Oilers' McDavid admits he hasn't "been at the top of my game" against Avalanche
After shredding through the first two rounds of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, Connor McDavid has sputtered, somewhat, in trying to solve the Colorado Avalanche.
It has the Edmonton Oilers captain admitting he can be better.
“I probably haven’t been at the top of my game here,” said McDavid, who is the first player in 26 years to record 150 points in a season, when blending regular season and playoff totals.
“They’ve done a good job of limiting chances and stuff like that.”
McDavid leads the playoffs in scoring with 29 points (eight goals, 21 assists) in 14 games. His plus-17 rating also paces all playoff participants. But he was held pointless in Game 2 for just the second time in these playoffs — it ended a personal nine-game point streak that featured eight multi-point performances — and was limited to just two shots on goal in 22:43 of ice time in Game 2.
He has just four shots in the series.
By comparison, Nathan MacKinnon has put 15 pucks on net, including 11 in Game 2.
“They’ve got good players. They got good men,” McDavid said. “We haven’t had a ton of chances off the rush. We got to find a way to create off the forecheck and off o-zone play they do a lot of good things.
“We’ve got to find a way to figure them out.”
It looked as though McDavid and the Oilers had in Game 1.
They breached Colorado’s net six times in an eventual 8-6 loss, with McDavid racking up three points (one goal, two assists).
The back-and-forth run-and-gun display, however, was shelved in Game 2 — a 4-0 Avalanche win that looks to be the template for keeping McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, and the Oilers bunch at bay heading into Game 3 on Saturday.
“We’ve got to do a better job of getting to the paint,” said Edmonton forward Zach Hyman, who has nine goals in 14 playoff games but was limited to just three shots in over 20 minutes of work in Game 2.
“We got to do a better job of forechecking and sustaining pressure in the ozone. I don’t think we’ve done a good enough jobs, I think, at times. When we’re doing it, we’re doing it well and holding onto pucks. You can see what works. I just don’t think it’s happening enough.”
Perhaps some home cooking is in order.
Games 3 and 4 shift to the more friendly confines of Rogers Place.
McDavid has 14 points (three goals, 11 assists) in just six games on home ice these playoffs.
“We’ve been a real solid home team for the last little while,” he said. “We love playing in front of those fans.
“We’ll get ourselves back in the series at home here.”
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