Blackhawks Daily: Oilers Get A Big Win Without McDavid

The Chicago Blackhawks played on Wednesday night but the St. Louis Blues hardly broke a sweat en route to their 5-2 victory. That was far from the story in the Western Conference though as two heavyweights took each other on as the Vegas Golden Knights paid a visit to the Edmonton Oilers.  Connor McDavid is currently sitting on 99 assists. If he gets one more before the season ends, he will join Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, and Bobby Orr as the only players ever to record 100 assists in the same season. This is a huge deal. It is no small feat whenever you are associated with those legends. 

Unfortunately, McDavid had to sit this game against the Golden Knights out. He was questionable for the contest about a day out and he never even took warmups. He is more focused on getting into the playoffs healthy and ready for a deep run but there has to be a part of him that wants to reach this milestone. 

That will have to wait until their next game (assuming he is good to go by the time the Oilers host the Arizona Coyotes on Friday night). Speaking ofArizona, the hockey world was quite abuzz of information surrounding a potential move to Salt Lake City.

The show did have to go on without him in this game against Vegas and it went well for his squad. 

The Oilers pounded the Golden Knights by a score of 5-1.

Playing the Golden Knights in the playoffs won’t be easy but the Oilers are happy to escape this one with two points. They could only hope to play this well against Vegas if they meet again in a seven-game series. They will certainly need McDavid to get it done in the playoffs but this was a great game for the rest of the team to gain some confidence.

Blackhawks In Case You Missed It

• The Blackhawks lost a tough game to the St. Louis Blues on Wednesday night. There are only four games left to go in this season.
• How about Philipp Kurashev? Chasing a four goal deficit early, he was one of the bright spots.
• Cole Guttman is going to be missing some time right as the Rockford Ice Hogs are getting ready to play in the postseason.
• Joel Quenneville has spoken for the first time in a long time. This is going to be big news as he may look to return to an NHL bench.

Hockey Now Playoff Focus

• Pittsburgh Hockey Now: The Pittsburgh Penguins need Alex Nedeljkovic to keep his hot streak going into the postseason.
• Boston Hockey Now: The Boston Bruins are ready to play mind games with their goaltending situation in the playoffs. Jeremy Swayman and Linus Ullmark will be very difficult to beat as a tandem.
• Colorado Hockey Now: Nathan Mackinnon had his best game of the season on Tuesday night. That is exactly what the Colorado Avalanche needs at this time of the year.
• New Jersey Hockey Now: The New Jersey Devils have officially been eliminated from postseason contention. Now, they have to pick up the pieces this off-season.