Wanted: A competent winger
MICHAEL TRAIKOS
PITTSBURGH — Long before an undrafted journeyman who has never scored 20 goals and a teenager with seven games of NHL experience auditioned for the most coveted spot in hockey, Connor McDavid was on a forward line with a player named Stephen Harper.
It was during his first season with the Erie Otters in the Ontario Hockey League, and it didn’t last that long. But the results are familiar to anyone watching the Edmonton Oilers this season.
“He set me up like eight times, but I couldn’t finish and we lost 4-1,” Harper, who is now playing at Acadia University, said in a phone interview of his first game with McDavid. “He could have easily had four or five points if I could’ve put the puck in the net.”
The names are different, but McDavid has a couple of Stephen Harpers as linemates these days. Once again, McDavid is making picture-perfect passes to his wingers. And once again, it’s all for naught.
In Tuesday’s 2-1 overtime loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins, McDavid probably could have had four or five assists. In the end, he had to settle for just a goal.
On one play in the first period, he found rookie Kailer Yamamoto all alone with a pass at the side of the net. With the goalie out of position, Yamamoto’s shot somehow sailed wide. Later in the period, Mark Letestu replaced Yamamoto on McDavid’s right wing, but it didn’t change anything. A pass that should have resulted in a goal instead became a Save of the Year candidate for Pittsburgh goalie Matt Murray.
Trailing 1-0 in the third period, McDavid was finally reunited with Leon Draisaitl, and the Oilers captain tied the game with three minutes remaining on a rising wrist shot that found the top corner. It was as if he had come to the realization that if the puck were going to go in the net, he would have to be the one taking the shot.
“We’re missing flat-out open nets and it’s costing us,” McDavid said of an Oilers team that is 2-5-1 to start the season. “You look at the save (Murray) made in the second period with the stick on (Letestu). That’s not much you can do there … You look at a few other chances where we kind of had uncontested shots in front where the goalie’s not even in the net, and we’re missing. That’s how it goes sometimes.”
It’s been going like this for a while now. After eight games, Edmonton has the worst offence in the league, averaging just 1.88 goals per game.
If it continues, the pre-season Stanley Cup favourites, who have the second-worst record in the Western Conference, won’t make the playoffs. And McDavid, who won the Art Ross Trophy last year in large part because of a league-leading 70 assists, won’t get anywhere close to 100 points again.
Sidney Crosby has made a career out of turning nobodies into household names, but most good centres need an equally good wingman to have success. Tampa Bay’s Steven Stamkos has Nikita Kucherov, Toronto’s Auston Matthews has William Nylander and Washington’s Nicklas Backstrom always had Alex Ovechkin.
Right now, McDavid is flying solo. On the left wing, he has Patrick Maroon (two goals and six points in eight games). But with Draisaitl back to playing centre in an effort to create balanced scoring, the right side has become an offensive vacuum. He doesn’t have a skilled forward who knows how to finish.
Yamamoto (no goals and three assists) is far too inexperienced to play against the other teams’ top lines, something Oilers head coach Todd McLellan acknowledged after Tuesday’s loss: “Playing against (Sidney Crosby) and his line is a tough task for a young player.” And Letestu, who has two goals this season, is simply not skilled enough to hang with the NHL’s top playmaker on a regular basis.
“We’ll get the offensive part of it cleaned up,” McLellan said. “Like I told them in between the second and the third (periods), they’ve all scored 70, 80, 90 goals in some league. You don’t make it to the NHL without doing that, no matter if you’re a checking (player) or not. It’s just remembering how you did it and what it felt like.”
The obvious solution is to put Draisaitl, who scored 77 points on McDavid’s wing last season, back on the top line. But except in emergency situations, like we saw in Tuesday’s game, McLellan has resisted the urge to load up a line with the team’s top two players.
“I guess that’s the coach’s decision,” said Draisaitl, who has one goal and three points in four games. “Obviously, I like playing with (McDavid) and we’ve had some success … (But) we’re not going to turn around and say, ‘Hey, put us out there together.’ ” Maybe they should. Last season, the Oilers ranked eighth in the league with 2.96 goals per game and McDavid and Draisaitl combined for 59 goals and 177 points. They were a team that was fast, dangerous to play against and capable of scoring five or six goals a night. Now, they’re a team that is missing nets and contributing to highlightreel saves. For McDavid, it has to be frustrating.
But it’s not hard because some players forgot how to score. You can’t remember what you haven’t done.
“We’ve just got to relax and calm down,” said McDavid. “We’re getting these chances in front of the net that should be automatic and we’re not scoring them, myself included. We need to be better in that area.” mtraikos@postmedia.com twitter.com/Michael_Traikos