EDMONTON — Cody Ceci hit the nail on the head with one line.
“He won us the game,” the veteran defenceman said.
Ceci was referring to Connor McDavid — who else? — the superstar who took over in the third period and pushed the Edmonton Oilers to an 8-4 win over the Detroit Red Wings.
McDavid had four helpers in the final frame as part of a personal-best, six-assist performance on Tuesday — helping turn a 3-3 tie through 40 minutes into a lopsided decision.
He also was instrumental in forcing a turnover on the other goal the Oilers scored in the third, though he didn’t receive a point. He did all his work at five-on-five — the Oilers weren’t afforded a power play in the game — and finished with a plus-6 rating.
“It’s unbelievable,” forward Dylan Holloway said. “You can only dream of a game like that. It’s pretty incredible.”
McDavid recorded his 600th assist in the process — he is now up to 603 — and became the fourth-fastest player in NHL history to reach that mark. The only players ahead of him are some guys named Gretzky, Lemieux and Orr.
His last two assists left teammates Evander Kane and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins with tap-in goals. The play he made to Kane — a spin-o-rama before feeding him — was a thing of beauty.
“His stat sheet says it all,” coach Kris Knoblauch said. “He was one of a few guys that was skating for the full 60 minutes. The plays that he made were pretty phenomenal.
“If he’s not on top of his game, we’re probably not winning that one.”
McDavid was unquestionably the driving force for the Oilers against the Red Wings, as he so often is. He’s now tied with David Pastrnak for third in NHL scoring with 77 points. He’s 13 points back of leader Nikita Kucherov.
“I think he was a little mad he got shut out last game,” Ceci said. “It showed. He came out with some fire.”
As great as the Oilers captain was, he was far from the only player or facet from Tuesday’s game to stand out.
Here are four more aspects to mention:
Ceci’s long drought ends
Ceci’s first-period shot appeared to hit Nugent-Hopkins before trickling by Red Wings netminder Alex Lyon, but the Oilers forward made sure to leave no doubt that the puck didn’t touch him.
Nugent-Hopkins immediately located Ceci and pointed to him to signify that the goal was his. The puck ricocheted off Detroit blueliner Moritz Seider instead.
Finally.
The last time Ceci scored was Oct. 15, 2022, a slot shot against Calgary Flames’ Dan Vladar. That was the second game of last season, a span of 127 contests.
“It felt like my first one again. It was that long,” Ceci said.
Scoring goals isn’t what players like Ceci on the roster do, of course. You just figured he would have found a way to pot one someway, somehow earlier than this.
“That’s not his thing. He takes a lot of pride in his defensive game and the penalty kill,” Knoblauch said. “But it also feels good to get on the scoresheet once in a while. We’re very happy for him.”
It had been so long that memories needed to be jogged to pinpoint Ceci’s last marker.
McDavid mistakenly assumed it happened in Game 7 of the 2022 first-round series against the Los Angeles Kings, one of the biggest tallies of that Oilers campaign.
“Well, I remember his Game 7 goal the most,” he said. “That was a huge goal.”
Ceci also assisted on Leon Draisaitl’s opening goal. That helper gave him 200 career points.
But the goal, which also secured his first multi-point outing of 2023-24, was much more noteworthy.
“Everyone’s been great with me around that situation,” Ceci said. “No one really made fun of me or anything. They were always there to pick me up.”
The goalless Connor Brown has to be next, right?
Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl celebrates after scoring a first-period goal against the Red Wings. (Perry Nelson / USA Today)
Line changes and more changes
The second period was one of the Oilers’ worst in a long time. The back half was particularly terrible as they lost the 3-1 advantage that Evan Bouchard gave them when he scored at 10:17.
They had all the miscues covered — bad pinches, poor backchecking by the forwards, sloppy in-zone puck management and coverage. But that’s not all.
“The amount of odd-man rushes we gave up were probably (more than) the amount of January combined all in one period,” Knoblauch said. “The defensive details need to be better.”
“The second period was just not what we want to do,” McDavid said.
The result was Knoblauch getting out his blender — and doing it a few times. This top line of McDavid, Nugent-Hopkins and Zach Hyman was largely left intact. The rest of the trios were jumbled around plenty.
Knoblauch went back to his late-December/early-January grouping of Draisaitl between Ryan McLeod and Warren Foegele. He then moved Holloway to centre between Kane and Corey Perry.
All that was short-lived.
When the third period started, Holloway was on Draisaitl’s right wing with Kane and McLeod was centering Foegele and Perry.
“It was more tactical than getting their attention,” Knoblauch said. “It wasn’t working. We needed to change something.”
Perhaps, that played into it. But Knoblauch did demote Foegele to the fourth line after a bad defensive-zone turnover and moved Sam Gagner — who had been scratched for the last four games — up in his place.
“You need accountability every now and then, especially from your head coach,” McDavid said. “You guys might not see it all the time, but he does a great job of keeping guys accountable.
“Nobody liked the second period.”
The Oilers found their game after Knoblauch’s tweaks. The coach just wished they would have figured it out earlier.
“We need a better effort all the time,” he said.
Holloway to the rescue
No one was more of a beneficiary of the line shuffling than Holloway, the sophomore forward and the youngest Oiler.
Holloway played most of the first two periods at left wing, got some time at centre between two veterans and then got a plum assignment in the top six for the third.
“It gets your mind into it playing all three positions,” he said.
Holloway was on the ice with McDavid and Kane when some quick thinking helped him net his third goal of the season.
McDavid pickpocketed Seider and fed Bouchard in the slot, but Bouchard’s shot was turned away by Lyon. The goalie left a big rebound sitting there and Holloway bolted for it. He dove and beat Red Wings winger Alex DeBrincat to the loose puck, pushing it into the empty cage.
Holloway looked like he was tearing down a Slip ’N Slide on a hot summer’s day.
“That was pretty good form, going headfirst right into the boards.” he said, laughing.
“I had to sell out for that one. I couldn’t risk it getting knocked away. My eyes just lit up and I wanted it to go in.”
The goal was the first of the third period and restored the Oilers’ lead — one they’d never relinquish.
It would have stood as the winner if former Oiler David Perron hadn’t tipped in a point shot with 4:50 left in the third.
The only downside was that Holloway’s mad dash and glide took out McDavid, who hit the ice in a heap. At least he got up smiling to congratulate Holloway.
“That was a little scary, but I saw him coming at the last second,” McDavid said. “Haller’s a little like a bull in a china shop sometimes.
“But you’ve got to go to the net hard and he got rewarded there. That was a huge goal for our group and got us going.”
Overall, Holloway skated 13:30 — the fourth-most ice time he’s received in 22 games this season.
Penalty kill woes
The Oilers entered the All-Star break with the fifth-best penalty killing in the league at 83 percent.
Let’s just say it hasn’t been nearly as successful since.
After allowing two goals on three Detroit power plays, the Oilers have killed off just four of nine opponents’ opportunities over the last four games.
They’ve allowed those five goals over the last three contests.
DeBrincat scored off a cross-seam pass from Patrick Kane for the first Red Wings goal. Joe Veleno stuffed in a puck 10 seconds into a Detroit power play for the next one.
The recent ineffectiveness has dropped the Oilers to 13th with an 80.9 percent success rate.
“We’ve taken a step back on our penalty kill with some of the details,” Knoblauch said. “But it’s just a short amount of time.”
At least the one penalty they did manage to kill off came at a key time — midway through the third period with the Oilers leading 5-3.
Hyman scored on the shift after Mattias Ekholm came out of the box, too.
(Top photo of Connor McDavid advancing the puck against the Red Wings: Perry Nelson / USA Today)
