Connor McDavid and his teammates returned to their good habits and allowed Kris Knoblauch to end his first game at the helm of the Oilers with a smile in a 4-1 win over the New York Islanders in Edmonton on Monday night.
The Alberta players had a lot to prove to their new head coach, and the task looked difficult against the Isles, who sent Ilya Sorokin in front of the net. Luckily for the Oilers, McDavid stood out with two points.
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The captain stagnated offensively at the start of the campaign, which didn’t help former pilot Jay Woodcroft’s cause. Number 97 led the power play unit in the third period and scored his third goal. McDavid’s shot appeared to be stopped by Sorokin, but the puck slowly slipped behind the red line.
Leon Draisaitl played in every goal for the Oilers. The German evened the score in the first twenty games and was also involved in the successes of McDavid, Evander Kane and Zach Hyman.
The meeting got off to a bad start for the crowd favorite. Stuart Skinner looked bad on a quick one-timer from Mathew Barzal, but he closed the door after that. The Albertan had his best performance of the season by stopping 32 shots.
For his part, Sorokin gave up three times on 31 shots. The Russian has only won one of his last six starts.