Connor McDavid leads cranky Edmonton Oilers past Ottawa Senators

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Connor McDavid and the ticked-off Edmonton Oilers made sure the Ottawa Senators continued their November tumble Tuesday night at Canadian Tire Centre.

With the best hockey player on the planet leading the way, the Oilers knocked off the Senators 5-2, bringing Ottawa’s losing streak to three.

Edmonton wasn’t happy with a 3-0 loss in Montreal Monday and, a night later, they took advantage of their chances against a team that seems to find the puck in the back of its net after every mistake.

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Other than the first couple minutes, you never really had a feeling the Senators were going to win.

Words to describe the game from a Senators’ standpoint: Flat. Not a lot of energy. Frustrated. Not good enough. Immature.

“We made some mistakes, they capitalized on them,” Senators coach Travis Green said. “You’re never going to just shut teams like that down.”

“We just weren’t good enough,” Senators centre Tim Stutzle, who scored his team’s first goal, said. “Their top guys were good and I didn’t score enough goals.”

The Oilers took a 1-0 lead 3:46 into the game. Defenceman Evan Bouchard, on a really nice play, dragged the puck through Chabot’s legs. and lifted a shot past Ottawa goalie Linus Ullmark.

After some good work by Drake Batherson behind the Edmonton net, the Senators tied it on a Stutzle goal with 4:20 left in the first period.

But 35 seconds later, Edmonton regained its one-goal lead on a McDavid goal.

Two seconds into a Josh Norris penalty for cross-checking, Claude Giroux headed to the box for a delay of game penalty (they said it was a faceoff violation). With a two-man advantage, Edmonton made it 3-1 when McDavid cruised in and wristed a shot past Ullmark.

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Leon Draisaitl made it 4-1 4:39 into the second period.

After Ottawa failed to score on a power play, the Oilers took a 5-1 lead on a Ryan Nugent-Hopkins tip-in with 8:10 left.

With 2:24 left, a Nick Jensen shot from the point was tipped in by Norris.

Up next is a home date with Vegas, the Pacific Division’s top team, Thursday. Then, it’s another good team, Vancouver, here Saturday.

KING OF LEON: The Oilers have a mighty two-pronged attack – McDavid and Draisaitl.

Last week, McDavid became the 99th player in league history to reach the 1,000-point plateau.

Draisaitl sometimes flies under the radar. But he’s very, very good – with 14 goals and 13 assists in 20 games. Going back to 2018-19, Draisaitl has five 100-point seasons (128 in 2022-23), three times scoring more than 50 goals. He became the Oilers’ all-time leader in power-play goals after notching his 127th a month ago. Last week, he passed Paul Coffey for the fifth most multi-assist games in Oilers history with 117.

THOMAS TAKES BLAME: Chabot, who logged 22:39 of ice time, took aim at himself after the game.

“The first two periods are probably the worst periods I’ve played,” he said. “You have to take some ownership.

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“I started the game slow, I wasn’t winning my battles. I didn’t feel like myself, I wasn’t quite ready to go. That’s going to happen, but it sucks. You’re not going to win against a team that went to the Stanley Cup last year doing that. You have to look at yourself in the mirror. We’re fortunate enough in hockey to get a chance to go at it again soon.”

YOUNG GUN: Heading into Tuesday, Stützle (22 years, 2018 days) had 21 points through 17 regular-season games. He added another one vs. the Oilers. Stützle has more points than any NHL player under the age of 23. Next up was Buffalo’s JJ Peterka (22 years, 309 days) with 17,  Winnipeg’s Cole Perfetti (22 years, 322 days) with 17, Chicago’s Connor Bedard (19 years, 124 days) with 13 and Los Angeles’ Brandt Clarke (21 years, 283 days) with 13.

SCENE AND HEARD: Senators winger Zack MacEwen dropped the gloves with Oilers defenceman Josh Brown early in the game. It seemed inevitable Brown would fight someone; he had 46 penalty minutes in 12 AHL games before getting called up … Michael Amadio hit the goal post with a bit less than five minutes left in the second period … Fans at Canadian Tire Centre didn’t like it when Jensen was knocked into the boards and no penalty was called with a couple of minutes left in the second … Fans liked it even less when Stutzle was sent to the penalty box for cross-checking with five seconds left in the period … Funny enough, the Senators beat the Oilers big (35-17) in one category – hits … There were some loud “Let’s Go Oilers” chants near the end of the game. 

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