In Edmonton, Connor McDavid past the first test for his knee in the season opener when he split the Vancouver Canucks defense and scored the eventual game-winner in a 3-2 victory for the Oilers.
“[Matt Benning] made a good play pinching off the puck, threw it in the middle, and [Leon Draisaitl] kind of just stopped it up for me, and I just tried to get it to the net,” McDavid said.
McDavid’s status had been in some doubt with his recovery from knee surgery was thought to be iffy.
The Canucks held a 2-1 advantage in the game before the Oilers rallied for two goals.
“I felt pretty good,” said Draisaitl who had a goal and three points on the night.. “We made it easy on each other. We played simple, we played hard, and we did what we had to do to beat this team. That’s a good hockey team over there, and it’s a big two points for us.”
Zack Kassian also scored for Edmonton.
“I didn’t like how much we defended or how many attempts we gave up at our net. But I liked how much we competed to try and defend our net. Our puck play has to improve, but how hard we looked to compete, it was pretty good,” Oilers head coach Dave Tippett said.
Alexander Edler and Tanner Pearson scored for the Canucks.
“All in all, it was definitely a good road game for us, but there were a couple of minutes that we’d like to have back,” Pearson said. “That’s the way it goes, those minutes can cost you the game. You give [McDavid] a tad bit of ice, he’s going to take a mile. It was an unfortunate play, and we were battling back the rest of the game.”
In his first game with the Oilers, Mike Smith made 31 saves to get the win.
“I thought we did a lot of good things out there, it was a huge team win for our group. We never crumbled there when we got down 2-1, and obviously I love to win, so it feels good to get that first one under our belts here,” Smith said after the win.
[WATCH: All Canucks vs. Oilers highlights]
Jacob Markstrom made 19 saves in the loss.
“I don’t like the end result, but I thought the first eight to 10 minutes of the game was probably our worst, and then we got our feet under us,” Vancouver coach Travis Green said. “There is probably a three-minute span in the third I’d like to have back, but for the first road game of the year, we did a lot of good things, and it’s disheartening we didn’t get a point out of it.”
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