GAME RECAP: Oilers 7, Predators 4

EDMONTON, AB - The offence of the Edmonton Oilers fuelled the frenzy in a dominating performance at Rogers Place.
Evander Kane recorded a hat trick, while the Dynamic Duo of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl continued their incredible production against the Nashville Predators over their careers with respective four and five-point nights on Tuesday in a 7-4 victory.
Derek Ryan also got on the scoresheet in the first period with his first goal of the campaign, and netminder Jack Campbell made 19 saves to secure his fifth win in seven starts this season.
"We had contributions from everybody up and down the lineup," Kane said. "That just breeds confidence within your team."
With the victory, Edmonton extends its win streak to five games and improves its record to 7-3-0 heading into Thursday's meeting with the New Jersey Devils.
"We have another two games on this homestand and we want to make the most of them."

YOUR GAME-DAY ESSENTIALS

GAME DAY
Photo Gallery
Full Highlights
Look Back at the In-Game Blog
POST-GAME VIDEO
COMING SOON: OILERS TODAY | Post-Game vs. NSH
POST-RAW | Coach Woodcroft
POST-RAW | Evander Kane
POST-RAW | Leon Draisaitl
POST-GAME UPDATES
Inside The Oilers Blog

FIRST BLOOD

Less than 30 seconds in, Nashville was on the board. Mikael Granlund offloaded the puck coming into the offensive to Matt Duchene, who tried to float a return pass back to the Predators forward before it caught the blade of defenceman Cody Ceci and redirected towards goal.
Mattias Ekholm came from out of frame and glided to the back post, where the blueliner got on the end of the uncleared second opportunity from Campbell to make it 1-0 just 26 seconds into the game.

FOUR-TUNES TURN

The Oilers responded in the best way possible to turn their early deficit into a three-goal advantage with four straight goals in the first period.
Draisaitl was looking to deliver one of his textbook backhand feeds when entering the zone with the puck on his paddle before he fired a dart of a backhander beyond the far defender to Kane, who put it around the sliding Nashville netminder Juuse Saros. Three minutes later, Kane completed a passing play between himself and linemates Draisaitl and Kailer Yamamoto by burying a one-timer from the slot for his second of the game and a 2-1 Oilers advantage.

Just 26 seconds later, Connor McDavid got loose on a 2-on-1 with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and beat Saros five-hole to lift Edmonton into a two-goal lead and mark three goals in 3:37 for the Oilers. The fourth line got in on the scoring before the first period was over when Derek Ryan finished off a solid spell of possession in the o-zone and one-touched Barrie's floated pass in to collect his first goal of the season.
"I thought it was really good offensively," Draisaitl said. "Sometimes when you go up early in a game like that by three or four goals, those nights can be hard sometimes because you naturally just kind of let off the gas. Obviously, they're a good team. They can score and they can make plays, but I thought we did a pretty good job."
"Obviously, a couple of things that we can tighten up and do better, but all in all, a big two points."

CONNOR CAN'T BE DENIED

The NHL's First Star of October couldn't be contained when he sniped his second of the night on the Oilers third powerplay.
The captain had three Grade-A chances earlier in the shift as he headed into another offensive-zone faceoff that was won clean by Draisaitl. McDavid dashed down from his location at the top of the left circle, carried the puck into the slot and ripped a wrist shot short side on Saros to for the 250th goal of his career.

McDavid added an assist on Draisaitl's third-period power-play tally and Kane's empty-net goal in his third-straight multi-point game -- each of which have been at least three points, including a hat-trick and helper last week in Chicago.

FEED THE FRENZY

Over their last nine meetings, the Oilers have feasted offensively on the Predators.
"Some nights it just seems to happen a little easier, a little more flow than others maybe, and I seem to get lucky against these guys quite a bit," Draisaitl said. "So obviously, take it and run with it."
Draisaitl has been simply unstoppable against Nashville over his career and added a goal and four assists to his nine-game running tally of 18 goals and seven assists against the Tennessee team. The German now has 20 career goals in 21 games against Nashville dating back to 2018-19 -- the most he has against any opponent.

"I don't have an answer for you, or at least a good answer for you," Woodcroft commented. "Sometimes certain players feel a certain way against certain teams I guess, but to Leon's credit, he's found a way to put some numbers up against his team, and most importantly, he helps the team win. I wish I had a better answer for you, but I can't explain that."
McDavid now has an eight-game point streak running on the Preds, totalling five goals and 15 assists, and has amassed eight goals and 19 assists in 17 career games against Nashville. The Captain helped set up Kane's empty-netter that sealed his fifth-career regular-season hat trick to go along with two during the post-season as a member of the Oilers.

PARTING WORDS

Woodcroft on battling through a physical Nashville team to earn the win:
"Yeah, and I thought we had some good finished checks as well. I think that's part of Nashville's MO is that they're an aggressive team and they finish checks. We talked about it this morning that they've kind of rebranded themselves a little bit, and that's their identity. I thought tonight we played towards our identity, and in the end, the most important thing is to put the two points in the bank and that's what we did. We'll enjoy it for a little bit and then be ready to move on."

Kane on offence coming from plenty of sources in the victory:
"I thought especially early, we really had everybody going. DR's line with Shoresy and Holloway was really going and got a nice goal there. That Clouder line, they were in the o-zone spending time and on the body, and we had contributions from everybody up and down the lineup. That just breeds confidence within your team."