Edmonton Oilers’ Connor McDavid ‘game-time decision’ for Heritage Classic

Edmonton Oilers head coach Jay Woodcroft called his captain, Connor McDavid, a game-time decision for Sunday evening’s Heritage Classic.

McDavid, injured during a game eight days ago against the Winnipeg Jets, missed two games this past week due to his upper-body injury. Originally slated to miss one-to-two weeks with the injury, McDavid hit the ice with his teammates during a Saturday evening practice and looked good.

Sunday afternoon, during a pre-game availability, Woodcroft said McDavid wasn’t the only player whose status was up in the air.

“I would say we have a few game-time decisions, (McDavid) is one of them,” he said.

During practice, McDavid skated on the Oilers’ top line alongside Leon Draisaitl and a newly promoted Warren Foegele, who has had a solid start, scoring three goals and four points in seven games so far this season.

“He’s somebody that is skating well, he’s creating havoc on the forecheck, he’s shooting the puck,” said Woodcroft of Foegele on Saturday. “It’s no accident he’s having some success because he’s going to hard areas; he’s finding himself in hard areas in order to find success.

Woodcroft didn’t divulge who the other Oilers, beyond McDavid, were game-time decisions. He did, however, stress his club’s desire for a full sixty minutes between two “desperate” teams.

“Both teams haven’t gotten off to the start they wanted to, we should see two desperate teams,” he said. “We expect to show a level of urgency right off the bat.

“It’s two points on the table and we want to walk out here today with both of them. I don’t think we’ve played a full sixty minutes at any point this year. I think we’ve had good spurts, we’ve had good moments, but for us, it’s going to take sixty minutes with 20 people pulling on the same rope. A sixty-minute effort is key for us.”

Zach Laing is the Nation Network’s news director and senior columnist. He can be followed on Twitter at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach@oilersnation.com.