Has McDavid finally found his Oilers and Olympics linemates?
Day 1 of Edmonton's training camp had the reigning scoring champion and Hart Trophy winner flanked by newcomer Zach Hyman and Jesse Puljujarvi
The Edmonton Oilers ended their first practice on the first day of training camp by having the players do wind sprints up and down the ice. To the surprise of nobody, Connor McDavid was at the front of his group. Before they were half finished, though, McDavid was a zone ahead of everyone else. By the time they were completed, almost half the ice separated McDavid from the group. And McDavid looked like he wasn’t even trying. It was kind of ridiculous, actually.
“That’s just Connor being Connor,” said Oilers coach Dave Tippett. “Those wind sprints…I think he kind of enjoys them. Probably more than other people.”
In McDavid’s seventh training camp as an NHL player, it also represented something of a microcosm to McDavid’s tenure in Edmonton. For six years now, the Oilers have been looking for two steady and stable wingers to play with McDavid, and for six years they haven’t been able to find them. He’s played with everyone from Leon Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins to Benoit Pouliot and Mark Letestu. Perhaps McDavid will never find permanent linemates. And it might just be all McDavid’s fault because, like a wind sprints drill, maybe it’s simply impossible to keep pace with McDavid’s brilliance game-in and game-out. It hasn’t stopped McDavid from winning three scoring championships and finishing second twice in the past five years, but it seems the players on either side of him has been an issue for as long as he has been an NHL player.
So when McDavid stepped on the ice Thursday morning, he did so with Zach Hyman on his left and Jesse Puljujarvi on his right. The Oilers have spent a lot of time in the early going insisting that there’s a different feel to this team, that perhaps they might have just hit on the group that will make this team a Stanley Cup contender for the foreseeable future. And that extends to the Hyman-McDavid-Puljujarvi line. That gives the Oilers a second unit of Draisaitl between Nugent-Hopkins and Kailer Yamamoto, another group that was together on the first day.
“It’s the first day of camp, so you see them there, but these guys have been scrimmaging together for three weeks,” Tippett said. “Every time I go out and watch, they have the same lines, and I didn’t ask them to do that. In exhibition we’ll try those combinations, we’ll try some stuff…But if it was any indication from the first day of practice, those top two lines were really good, so we’ll see where it goes.”
And McDavid’s wingers with the Oilers aren’t the only ones that will be a talking point this season. Nathan MacKinnon said that some of Canada’s Olympic players got together in Montreal this summer and Sidney Crosby played on McDavid’s left side. Crosby has enjoyed some real success internationally playing with Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron, but a Crosby-McDavid tandem has some intriguing possibilities.
Having Hyman with McDavid is not a surprise. From the time Hyman was signed to his seven-year deal, the assumption was that he was going to be McDavid’s left winger. His work ethic and commitment to detail should mesh well with McDavid, and Puljujarvi’s breakout season has provided hope that he’ll be able to get to the net and convert the many tap-ins that are sure to come his way. McDavid is comfortable with his new left winger, with whom he worked out in the off-season in Toronto. “First and foremost, just a great guy,” McDavid said of Hyman. “Brings lots of personality and lots of positivity to our room. On the ice, his work ethic is what stands out among other things. Just excited to start on a line with him.”
There has been a lot of talk in the off-season about how Hyman has the potential to be a very good linemate for McDavid. He has above-average speed and has the rare combination of skills and grit that make him really good in the hard areas of the ice, while maintaining a good touch and a high level of intelligence in the scoring areas. When it comes to what he brings to the Oilers off the ice, Tippett was every bit as complimentary as McDavid. “He’s one of those guys who’s just a really good guy,” Tippett said. “He works hard, and what he talks about he does. It’s not just all talk. He carries himself the right way. It seems like it’s just been seamless. He’s come in here and fit in, and it looks like he’s been around for a long time. He wants to be here and wants to help this team become a top team, and he carries himself like that on the ice every day.”
There were a couple of other interesting developments in Edmonton on Day 1, not the least of which is the fact that fourth-liner Josh Archibald has so far refused to be vaccinated. He was not among the players in the Oilers second group on the ice, but Tippett said that was because he had just finished a 14-day quarantine and has to get up to speed. When McDavid was asked about his feelings, he made sure to tread softly. “The vaccine has become such a political thing,” McDavid said. “It’s become about a lot more than just the vaccine at this point. We want to do our best to protect one another, but ultimately it’s everyone’s choice to take it or not. Everyone is responsible and has a choice to control their own body. If someone feels the need not to get it and doesn’t want to get it, that’s their choice and we move on. We’ll do what we can to keep everybody safe and still put the best team on the ice.”
Also, Tippett had some interesting things to say about his defense corps for this season. Much has been made about the additions of Duncan Keith and Cody Ceci, but as far as Tippett is concerned, another player is going to be the team’s biggest difference maker. “Everybody wants Duncan Keith to do well, Ceci to do well (but) I think the key to our blueline this year is Evan Bouchard,” Tippett said. “I think he's going to be a real good player for us. I think he's going to continue to improve, and to me he's the X-Factor for our blueline...to come out and say, ‘We're going to be better.’ ”