{"id":397225,"date":"2026-01-08T08:55:22","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T08:55:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/397225\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T08:55:22","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T08:55:22","slug":"5-takeaways-from-oilers-6-2-win-against-predators-the-hockey-writers-edmonton-oilers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/397225\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Takeaways From Oilers’ 6-2 Win Against Predators – The Hockey Writers – Edmonton Oilers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Connor McDavid<\/a> notched his 14th career hat trick to lead the Edmonton Oilers to a 6-2 victory over the Nashville Predators at Rogers Place on Tuesday (Jan. 6) night.<\/p>\n

Related: McDavid\u2019s Hat Trick Leads Oilers to 6-2 Victory Over Predators<\/a><\/p>\n

Forwards Leon Draisiatl, Curtis Lazar and Kasperi Kapanen also scored for Edmonton. The Predators got goals from Nick Blankenburg and Ryan O\u2019Reilly.<\/p>\n

Oilers netminder Connor Ingram<\/a> made 24 saves in a winning effort. Juuse Saros stopped 37 of the 43 shots he faced between the pipes for Nashville.<\/p>\n

The victory snaps a two-game losing streak for the Oilers, who improves their record to 21-16-6. Edmonton now has 48 points, tied with the Vegas Golden Knights for most in the Pacific Division.<\/p>\n

McDavid\u2019s Magical Run Continues<\/p>\n

The red-hot McDavid now has points in 16 consecutive games, totalling 17 goals and 22 assists over the streak. McDavid\u2019s 39 points are the most by an NHL player over a span of 16 games since he racked up 40 in a stretch of 16 games during the 2020-21 season.<\/p>\n

\"JuuseEdmonton Oilers forward Connor McDavid scores on a penalty shot against Nashville Predators goaltender Juuse Saros (Perry Nelson-Imagn Images)<\/p>\n

When he scored his second goal on Tuesday, on a penalty shot late in the second period<\/a>, McDavid surpassed his goal total for all of 2024-25. Through 43 games, the centre has scored 28 times. He finished last season with 26 goals.<\/p>\n

One reason McDavid might be scoring at such a higher rate again this season is that he\u2019s shooting much more frequently. On Tuesday, McDavid rifled 10 shots at Saros, marking just the second time in his NHL career that\u2019s he had at least 10 shots in a regular season game.<\/p>\n

Milestone Moment for Nugent-Hopkins<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t until less than a minute remained in the game that McDavid secured his second hat trick this season, taking a feed in the slot from Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and lifting the puck past Saros at 19:03 of the third period.<\/p>\n

As the hats rained down, Edmonton\u2019s captain made sure to retrieve the puck<\/a>, but not for his own collection: it was for Nugent-Hopkins, who recorded his 500th career assist on to play.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, at the Oilers bench, a smiling Nugent-Hopkins was being congratulated on his incredible accomplishment. He\u2019s only the sixth player to notch 500 assists as an Oiler, and the other five are all current or future Hall-of-Famers: Wayne Gretzky, Jari Kurri, Mark Messier, along with Draisaitl and McDavid.<\/p>\n

Oilers Prey on Predators<\/p>\n

With Tuesday\u2019s triumph, the Oilers now have a record of 14-1-1 against Nashville since the start of the 2019-20 season. Edmonton has doubled up the Predators over those 16 games, outscoring them 72-36.<\/p>\n

What makes Edmonton\u2019s run of dominance even more remarkable is the fact that Nashville won 13 consecutive games against the Oilers from Oct. 29, 2014, to Oct. 20, 2018.<\/p>\n

With two assists in addition to his goal on Tuesday, Draisaitl continues to feast on the Predators. In his last 18 games against Nashville, the veteran Oilers forward has an incredible 26 goals and 20 assists, for an average of 2.56 points per game.<\/p>\n

Oilers Get Support Scoring<\/p>\n

Making his return to Edmonton\u2019s lineup after being sidelined since Oct. 19<\/a> with a lower-body injury, Kapanen scored his first goal of 2025-26 when he buried the puck behind Saros at 18:52 of the second period.<\/p>\n

Lazar, meanwhile, scored for the first time in a month, and only the third time this season. The centre\u2019s goal, which came at 16:15 of the middle frame, turned out to be the game-winner.<\/p>\n

To get a pair of goals from very unlikely sources is significant for the Oilers, who have been virtually devoid of depth scoring lately. Over the prior six games, Evan Bouchard, Zach Hyman, Jack Roslovic, Draisaitl, McDavid, and Nugent-Hopkins had accounted for all but one of Edmonton\u2019s goals. The Oilers are now 11-2-1 this season when two players outside of the aforementioned six skaters score.<\/p>\n

Henrique Suffers Injury<\/p>\n

Lazar has been in and out of Edmonton\u2019s lineup all season, suiting up for 21 of 43 games, but the veteran forward is likely to become a fixture in the lineup for the foreseeable future. That\u2019s because fellow Oilers bottom-six centre Adam Henrique was injured on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The 35-year-old Henrique left the game in the first period after blocking a shot and did not return. When asked about Henrique following the game<\/a>, Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch said, \u201cNo official status, but I think he\u2019ll be out for a little while.\u201d<\/p>\n

Henrique has played in every game this season, centring Edmonton\u2019s third line. He\u2019s only scored twice in 2025-26, but leads all NHL forwards with 57 shot blocks and has won 54.8% of his faceoffs.<\/p>\n

Edmonton\u2019s next game comes Thursday (Jan. 8), when the Oilers visit the struggling Winnipeg Jets, who are winless in their last 10 games, at Canada Life Centre.<\/p>\n

\"SUBSCRIBE<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Connor McDavid notched his 14th career hat trick to lead the Edmonton Oilers to a 6-2 victory over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":397226,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5119],"tags":[1586,155,5,2409,231,5281,4,2410,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-397225","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nashville-predators","8":"tag-adam-henrique","9":"tag-connor-mcdavid","10":"tag-hockey","11":"tag-nashville","12":"tag-nashville-predators","13":"tag-nashvillepredators","14":"tag-nhl","15":"tag-predators","16":"tag-ryan-nugent-hopkins"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115858644948869068","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397225","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=397225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397225\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/397226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}