The Edmonton Oilers will attempt to secure their fifth win in six games when they host the Washington Capitals on Monday night.
The Oilers come in off a 5-3 win over the Montreal Canadiens Saturday night that saw Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl produce four points apiece.
McDavid provided two goals and two assists and Draisaitl scored a goal while adding three assists. It was the ninth time the duo has scored four points each in the same game.
The Oilers led 4-3 after two periods and shut the Canadiens down for the final 20 minutes.
“We were not very good for 40 minutes, and we were lucky to find ourselves up by one after two periods,” McDavid said. “But I thought it was really a good job of playing a solid, mature third period and not giving them anything.”
Tyson Barrie and Zach Hyman each had two assists for Edmonton, which scored three straight power-play goals in an 8:11 span of the second period. Stuart Skinner made 30 saves.
The Oilers were without forwards Evander Kane (wrist surgery), Warren Foegele (undisclosed injuries) and Ryan McLeod (undisclosed).
“It hasn’t been pretty, but that’s what you have to do when you’re a little bit banged up,” McDavid said. “Obviously we are and we’re finding ways to win games, that’s the bottom line. And so, we have to keep doing that.”
McDavid has four straight multi-point games and 12 points (five goals, seven assists) during a five-game point streak, while Draisaitl has 11 points (six goals, five assists) during a five-game point streak that includes three straight multi-point games.
The Capitals likely don’t have any sympathy for the Oilers’ injury woes given what they have been dealing with.
Just when the Capitals were starting to get players back — including forward T.J. Oshie and defenseman John Carlson — they were bitten by the injury bug again Saturday night as defenseman Martin Fehervary and goalie Darcy Kuemper departed with upper-body injuries during a 5-2 loss at the Calgary Flames.
Fehervary has been ruled out of Monday night’s game while Kuemper is still being evaluated, but the Capitals likely will recall a goalie from AHL affiliate Hershey to back up Charlie Lindgren.
“We’ve had a ‘next man up’ mentality for a couple years now but when you have that you need everyone going, you need everyone picking it up for the guys that are out,” Oshie said. “It seems like when we are not playing our best, we do not have that full team effort.”
Washington is 1-2-1 on its six-game road trip, which ends Wednesday in Philadelphia.
Carlson and Conor Sheary scored for the Capitals against Calgary, and Kuemper made 24 saves before leaving at 16:09 of the second period. Lindgren allowed two goals on nine shots in relief.
“We would love to be on a 10-game winning streak. Obviously, that’s not the case,” forward Anthony Mantha said. “We need to figure it out within our group. I think we have enough vets to kind of take charge there. Everyone kind of knows how to play, and we just need to execute.”
The Capitals defeated the Oilers 5-4 on Nov. 7 in Washington.
–Field Level Media
