Connor McDavid’s 1,000th NHL point needed to come in a win and Darnell Nurse delivered.
The Edmonton Oilers beat the Nashville Predators by a score of 3-2 on Thursday, bringing their record to 9-7-1 on the season. The game featured a big performance between the pipes from Scott Wedgewood, a blown lead in the third period by the home team, and a beauty of a winner in overtime.
The Predators opened the scoring in the middle of the first period, as Michael McCarron tipped a shot in the high slot past Calvin Pickard for the early lead.
That was until early in the second period. The two teams were on a four-on-four and Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid had a two-on-one. Draisailt made a terrific pass, as he was doing all night, over to McDavid for the captain’s 1,000th point in the National Hockey League. Edmonton’s bench cleared to celebrate with their captain and the fans gave him a standing ovation. 
About three minutes later, Darnell Nurse scored his first goal of the season, as he beat Wedgewood over the shoulder on a tough angle. Before this goal, he had the second-most shots without scoring a goal in the league, so scoring this one was definitely a nice load off the defenceman’s back. 
As has been the case over their last handful of games, the Oilers blew a late lead, as Cole Smith scored with 2:48 left in the game to tie the game at 2-2. The situational awareness to allow a breakaway at this juncture is quite concerning. 
It all worked out in the end, though. Much like the team’s game against the New York Islanders on Tuesday, Edmonton escaped with an overtime victory. Draisaitl brought the puck into Nashville’s zone, left it for McDavid, who pulled a spin move and fed a wide-open Nurse. The big man ripped a one-timer past Wedgewood to seal the win for the Oilers. 

Takeaways…

Have you heard? Connor McDavid became the 99th player to score 1,000 points in his NHL career, as well as the 11th player who has worn an Oilers uniform to do so. The 11 players who’ve been an Oiler at one point in their career are 9-1-0-1 (one tie) in the game that they’ve scored their 1,000th point.
Coming into this game, Darnell Nurse had 41 shots without a goal, second only to Noah Dobson of the New York Islanders. Well, the left-shot defenceman scored two crucial goals to help the Oilers win the game. He’s been better as of late.
Mattias Janmark has put together a sneakily good season, picking up his sixth assist and seventh point on Darnell Nurse’s goal. In 54 fewer games, he’s just five points away from matching his point total last season.
Brett Kulak also picked up an assist on Nurse’s first goal of the season, giving him four goals and seven points. The left-shot defenceman is clearly the best partner for Nurse on the team, even though he’s on his off-hand.
Calvin Pickard did his best Mike Smith impersonation in this game, leaving the net gaping at least three times by my count. Of course, Smith was a good goalie, so it only makes sense Pickard saved 21 of 23 shots for a .913 save percentage.
The Oilers have won three consecutive games and head on their Eastern Conference road trip against the three Canadian teams. First is a matchup against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday at 5:00 PM, before facing the Montréal Canadiens on Monday and the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday.
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