2019s good news for hockey fans outside of Edmonton, as well, as McDavid was so much a shoo-in to wear the Maple Leaf in Italy in February that he was one of six preliminary roster members announced on June 17 alongside the Colorado Avalanche\u2019s Nathan MacKinnon and defenceman Cale Makar, and forwards Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins, Brayden Point of the Tampa Bay Lightning and Sam Reinhart of the Florida Panthers.<\/p>\n They will lead the way for Canada in the 12-team tournament Feb. 11-22, which will feature NHL players for the first time since 2014.<\/p>\n \u201cI think just because you\u2019re named early, everyone wants to earn their spot,\u201d McDavid said. \u201cIt\u2019s an incredible honour to be named to that team, whether that was (in June) or today. It\u2019s an incredible honour to represent your country at the Olympics, the biggest sporting event in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n And if last year\u2019s 4 Nations Face-Off is any indication, McDavid is planning to make a big impression among the rest of the nations in attendance.<\/p>\n \u201cI said earlier in the year, you have to find a way to peak in February, it\u2019s kind of unique in that way,\u201d said McDavid who scored the overtime goal in the championship game against Team USA last February. \u201cLast year was a new experience. You go from playing regular season, middle-of-the-season kind of sleepy game to a couple of days later, you go to what feels like a playoff Game 7.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s going to be the same this year, and obviously it\u2019s important that guys are ramping up their game. Personally, it feels like I\u2019m trying to do that too. I feel my game is in a good spot as we head down the stretch here heading into the Olympics.\u201d<\/p>\n The last time NHL players were there, Canada won back-to-back gold medals in men\u2019s hockey, blanking Sweden 3-0 at Sochi 2014, after edging the U.S. 3-2 in overtime at Vancouver 2010.<\/p>\n But this year, Finland enters the Olympics as defending champs following their gold-medal victory at Beijing 2022.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s definitely getting real with the team announced today, we\u2019re a month away basically from our break,\u201d McDavid said. \u201cIt\u2019s getting here, and I\u2019m excited about it. Everyone in here is excited, Leon (Draisaitl) is excited, it\u2019s a great opportunity for us. It\u2019s something that we haven\u2019t done ever.\u201d<\/p>\n His right-hand man in Edmonton for McDavid\u2019s entire career, Draisaitl will be wearing different colours this time, as he leads the way for Team Germany, who wasn\u2019t part of the 4 Nations preview last year.<\/p>\n In the meantime, it will be the Oilers benefitting as the two superstars prepare to fly their respective flags at the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s more rounding out your game, you want to make sure the details are there,\u201d McDavid said. \u201cI know that\u2019s cliche, but playing the 4 Nations, it was playoff hockey, and you need to be ready. Every aspect of your game needs to be ready to roll.\u201d<\/p>\n E-mail: gmoddejonge@postmedia.com<\/a><\/p>\n On X: @StarkRavinMod<\/a><\/p>\n Related<\/p>\n Bookmark our website and support our journalism: Don\u2019t miss the news you need to know \u2014 add EdmontonJournal.com<\/a> and EdmontonSun.com<\/a> to your bookmarks and sign up for our newsletters here.<\/a><\/p>\n 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. Support us by subscribing today: The Edmonton Journal<\/a> | The Edmonton Sun.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Look out, January. Connor McDavid is about to turn things up in the lead-up to his inaugural Olympic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":383841,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5125],"tags":[95,1332,1116,144,155,5862,1761,198,146,5300,57,5,28087,517,4,24,100,3591,252,768,92,3037,22657,18],"class_list":["post-383840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edmonton-oilers","tag-boston-bruins","tag-brayden-point","tag-cale-makar","tag-colorado-avalanche","tag-connor-mcdavid","tag-david-bloom","tag-draisaitl","tag-edmonton","tag-edmonton-oilers","tag-edmontonoilers","tag-florida-panthers","tag-hockey","tag-illustrious-career","tag-nathan-mackinnon","tag-nhl","tag-oilers","tag-pittsburgh-penguins","tag-rogers-place","tag-sam-reinhart","tag-sidney-crosby","tag-tampa-bay-lightning","tag-team-canada","tag-the-final-game","tag-winnipeg-jets"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115817042794204059","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=383840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383840\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/383841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=383840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=383840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=383840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}