The Ducks had no answers for Connor McDavid, Oilers win third straight in 6-1 blowout

How about a little Saturday afternoon blowout over the Anaheim Ducks to keep the good vibes going on your Easter long weekend? The Oilers swept the season series with a dominant 6-1 win that was never in doubt from the opening draw. Edmonton was the better team in every single way and got the result they deserved, securing two huge points that added a little more space between themselves and the teams chasing them.

Connor McDavid was two points back of Nikita Kucherov for the points lead coming into Saturday’s game, and when it only took him 14:15 minutes and a beautiful coast-to-coast goal to cut that lead in half, it felt like it was only a matter of time before he wrestled the lead away. The guy was flying out there.

So, when McDavd added a power play goal at 9:28 of the second period to tie Kucherov with 124 points, I found myself wondering if this would be the last time we’d say that those two were tied. Just under a period later, McDavid temporarily put Kucherov and Mackinnon in the rearview mirror with a beautiful assist—his 96th—on Zach Hyman’s 52nd goal of the season.

With Connor fighting for his rightful place atop the leaderboard, the table is set for the captain to run away with the scoring lead and secure his sixth Art Ross Trophy. By no means am I saying it’s going to be easy — Kucherov and Mackinnon aren’t going to roll over and die here — but it’s going to be hard to deny #97 when he’s playing on a pace that’s seen him amass 19 points (4G, 15A) in his last seven games.

I love a good revenge game, and it’s always a good time for a cheeky little bet when a guy is facing his former team for the first time after a trade. That was the case for both Adam Henrique and Sam Carrick on Saturday when the Oilers played the Ducks for the fourth and final time, and it didn’t take long for the former to cash in a quick goal that gave his new club the lead.

Henrique’s 22nd goal of the season was his second in as many games, and I love the way he’s starting to figure out where he needs to be on the ice. It’s only a short sample size, but Henrique is looking pretty good on Draisaitl’s left wing, and I’m hoping Kris Knoblauch gives them some time to further develop this early chemistry.

After having only a single assist through his first five games in Edmonton, Henrique has followed up with four goals in his last seven. I said it after Thursday’s win against Los Angeles, but I love the way Rico gets himself to the spots where the puck is likely to end up. What’s clear so far is that Henrique has no issues getting himself to the greasy areas on the ice, and those Hyman-like instincts are starting to really pay off.

The Oilers got some bad news early in the game when Brett Kulak took a William Lagesson point shot right to the back of the head. It took Kulak a minute to collect himself on the ice before finally making his way to the bench, and the obvious concern is that he’s concussed and won’t be available for some important games down the stretch.

Kulak played only 49 seconds before leaving the game, which was a very obvious tell that whatever is going on isn’t great news. Knoblauch noted in his postgame that there’s still some evaluating to do before knowing how long he’ll be out, but having him miss any length of time would be a big hole on that third pairing.

-Series sweep! 🧹🧹🧹

-Warren Foegele is going to get paid this summer, and the question will become where that happens. With 17 goals on the season, Foegele is already tacking onto his career highs in goals, assists, and points. That seems like the kind of player the Oilers would want to keep around, but with some major deals coming down the pipe for Draisaitl, McDavid, and Bouchard, you have to wonder if there will be space to keep a guy like Foegele around.

-With the goal and pair of assists he registered in 25:59 of TOI, Mattias Ekholm has 21 points in his last 22 games. In a different era of this league, a run like this would put Ekholm in the conversation for the Norris Trophy. That’s probably not the case here in 2024, so I guess we’ll just have to scream his name from the mountaintops here at home if everyone else in the league is going to sleep on the fantastic season the guy is having.

-Leon Draisaitl extended his point streak to seven games with a pair of assists, giving him five goals and 12 points over this heater.

-It’s a shame Calvin Pickard wasn’t able to lock in his second shutout of the season because I thought he played great. I know he wasn’t overly busy, but the Ducks still threw 22 shots on net and he stopped all but one of them, which was good for a .955 save%. That’s a nice bounce back effort for Brickard after giving up four goals on 15 shots against the Senators last weekend.

-How about a sneaky little multi-point game for the big man, Vinny Desharnais? Desharnais picked up a pair of assists for his second multi-point game of the season.

-I do love me a good revenge game story, and that’s why I was happy to see that Sam Carrick also registered a point against his former club. I know the Ducks are bad and all, but it was pretty fun to see both Henrique and Carrick contributing on the scoresheet in their first game against their former friends.

-I’m thrilled to report that William Lagesson did not score against his former club. I know he has no goals in his NHL career, but I was almost certain that he was going to get his first against the Oilers in his return.

-I’m very thankful that you’ve made it this far in the article, where I get to tell you that the Oilers won 63.8% of the faceoffs for an incredible effort on the dot. I know how patient you’ve been to read through over a thousand words to get to this point, but we made it here together, and for that, I thank you.

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