Oilers thrash Ottawa | Pro Hockey News

In Edmonton, the Oilers have been lackluster for much of the early season, but on Sunday night, the offense broke out of their funk behind Leon Draisaitl and his six assists in an 8-5 thumping of the Ottawa Senators.

He is the first Oilers since Wayne Gretzky to post six assists in a game.

“No, I was not aware of that,” Draisaitl said. “It’s not something I pay too much attention to. It’s a big two points for us. We would have liked to keep it a little tighter, but at the end of the day, it’s two points, and we’ll take that.”

Connor McDavid added five points on the night with a goal.

Stuart Skinner made 33 saves for the win in his first NHL start.

“We got (goalie) [Mikko] Koskinen a rest, we got two points, and you continue to evaluate your team,” Edmonton head coach Dave Tippett said. “Ultimately you want the two points; that’s what you came for. There’s other things that you’re trying to get your team up and going. Good for young Skinner, he got his first win in the NHL, we got [Koskinen] a night off. We’ll regroup tomorrow and get ready for Tuesday.”

Ottawa is 1-7-1 and have not won since opening night.

“It’s a fragile group, there is definitely no doubt about it,” the Senators’ Derek Stepan said. “I’ve been through this before, no one is feeling bad for us. We have a lot of guys learning things, we have some veterans finding their way here in a new group too. We have a lot of moving parts and I look at our third period, and say what you want, in an 8-3 game, we pushed a little bit, and that’s a start, and I think we have to start just chipping away at little victories.”

Brady Tkachuk and Drake Batherson tried to rally Ottawa when they potted goals to cut the Oilers lead to 5-3.

But Edmonton responded with goals from McDavid, Darnell Nurse and Kailer Yamamoto for an 8-3 lead after 40 minutes.

The Senators made the scoreboard look a little more competitive with two goals in the third period from Tim Stutzle and Austin Watson.

“You can’t really say it was fun because, I think, he had six points tonight,” Stutzle said. “It’s not a lot of fun playing against him. It’s always tough playing against those very good players, and you could see what he did out there. We had some good shifts against him, and we have another game in two days, and that’s our goal, to win that game.”

James Neal struck for two goals, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins added a single marker and two assists for the Oilers.

“I had a good bounce on the first one, and it was a good job by [Kyle Turris] on the second one,” Neal said. “I’m feeling more comfortable each night. It’s good to get my legs under me the first few [games], and I’m looking to build on that.”

Dominik Kahun and Tyson Barrie also scored for Edmonton, who improved to 5-6-0.

Matt Murray got the start for the Sens and yielded three goals while making only six saves.