McDavid frustrated by Oilers’ struggles to begin season

The Edmonton Oilers have brought back most of their lineup from their successful previous season where they finished second in the Pacific division with a record of 50-23-9. This includes star players Connor McDavid, who scored 153 points (64 goals, 89 assists), and Leon Draisaitl, who scored 128 points (52 goals, 76 assists) to become the top two scorers in the NHL last season. Despite this, they were eliminated in the Stanley Cup Playoffs by the eventual champion Vegas Golden Knights.

However, the current season has not been as smooth for the Oilers. They are struggling defensively, allowing an average of 4.10 goals per game (the third most in the NHL), and are only scoring an average of 2.70 goals per game (tied for 23rd). This is a stark contrast to last season when Edmonton was the highest-scoring team in the NHL, averaging 3.96 goals per game with a total of 325 goals.

McDavid has been dealing with an upper-body injury and has not scored a goal in his past five games. His teammate Draisaitl has also been struggling offensively, going seven games without a goal. Other players like Mattias Janmark and Connor Brown have also faced injury and scoring challenges.

Despite these difficulties, forward Zach Hyman remains optimistic, stating, “We go into every game thinking we are going to win, so when it doesn’t happen, obviously you are not happy. It seems like it is continuing to happen. It is not fun, we know how good we can be, and we know what is causing us to be in this spot. There is no magic pill, we just have to go out there and fix it. That is the frustrating part is that we have yet to fix those errors that continue to come up in our game. We have the recipe, we know what to do we just have to go out there and do it.”