Connor McDavid will become the fourth-fastest player to 1,000 career points when he skates in his 659th career NHL game tonight vs. Nashville. He needs one point to become the 99th player in NHL history to score 1,000 points.

Lock it in. It will happen.

McDavid has 39 points in his last 19 games against the Predators. His teammate, Leon Draisaitl has 23 goals and 37 points in his previous 16 games versus the Predators. This duo has made the Nashville Predators the prey the past seven seasons, and I guarantee Draisaitl will ensure his “ride or die” partner will reach the 1,000-point mark tonight.

It might mean more to the fans than it does to him, but McDavid wants to give the home crowd the chance to celebrate with him. He doesn’t love the spotlight, despite living it in since he was 13 years old, but he’s well aware of the importance of the milestone, not to mention he’d love to help contribute to the Oilers winning three consecutive games for the first time this season.

The Oilers have won two in a row four times, but the previous three times they lost to Dallas, Columbus and New Jersey when trying to extend their winning streak to three games. McDavid’s main focus is always on winning, and he and his teammates mentioned the importance of getting on a run before the Vancouver game. Since then, McDavid has produced seven points in two games. He had his most dominant game of the season, by far, on Tuesday vs. the Islanders and scoring tonight, while never easy in the NHL, is a foregone conclusion from my perspective.

His teammates want him to get the milestone, and I believe all of them, along with McDavid, will have a bit more jump in their games. Leon Draisaitl said it best Tuesday night: “We’re not talking greatness, we’re talking legendary.”

Scoring 1,000 points is very difficult — to do it only 659 games is remarkable. Here are the 15-fastest players to 1,000 points. Players in bold are active.

Wayne Gretzky 424 games.
Mario Lemieux, 513.
Mike Bossy, 656.
Connor McDavid, 659.*
Peter Stastny, 682.
Jari Kurri, 716.
Guy Lafleur, 720.
Bryan Trottier, 726.
Denis Savard, 727.
Steve Yzerman, 737,
Marcel Dionne, 740.
Phil Esposito, 745.
Sidney Crosby, 757.
Jaromir Jagr, 763
Paul Coffey, 770.

* (assuming he gets one point tonight).

McDavid will do it in 98 fewer games than Crosby did. The next closest players of McDavid’s era are Evgeni Malkin (848) and Alex Ovechkin (880). Nathan MacKinnon is 68 points shy of 1,000, and he’s played 808 games. He might catch Malkin, but even MacKinnon will be 190 games or so behind McDavid.

McDavid’s first nine seasons and 13 games have been remarkable, and it is why I firmly believe he will join Gretzky in the 2,000-point club later in his career.

— McDavid will become the fourth player with 1,000 career points as an Edmonton Oiler. Gretzky did it on December 19th, 1984, in a 7-4 victory v. LA. Jari Kurri reached the milestone during a 6-4 victory in St. Louis on January 3rd, 1990, and Mark Messier did it during a 5-3 victory in Philadelphia on January 13th, 1991. Gretzky needed one point, but he produced six (2-4-6) and finished the night with 1,005 points in 424 games. Kurri scored 1-2-3 to reach 1,000 exactly, while Messier had 0-3-3 and finished with 1,001 points. It will be fitting for McDavid to join Gretzky as the only Oilers to reach 1,000 points during a home game.

— Gretzky (six points), Lemieux (three points) and Bossy (four points) all had big nights when scoring their 1,000 points. It means a lot to the players, so expect McDavid to be buzzing tonight.

— McDavid has produced a multi-point game in each of his previous nine milestones when he reached point 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, 800 and 900. You might recall this past January McDavid scored 1-4-5 in a 5-2 victory over Philadelphia to reach the 900-point plateau.

— The Oilers will become the sixth franchise in NHL history with four 1,000-point scorers joining Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles and Pittsburgh. Brad Marchand needs 58 points to become the fifth Bruin, while Leon Draisaitl will make the Oilers the second franchise with five 1,000-point men next season.

— McDavid is riding a 14-game point streak v. Nashville, which is his second-longest active streak versus one team. He has a 15-gamer against New Jersey. During his streak, McDavid has 11 first-period points, and in six of the 14 games he’s registered a point in the first 10 minutes.

— McDavid has scored 340 goals so far in his career. Leon Draisaitl has assisted on the most (134) followed by RNH (50), Tyson Barrie (35), Darnell Nurse (34), Evan Bouchard and Zach Hyman (24) and Oscar Klefbom (21).

— McDavid has 659 assists thus far. He’s assisted on goals by 55 different teammates.

Some great obscure names on that list like Yohann Auvitu, Iiro Pakarinen, Josh Currie, Dominik Kahun and others. Active Oilers forwards not on that list, yet, include Connor Brown, Vasily Podkolzin and Viktor Arvidsson.

— The most points McDavid has against one team is 67 v. Vancouver (41 GP), followed by Calgary (58 in 42 GP), Winnipeg (56 in 33) and Anaheim (51 in 28). His highest points-per-game is 2.06 against Philadelphia (33 pts in 16 GP)

RNH – McDavid – Hyman
Podkolzin – Draisaitl –
Janmark – Henrique – Brown
J.Skinner – Ryan – Perry

Ekholm – Bouchard
Nurse – Stecher
Kulak – Emberson
Dermott

Pickard

Viktor Arvidsson won’t play, so the Oilers will dress 11 forwards and seven D-men. Look for Corey Perry to get some time on Draisaitl’s right wing. Knoblauch said he will use many players in double shift situations, and that includes McDavid. I could see Knoblauch starting McDavid’s line, then go to Henrique’s line and then go with Draisaitl line with McDavid on the wing. I think 97 will get a lot of ice in the first period.

Calvin Pickard makes his fifth start of the season, and he will shoot for his third victory over the Predators. He won 4-2 and 5-1 in Nashville on October 17th and 31st. The Oilers have spread out the offence v. Nashville with seven different goal scorers and 14 players registering at least one point.

Forsberg – O’Reilly – Stamkos
Evangelista – Parssinen – Tomasino
Marchessautl – Sissons – Nyquist
L’Heureux – McCarron – Smith

Skjei – Josi
Lauzon – Carrier
Del Gaizo – Schenn

Saros

The Predators didn’t skate this morning. They recalled Adam Wilsby after putting Dante Fabbro on waivers (he was claimed by Columbus). Wilsby might make his NHL debut tonight, we’ll see in warmup. Thomas Novak is still injured, and the Predators centre depth just isn’t good enough. Edmonton has a significant advantage down the middle.

GAME DAY PREDICTION: Oilers win three in a row for the first time this season. They skate away with a 5-2 victory.

OBVIOUS GAME DAY PREDICTION: McDavid scores point 1,000 in the first period. He has a three-point night.

NOT-SO-OBVIOUS GAME DAY PREDICTION: Brett Kulak scores his third goal in three games against the Predators this season.