McDavid, Oilers aim to shake slow start against Predators

EDMONTON -- Connor McDavid is keeping the Edmonton Oilers’ slow start in perspective.

Edmonton lost a home-and-home set against the Vancouver Canucks to begin the season, 8-1 at Vancouver on Wednesday and 4-3 at home Saturday.

Now the Oilers have a two-game trip that begins at the Nashville Predators on Tuesday (8 p.m. ET; BSSO, SNW) before they face the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday.

“You want to get off to a good start and we haven’t,” McDavid, the Edmonton captain, said Monday. “A win tomorrow night leaves us at [1-2-0] and we were [1-2-0] last year too. It’s not the best start, not what we were looking for, but I thought Saturday was something to build off and we look to continue that tomorrow night.”

Edmonton outshot Vancouver 40-16 on Saturday but did not score again after Ryan Nugent-Hopkins tied it 3-3 at 9:29 of the second period. Edmonton was 2-for-7 on the power play but denied on its last four opportunities, including a two-man advantage for 52 seconds in the third period.

“I thought the compete level was a lot higher, and I thought we did a lot of good things,” McDavid said. “If we play that game over a few times we might win. It’s obviously not the result we were looking for, but there were lots of good signs, something to build on for sure.”

The Oilers are considered Stanley Cup contenders. They were the highest-scoring team in the NHL last season (325 goals) with McDavid (153 points; 89 goals, 64 assists) and fellow forward Leon Draisaitl (128 points, 52 goals, 76 assists) finishing as the top two in the scoring race.

McDavid (one goal, two assists) and Draisaitl (two goals, one assist) each has three points this season. They are expected to play on a line with Evander Kane against the Predators.

“When we’re playing together, I think we just both have the puck a little bit more,” McDavid said. “We do a good job of getting the puck to each other. He’s one of the best passers in the world, if not the best, so you have to get open and trust that he’s going to find you, and he usually does that.”

The Oilers are not losing a lot of sleep over their first two games, though the same can’t be said for some of their fans.

“We understand the expectations, the excitement and the desire to win in this city,” Kane said. “We all feel the exact same way, and the community and the fans understand the players feel the exact same way, if not more, and we want to put our best foot forward.

“It’s not going to be perfect every night, it hasn’t been perfect these first two games, but we look forward to getting better as the season goes on.”

The Oilers feel their second game was more indicative of their capabilities than the opening night loss.

“I thought we liked parts of our game,” Kane said. “I don’t know if we could do any worse, but I thought we did a lot better than we did the game before against those guys. But at the end of the day, we have to not expect to score five or six goals every game to win. We have to limit the goals against and work a little bit harder in certain areas.”

Kane said the Oilers must do a better job of getting to the well-defended areas of the ice and be stronger in front of the opponent’s net.

“I know we had 40 shots, but I really think we could have had more,” Kane said. “We spent a lot of time on the outside and we have to penetrate the middle of the ice, especially in the [offensive] zone, and get pucks there to create some more Grade A scoring opportunities.”

Defensively, the Oilers are looking to improve as well. Jack Campbell is expected to start against the Predators on Tuesday. He was pulled in the opener and replaced by Stuart Skinner, with each allowing four goals on 16 shots. Skinner again gave up four goals on 16 shots Saturday.

“You look at all areas of your game and the fact of the matter is we’ve scored one even-strength goal in two games,” coach Jay Woodcroft said. “Obviously, there were a lot of chances created, there wasn’t a lot of finish and I think the shooting percentage at even strength is about 2 percent, which is not our standard. But you worry when you’re not getting chances.

“I think we’re creating chances, but to Evander’s point, think in that red-zone area, below the hash marks, we can be harder, we can display second and third efforts.”

The Oilers are aware that if they lose Tuesday it might seem like the sky is falling in Edmonton. It is part of the pressure that comes with playing in a Canadian market.

“I love playing in Edmonton,” Kane said. “It’s definitely a passionate hockey market. As a hockey player, you want that pressure, you want to have that fan base that backs you and that desire to win, not just within our own team, but within that community. It drives you to as a player and as a group to do your best every single day, and we embrace that pressure.”