EDMONTON — The Connor McDavid era has begun — unofficially.
McDavid recorded a pair of assists in his NHL preseason debut as the Edmonton Oilers defeated the Calgary Flames 4-2 on Monday in a preseason split-squad game.
Andrew Miller, Leon Draisaitl, Anton Lander and Nail Yakupov scored for the Oilers.
McDavid, the first overall draft pick this summer, was named the game’s first star, logging 20:59 in game time.
“There was obviously nerves and a lot of excitement going into the game and it takes a little bit to settle down,” McDavid said. “I thought I was a little nervous in the first period and wasn’t patient with the puck and wasn’t playing my game. I guess that’s to be expected, there was so much hype about playing your first NHL game, although it’s not really, it’s still kind of your first taste.”
Oilers new head coach Todd McLellan was suitably impressed with the play of McDavid, labelled by many as a potential future superstar.
“I thought he looked dangerous and played well on both sides of the puck,” he said. “He had a couple of good scoring chances. It was about what we expected for game one.”
Oliver Kylington and Markus Granlund replied for the Flames.
The game also marked the successful debut of Kylington, a 2015 second-round pick for the Flames.
“I was a bit nervous at the beginning, but I was pretty calm when the game started,” he said. “It was fun to play out there. I’ve dreamed about this kind of environment for a while. It was fun to play in front of a crowd like this and to play against top players. I think I did pretty good. Hopefully it will just get better and better.”
At the same time the game in Edmonton was taking place, another split-squad game between the two Alberta rivals was played in Calgary, with the Oilers winning that game 3-1.
Cam Talbot, who came to the Oilers in an off-season trade with the New York Rangers, got the start in net in Edmonton, while Karri Ramo was in goal for the Flames.
The Oilers broke the deadlock with five-and-a-half minutes to play in the opening frame as Miller snuck a shot under Ramo.
Calgary responded less than a minute later as defenceman Kylington carried the puck up ice and beat Talbot with a knuckler to make it 1-1 after 20 minutes.
The Oilers changed goalies midway through the second, with Laurent Brossoit coming in and allowing a goal on the first shot he faced as Andrej Sekera coughed up the puck on the power play and Granlund blasted a shot to the top corner for the short-handed score.
Mason McDonald came into the Calgary net to start the third.
Edmonton tied the game up with 6:25 left in the third as McDavid chipped a backhand pass in front to Draisaitl who showed good hand scoring from in tight.
The Oilers then took a 3-2 lead with 5:19 remaining as Lander battled to get loose shorthanded and made the most of it, beating McDonald with a high wrist shot.
Edmonton put the game away with an empty-netter as McDavid fed Yakupov for a goal.
In the game at Calgary, Benoit Pouliot scored the game-winning goal at 17:08 of the third period to lead the Edmonton Oilers to a 3-1 win over the Calgary Flames on Monday night in a split-squad pre-season game.
Mark Letestu and Justin Schultz, into an empty net, also scored for the Oilers, while goalie Anders Nilsson stopped all 17 shots he faced — including a penalty shot by Calgary forward Michael Frolik in the second period — to record the win. Ben Scrivens played the first half of the game in net for the Oilers and allowed one goal on 13 shots.
Frolik scored the lone goal of the game for the Flames. Jonas Hiller started in net for Calgary and allowed one goal on 16 shots, while Joni Ortio stopped 12 of 13 shots he faced in the second half of the game.
Shortly after Edmonton forward Greg Chase took a boarding penalty at 1:58 of the first period, the Flames appeared to open the scoring on the power play.
Parked at the right side of the net, Jiri Hudler sent a pass into the slot to Mark Giordano, who was driving hard to the net from the point. Giordano tried to kick the pass up to his stick, but it went into the net behind Scrivens instead prompting the referee to immediately disallow the goal.
On a man advantage of their own, the Oilers had a good chance to get on the board, but Hiller stuck out his left pad to make a toe save on a shot by Jordan Eberle. A short time later, Hiller made back-to-back saves to turn aside scoring attempts by Anton Slepyshev and Greg Chase.
The Flames finally opened up the scoring with a power-play goal at 6:07 of the second period when Frolik drove to the net and took a pass in stride from Johnny Gaudreau before snapping a quick shot to the top corner, glove side behind Scrivens.