EDMONTON — For Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid, games against the likes of Sidney Crosby and Auston Matthews have tended to come with an abundance of hype and an eagerness for him to play his best.
Nathan MacKinnon, the NHL’s scoring leader and superstar for the massive rival Colorado Avalanche, is now firmly entrenched in that group.
“I’m always motivated to go up against the league’s best and he would certainly fall under that category,” McDavid said. “A bunch of them would over there — (Mikko) Rantanen, (Cale) Makar, (Devon) Toews. They’ve got an elite group. I love testing myself against those types of guys.”
There’s no question MacKinnon is at the top of that list — at least from an offensive standpoint.
MacKinnon leads the NHL with 115 points, three more than Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov and nine more than McDavid. McDavid has three games in hand on MacKinnon and two on Kucherov.
McDavid has won the Art Ross Trophy in each of the last three seasons. MacKinnon, who plays like the proverbial bull in a china shop, stands the best chance to snatch that award away from him.
“He’s just so powerful,” McDavid said. “He skates so well. He’s big and strong and assertive.”
The buzz around this head-to-head match is real and deserved. The circumstances play into that, too. Amazingly, the Oilers and Avalanche are set to face off for the first time this season on Saturday.
It’s a shame it’s taken until March 16 for matchup No. 1 between McDavid and MacKinnon and the supporting stars. The flip side, however, is there are three games left between the two teams — including the regular season finale on April 18.
With only 18 games left on the schedule for the Oilers, it’s a good gauge with the postseason right around the corner.
“It’s a great thing,” McDavid said. “These guys are as good as anyone in the league. It’s good to test where your team’s at and where your game’s at against one of the league’s best.”
“It’s a big test, especially at this time of year,” blueliner Darnell Nurse added. “As the playoffs come around, you’re going to get more and more games like this.
“It’s an elite team that’s coming in here on Saturday. They present a lot of challenges. With all that said, we’re really confident in our group and what we’re able to do out there on the ice.”
The Oilers (40-21-3, 83 points) trail the Avalanche (42-20-5, 89 points) marginally in the standings but have played three fewer games. A win Saturday would help to try to close the gap before the postseason begins.
Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said he isn’t as concerned about what a win in mid-March could do for gaining home-ice advantage for a potential series that can’t occur until the third round. There’s no question that having an extra game in Edmonton wouldn’t hurt their chances in a playoff matchup.
It was two years ago that these two teams met in the Western Conference final and the series started in Denver. The Avalanche swept the Oilers. It wasn’t even close.
The Oilers feel like they’re a different team now, a much better one.
“We went into that series with lots of hope and came out of it saying we had a lot of work to do as a team to get to the point where we could compete with teams like that on a nightly basis,” Nurse said. “We’ve done a lot of work.
“We’ve matured a lot in the sense of, no matter what the situation the game’s in, we’re not trying to force games and force offence. That’s been a growth point of our season this year. At the same time, just being more comfortable in high-pressure, high-intensity situations.”
“The belief has gone up since then,” McDavid said. “We’ve earned that belief in our group and ourselves that we can play against anybody.”
They have another chance to show it on Saturday against the Avalanche.
The Avalanche held practice at the University of British Columbia on Friday, two days after a comeback 4-3 overtime win over the Vancouver Canucks. They’ll come to Edmonton well-rested. The Oilers, having beat Washington 7-2 on Wednesday, are in the same spot.
The showdown is worthy of oodles of excitement.
For the Oilers to get the desired result, they’d better shut down McDavid’s adversary MacKinnon.
“He’s the full package as a player,” Nurse said. “You give him an inch, and he seems to make it afoot. For us, when we’re defending, it’s got to be quick. We’ve got to be moving our feet.”
“If we’re going to have success, we need to limit the amount of opportunities he has,” Knoblauch said. “We’re not going to shut him down completely. He’s going to get chances just because he is a really good hockey player.
“We have to make sure that we’re playing well defensively when he’s on the ice.”
(Top photos of Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon: Maddie Meyer and Patrick Smith / Getty Images)
