EDMONTON \u2014\u00a0When they\u2019re going like this, two searing hot superstars on a power play that scores nearly as often as it doesn\u2019t, The Connor and Leon Show is as the circus people used to say: The Greatest Show on Earth.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a jet stream that has graced this town before. One that pulls a roster of 20 behind the play of two, a level of on-ice leadership that takes everyone to a place they\u2019d not reach in a different uniform, in some other NHL city.<\/p>\n
The twin engines used to be Gretzky and Kurri, or sometimes Messier, Anderson or Coffey.<\/p>\n
But as 2026 approaches, it\u2019s Connor McDavid<\/a> and Leon Draisaitl<\/a> who have combined for\u00a055 points in the month of December, with three games left before the calendar turns. There aren\u2019t quite as many options as those old Oilers teams had with their seven Hall of Famers, but oh boy, when these two guys are playing the way they are of late?<\/p>\n It\u2019s hard to believe this was a team we fretted over, as they stumbled through October and the first half of November.<\/p>\n \u201cWe demand to be a playoff team,\u201d said Draisaitl, when asked what has changed. \u201cWhen you start the season the way we did, nobody is happy. Nobody likes it. Everyone just stepped up and started playing better. Now we\u2019re rolling a little better and obviously looking to continue that.\u201d<\/p>\n McDavid had five assists Tuesday \u2014\u00a0yes, he assisted on every goal \u2014\u00a0two primary, three secondary.<\/p>\n Draisaitl scored three times, his 18th, 19th and 20th\u00a0of the season \u2014\u00a0all on the power play.<\/p>\n If you want to get into a power-play war with the Oilers \u2014\u00a0whose unit is operating at 40.5 per cent this month \u2014\u00a0your losses will mount. If McDavid finds himself skating faster at your blue line than he was at his \u2014\u00a0if you haven\u2019t slowed him even a click or two \u2014\u00a0you\u2019re dead in the frozen water.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s always tough to defend them,\u201d said Calgary\u2019s Jonathan Huberdeau, who went pointless with one shot on goal, a pale, pale shadow of the $10 million guys wearing blue and orange. \u201cThey\u2019re great players \u2014\u00a0they\u2019re the top in the world \u2014\u00a0but we still have to find a way. It\u2019s possible \u2014\u00a0some games we\u2019ve played against them, we\u2019ve been able to shut them down a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n This is considered victory, shutting McDrai down \u201ca little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n If not for Dustin Wolf\u2019s exceptional play in the Calgary net Tuesday, it would have been much, much worse.<\/p>\n But wait. There\u2019s more.<\/p>\n The Oilers have played 22 of their 38 games on the road, and have been out East on three trips already. For the first time in franchise history, they have completed their Eastern time zone travel prior to Christmas. So the schedule gets easier in the second half.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a great, great opportunity for our group here,\u201d relished McDavid. \u201cWe\u2019re home for most of January, we don’t go east again. We’ve gotten a lot of tough trips out of the way. We’re only getting healthier. A little bit of break, and I like where our group can go.\u201d<\/p>\n They\u2019ve played 38 games in 77 days \u2014\u00a0almost exactly a game every second day. The Oilers should, like every other team on this punitive, compressed Olympic season, be weary, dragging their collective carcass into a much-needed Christmas break.<\/p>\n But somehow, McDavid has had more jump and energy this month than we\u2019ve seen in ages. He is at peak McJesus \u2014 the fastest and most productive player in the game by some margin despite a schedule that\u2019s felling players across the landscape.<\/p>\n \u201cI like the schedule. The schedule suits me,\u201d said a defiant McDavid, the first player to have 67 points at the Christmas break since Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr back in 1995-96. \u201cI like getting into a groove and sticking with it, getting into a good routine. The games feel comfortable that way.<\/p>\n \u201cI like the schedule, honestly. As I said, it suits me.\u201d<\/p>\n He has 12-19-31 in 12 December games, and has launched six points clear of Nathan MacKinnon in the scoring race. He is truly, playing at a level that is as dominant as we\u2019ve ever seen him play at.<\/p>\n \u201cIt tilts the ice,\u201d Draisaitl observed. \u201cHe\u2019s obviously feeling it. The puck is following him right now. He\u2019s just too good right now. That\u2019s not fun to play against.\u201d<\/p>\n He has had six three-plus-point games,\u00a0in the month of December,\u00a0and his 13th\u00a0career four-assist game ties him with Bobby Orr for seventh on the all-time list. Meanwhile, McDavid\u2019s 45th\u00a0four-point game ties him with Kurri for the second most in Oilers history, behind Gretzky (158).<\/p>\n As Draisaitl\u2019s 419 career goals push him ahead of Anderson into third place on Edmonton\u2019s all-time goal scoring list, we are reminded of the rare air these two breathe.<\/p>\n On a night like this one, it\u2019s air the opponent can only choke on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EDMONTON \u2014\u00a0When they\u2019re going like this, two searing hot superstars on a power play that scores nearly as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":365519,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-365518","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365518\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/365519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}