{"id":403254,"date":"2026-01-12T10:48:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T10:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/403254\/"},"modified":"2026-01-12T10:48:00","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T10:48:00","slug":"mcdavid-streak-hits-18-games-but-edmonton-oilers-hit-emotional-roadblock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/403254\/","title":{"rendered":"McDavid streak hits 18 games, but Edmonton Oilers hit emotional roadblock"},"content":{"rendered":"

You can\u2019t win \u2019em all. Nor, if you\u2019re the Edmonton Oilers<\/a>, can you win three in a row.<\/p>\n

Fans expecting to see a pair of milestones \u2014 Edmonton winning three games in a row for the first time this season and Connor McDavid<\/a> extending his points streak to a career-high 18 games \u2014 went one-for-two Saturday in a gripping battle with their old playoff foe.<\/p>\n

McDavid kept everyone on edge for 50 minutes before scoring the tying goal midway through the third period, but once again, for the eighth time, the Oilers failed to push through their emotional road block in a 4-3 shootout defeat to the L.A. Kings.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a once in a lifetime player and we\u2019re obviously happy to have him on our side and happy to see the levels that he is able to get to,\u201d Oilers forward Kasperi Kapanen said of the captain. \u201cIt\u2019s really remarkable to see it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Points in 18 games in a row is a pretty special accomplishment in this day and age. The 42 points he has during this run is more than 529 players (who played 18 or more games) had all of last season. But McDavid was far more interested in Edmonton getting three wins in a row. You could tell it in his short, terse, post-game interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just want to play good hockey, that\u2019s all, and help this team win games,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been winning games, but we\u2019ve got to find a way to win a couple more.\u201d<\/p>\n

A couple in a row is as good as the Oilers been able to get this year. Going 0-for-8 in this department is not the end of the world, the Oilers are still winning more than they\u2019re losing and they\u2019re occupying a Pacific Division playoff spot, but with the standings tightening up and teams around them starting to put together runs, they understand they need to pick up the pace.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou want to win every game, especially against these guys being in the same division,\u201d said Kasperi Kapanen. \u201cWe all knew it was a big match tonight. This one stings a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Oilers 3-3-1 since the Christmas break.<\/p>\n

\u201cGood teams are able to put together long streaks and good teams also eliminate long losing streaks,\u201d said head coach Kris Knoblauch, whose club has lost three in a row three times. \u201cWe haven\u2019t really had either one of them. I guess we\u2019re about average. We\u2019d like to put together some wins. The teams in our division have kind of been hot and cold. Right now, they\u2019re trending the right way, starting to win more games, so we\u2019re going to have to put together more than two wins at a time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"<\/p>\n

Leon Draisaitl (29) of the Edmonton Oilers, leaves a ceremony marking 1000 career NHL points prior to the game against the Los Angeles Kings at Rogers Place in Edmonton on Saturday, January 10, 2026.<\/p>\n

A Grand Occasion<\/p>\n

The Oilers honoured Leon Draisaitl in a pre-game ceremony for his 1,000th point and Draisaitl, as he almost always does, rose to the moment, scoring Edmonton\u2019s first two goals.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we all knew was going to score tonight, right?,\u201d said Kapanen. \u201cHe\u2019s had such an amazing career thus far, and he\u2019s going to keep on scoring. Whenever you can get the puck to him that close to the net, it usually has a good chance of going in.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a fun night for him, an exciting night,\u201d said McDavid. \u201cA special night for him, celebrating his 1,000 points and having his family in town.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three-Headed Monster<\/p>\n

Knoblauch said Saturday that they expect Tristan Jarry to ready for action this week, meaning something will have to give on the goaltending front with Connor Ingram and Calvin Pickard. One of them will have to go, but the coach isn\u2019t giving out any clues. Ingram can still go down without having to clear waivers, which might play a role in the decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cToo soon to say anything,\u201d said Knoblauch. \u201cWe expect Jarry to play sometime this upcoming week. We\u2019ll make a decision then.\u201d<\/p>\n

E-mail:\u00a0rtychkowski@postmedia.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"You can\u2019t win \u2019em all. Nor, if you\u2019re the Edmonton Oilers, can you win three in a row.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":403255,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5125],"tags":[12966,275,155,198,146,5300,5,4812,370,145,4,24,6769],"class_list":{"0":"post-403254","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edmonton-oilers","8":"tag-anton-forsberg","9":"tag-calvin-pickard","10":"tag-connor-mcdavid","11":"tag-edmonton","12":"tag-edmonton-oilers","13":"tag-edmontonoilers","14":"tag-hockey","15":"tag-kasperi-kapanen","16":"tag-leon-draisaitl","17":"tag-los-angeles-kings","18":"tag-nhl","19":"tag-oilers","20":"tag-tristan-jarry"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115881738542114652","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403254","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=403254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403254\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}