Draisaitl scores four goals in Oilers win against Predators

NASHVILLE -- Leon Draisaitl scored four goals, three in the third period, and the Edmonton Oilers defeated the Nashville Predators 8-3 at Bridgestone Arena on Monday.

It was the second NHL hat trick for Draisaitl, who had an assist and leads the NHL with 107 points (43 goals, 64 assists), two more than his previous NHL career high, set last season.
"I don't need to beat around the bush. When you score four goals, you feel good," Draisaitl said. "You feel good. You feel good about yourself. You feel good about your linemates, and obviously they made some great plays to me tonight, made it pretty easy for me."
WATCH: [All Oilers vs. Predators highlights]
Connor McDavid had a goal and four assists for the Oilers (35-23-8), who are two points behind the Vegas Golden Knights for first place in the Pacific Division. Mike Smith made 27 saves for Edmonton, which is 3-1-1 in its past five games.
The Predators (32-25-8) have lost two straight following a three-game winning streak and are tied with the Winnipeg Jets and Arizona Coyotes for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference.
"I just thought the whole game, we had some pushes, but we didn't sustain anything," Nashville coach John Hynes said. "I think tonight we got what we deserved. We had a couple pushes. We come out and tie the game early in the second, but it's a short little situation where we actually played a couple shifts where we played the right way."

Pekka Rinne allowed eight goals on 31 shots and was pulled after Draisaitl scored on the power play to make it 8-3 at 9:55 of the third period. It was the fifth straight goal for Edmonton in 5:13 after entering the third tied 3-3.
"We had a good first period, and then we kind of blow it in the second," McDavid said. "I thought we did a good job of rebounding, obviously. It's not every period that you're going to get five, so that was good."
McDavid made it 4-3 at 4:42 with a wrist shot from the point, and Draisaitl scored 35 seconds later to give the Oilers a 5-3 lead at 5:17.

Zack Kassian made it 6-3 at 7:03 when he scored off a pass from McDavid.
Draisaitl scored his third of the night at 8:28 with a wrist shot from the left face-off circle to put Edmonton ahead 7-3.
It was Draisaitl's second five-point game in the NHL. He had five assists in a 6-2 win against the Colorado Avalanche on Nov. 14.
"All four lines, we all probably could've scored a few more too," Draisaitl said. "Again, those nights don't happen every night. You don't score five goals in every period, so I wouldn't get used to it. But a lot of credit to our group sticking with it and coming out on top."
It was McDavid's fifth five-point game in the NHL, third this season. He had six points (three goals, three assists) Nov. 14 against Colorado and five (one goal, four assists) in a 6-3 win against the Philadelphia Flyers on Oct. 16.
Josh Archibald gave the Oilers a 1-0 lead at 6:23 of the first period on a shot from the top of the goal crease off a pass from Tyler Ennis.

Draisaitl scored his 40th of the season with a sharp-angled one-timer off a McDavid pass to give Edmonton a 2-0 lead with 29 seconds remaining in the first period.
"I've been saying it for five years now," McDavid said. "[Draisaitl] is an amazing player, and it's nice that he's finally getting some credit."
Roman Josi scored for the Predators to make it 2-1 at 2:14 of the second period on a one-timer from the top of the left circle. It was his NHL career-high 16th goal; he had 15 in 2014-15 and 2018-19.
Calle Jarnkrok scored 14 seconds later off a pass from Matt Duchene to tie it 2-2 at 2:28.
Kailer Yamamoto gave the Oilers a 3-2 lead at 13:34 when he scored off a backhand pass from Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.
Nick Bonino tied it 3-3 at 15:05 when he scored on a rebound.

They said it

"I think everyone was pretty mad because we knew through our own mistakes we kind of gave them a couple goals. That's a good team that's got a lot to play for this time of year too, and they played desperate and made us pay when we had some mistakes. So we have to clean those up, but the way we came out in the third and bought in and just played our game, we didn't let the second (period) discourage us." -- Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse
"We got punched in the face today pretty good and certainly got what we deserved. If we show up to play like we played tonight, then that's lots of times what the result is going to be this time of year." -- Predators coach John Hynes

Need to know

Draisaitl is on pace for 133 points, which would be the most in the NHL since Mario Lemieux had 161 and Jaromir Jagr had 149 for the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1995-96. Nikita Kucherov had 128 for the Tampa Bay Lightning last season. ... Draisaitl had eight goals in three games against the Predators this season. ... ... Draisaitl got his first NHL hat trick March 26, 2019, against the Los Angeles Kings in his fifth season. ... McDavid's 94 points (32 goals, 62 assists) are second in the NHL. ... Nugent-Hopkins had three assists and has 12 points (four goals, eight assists) in the past seven games. ... Nurse had three assists to end a six-game point drought. ... Juuse Saros made four saves in relief of Rinne. ... Predators defenseman Dan Hamhuis left the game at 7:05 of the first period after playing 2:32. There was no update on his status.

What's next

Oilers: At the Dallas Stars on Tuesday (8:30 p.m. ET; FS-SW, SNW, NHL.TV)
Predators: At the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday (8 p.m. ET; FS-WI, FS-N+, FS-TN, NHL.TV)