The three-game sweep starts in Edmonton where the Oilers lost and won on Tuesday night.
Connor McDavid was injured late in the second period after crashing into the boards; a shoulder injury is suspected.
“He’s got an upper-body injury that is going to keep him out long-term,” Oilers coach Todd McLellan said. “He’s being evaluated by the doctors, but it’s going to be long-term.”
That loss came amid a 4-2 win over the struggling Philadelphia Flyers.
Taylor Hall, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Matt Hendricks scored for the Oilers. Nugent-Hopkins had two goals including an empty-netter to seal the win.
“It’s never good when someone doesn’t come back in a game and he’s a guy who would be on the ice anytime he could, so that doesn’t bode well,” Hall said of McDavid. “We’ll see what the prognosis is, but you never want to see a guy out of the lineup, especially one just starting out his career. He was doing so well, he was becoming a leader in our locker room even though he’s 18.”
Anders Nilsson got the start for the Oilers and made 20 saves for the win.
Michal Neuvirth made 45 saves in the loss for the Flyers.
Scott Laughton and Ryan White scored for Philadelphia.
“We need to be better defensively, we’re throwing too many pucks away,” White said. “We are just not a confident group right now. When this team is confident, we are winning battles and making good plays with it from there. Right now, we are winning battles and almost giving it right back to them. It’s tough when you are not winning. You get a bit fragile. We need to calm down and get back to playing hockey.”
In New York, the Rangers got goals from five different skaters and defeated the Washington Capitals, 5-2.
The Rangers were efficient in scoring and indeed needed only two shots for two goals in the second frame.
“We didn’t get much, but the stuff we did get we made them pay and put it in the back of the net,” Rangers defenseman Marc Staal said. “That’s deflating to a team that had the puck so much. We’ve been on the other side of that and it can get frustrating. Not the way we like to play, but we found a way to do it.”
Henrik Lundqvist made 32 saves for the win.
“He’s certainly a big reason why we have been winning a lot of games,” Rangers coach Alain Vigneault said.
Oscar Lindberg, Kevin Hayes, Derick Brassard, Kevin Klein, and Jarret Stoll scored for the Rangers.
Alex Ovechkin and Marcus Johansson scored for the Caps.
“We talk about playing the right way, and at points in the game we didn’t play the right way and we got burned by it,” Capitals coach Barry Trotz said. “At the same time, they didn’t play the right way and they didn’t get burned by it. Holtby has been the eraser for us many nights when we haven’t been as good and Lundqvist is the eraser for them when they’re not as good as they can be. That’s why goaltending is such a big part of the game. They can erase a lot of mistakes.”
As with the Rangers’ season so far, there is a hesitancy to get too excited about all that is going on. The Rangers improved to 8-2-2 but there is not a great deal of “thrill” to the record and the Rangers needed one more goal to seal up the win on Tuesday.
“Stoll’s goal in the third period was kind of a reliever for our team,” Brassard said. “We know we can play a little bit better, but I think we have to give them credit. They played really well, were moving the puck fast. We have to come out with better execution.”
In Montreal, Kyle Turris scored 34 seconds into overtime to lift the Ottawa Senators to a 2-1 win over the Canadiens.
“It was nice to actually get an odd-man rush in overtime, and it was a beautiful pass by [Hoffman] to give me an open net,” Turris said.
Craig Anderson made 36 saves for the win.
“We’ve been good on the road,” Anderson said. “We’ve come ready to play and we find ways to win games on the road, and that’s good, that’s hard to do. It’s hard to come into this building and beat this team; they’re a good team and it’s a great energy building, their fans get behind them, and I’m just proud of the way the guys played [Tuesday].”
Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored (shorthanded) for the Sens in regulation and Dale Weise scored (power play) for the Habs.
Mike Condon took the loss for the Habs with 25 saves on the night.
“No one likes losing. It was a hard-fought game,” Condon said. “I thought Craig Anderson played really well, we took it to them in the third. That’s the way it goes sometimes. It was a nice play there in overtime. We’ll take the point.”
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