Connor McDavid to practice with Oilers on Saturday, status for Heritage Classic still unclear

Connor McDavid will take the ice with the Edmonton Oilers at Commonwealth Stadium on Saturday as the team practices ahead of Sunday’s Heritage Classic with the Calgary Flames.

How McDavid feels after skating on the outdoor ice surface will determine whether he suits up for the game, according to Frank Seravalli.

 

McDavid suffered an upper-body injury during Edmonton’s game against the Winnipeg Jets last weekend. He left the game during the third period and didn’t return and the Oilers wound up losing in overtime.

Since then, the McDavid-less Oilers were dropped 7-4 by the Minnesota Wild and 3-0 by the New York Rangers. Edmonton is 1-5-1 on the season, an incredibly disappointing start given the team’s lofty expectations for this season.

Things aren’t going much better for the Flames, as they’re limping into the first Battle of Alberta of the season with a 2-5-1 record. Calgary’s last win came on October 19 against the Buffalo Sabres and they’ve dropped four games since and have only scored four goals across those losses.

Sunday’s Heritage Classic will be the first outdoor NHL game played in Edmonton in 20 years. The Oilers lost to the Montreal Canadiens by a score of 4-3 on November 22, 2003 in the league’s first-ever modern outdoor game following a Mega Stars exhibition that saw the likes of Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, and Guy Lafleur take the ice at Commonwealth Stadium.

Outdoor games have become an annual tradition for the NHL since the first Heritage Classic in 2003. Calgary hosted one at McMahon Stadium in 2011, the Oilers beat the Jets by a score of 3-0 at Investors Group Field in 2016, and non-NHL markets in Regina and Hamilton hosted Heritage Classic games in 2019 and 2022 respectively.