Connor McDavid Runs His Point Streak to 20 Straight Games

Philadelphia did most of the work on Wednesday night. The Flyers outshot Edmonton in every period, held Connor McDavid without a sniff for half the game, and still watched the streak survive on a single power play. Midway through the second period, with Oliver Bonk in the box, McDavid put a shot on Dan Vladar from the left side and Zach Hyman jammed the rebound through the goaltender's legs. That was the point — McDavid's one assist in a 3–2 overtime win at Rogers Place — and it gave him a point in all twenty games Edmonton has played this season.

Twenty straight ties the longest run of McDavid's career, and the company is the story. He is the fourth player in NHL history to open a season with a point in twenty straight games. Wayne Gretzky did it three times, including the record fifty-one-game streak that opened 1983-84. Mats Sundin ran thirty to open 1992-93, and Dany Heatley twenty-two in 2005-06. That is the whole list. McDavid also became the eighth player ever with more than one twenty-game point streak — his first was last season, when he collected forty-six points across the same span. This year's version is worth forty-nine points, eleven goals and thirty-eight assists, and it leads the league. Follow Wednesday's game in the Game Center.

The game itself nearly got away from Edmonton. After a scoreless first period, Hyman opened the scoring at 4:13 of the second when a Mattias Ekholm shot missed the net and bounced straight back to him. The power-play goal made it 2–0 at 14:03, and Tyson Foerster answered on a Flyers power play at 16:49, taking a pass across the slot from Owen Tippett and beating Tristan Jarry high on the glove side. Philadelphia kept coming. Travis Sanheim tied it 2–2 at 11:42 of the third, driving in from the right wall, cutting along the goal line and slipping the puck between Jarry's pads. Edmonton challenged for goaltender interference and lost, and the Flyers had their point.

Overtime lasted forty-seven seconds. Leon Draisaitl carried the puck in and slid a pass across to Evan Bouchard, alone on the far side, and Bouchard's one-timer went in off the right post. Bouchard finished with a goal and an assist, Jarry made thirty saves, and the Oilers won their third straight to reach 14-3-3 with points in eleven of their last thirteen. Edmonton's top three scorers are also the league's top three: McDavid at forty-nine points, Draisaitl at thirty-seven — his own point streak is seven games — and Bouchard at thirty-three, with a defenseman-leading eleven goals.

Philadelphia's bench took the point and the performance with it. "We played a great hockey game — I'm really proud of the guys," Flyers coach Rick Tocchet said. Sean Couturier said the Flyers were "above them, ready to battle" for most of the night, and the shot count backs him up: 32–24 for the visitors. Edmonton's coach, Mike Babcock, conceded his team "weren't as ready as we should have been" and credited Hyman while saying good teams "find ways to win." The Flyers are 5-10-6 and have lost four of their last five, but they have taken points from three straight games, and they get Edmonton again on Sunday — this time in Philadelphia.

Before that comes the date the streak has been pointing at for a week. Edmonton opens a road trip Saturday in Toronto, and one point against the Maple Leafs makes it twenty-one — a new career best, in the city McDavid grew up outside of. The streak has survived a cold night against the Rangers, a benching storyline in Winnipeg and a Flyers team that played him about as well as he can be played. It has not yet survived a quiet night, because there has not been one. Saturday, it either reaches twenty-one or it ends at the number he already owns.

More hockey on Previously's NHL front.