Oilers to separate Hall and McDavid

We’ve got a fairly clear idea of approximately when you should keep your eye out for them and that’s part of our month-by-month breakdown below. But on Friday night, Babcock will return to face a Red Wings team he very much molded. “It’s a major hockey market and the media is large and focused on the hockey team”.

Either way, it’ll be must-see TV when these two are on the ice together, and could lead to a resurgence of the Pittsburgh Penguins in the Eastern Conference if all goes well.

Fellow rookie Robby Fabbri scored what proved to be the eventual game-winner midway through the third period, as the Oilers dropped their season opener 3-1 to the reigning Central Division winners. A pass from defenseman Alex Pietrangelo sprung Tarasenko on a breakaway and he fired the puck past goalie Cam Talbot, making his debut for the Oilers.Talbot, acquired from the Rangers after the Oilers gave up an NHL-most 276 goals previous year, has seen Tarasenko before.

“I can’t really remember, but it was a great feeling”, said Fabbri, the 21st pick of the 2014 National Hockey League Draft who was plus-1 with three hits in 10:28 of ice time. Several Oilers fans were spotted wearing McDavid’s No. 97, emphasizing the focus on an 18-year-old expected to lift a long-suffering franchise back up the standings. “There won’t be any easy games this year (against) our team”.

By DAVID BRANDT AP Sports Writer Watch any of the weekend’s college football games and it’s hard to go even 30 minutes without seeing a commercial for upstart sites DraftKings and FanDuel.

That did not require an extra conversation with McDavid before the game. Even shrugged the same way. He had to be the guy all the time up until now.

Hall, Nugent-Hopkins and Yakupov have all been in McDavid’s shoes recently, if not quite on the same scale. You only get to do this once. “But we aren’t going to put ridiculous pressures and expectations on him”.

Our crew is really excited about Parayko this year. “For him to make that play it was an incredible pass”. “Whether it’s his first game or his 1,000th game, our job is to take care of business, shut him down”. If they can build on the identity they forged previous year and see growth from budding star center Evgeny Kuznetsov and Andre Burakovsky they could be the team to beat in the Eastern Conference. McDavid’s going to be a good player. It’s new to all of us. And here was the best, payin’ that price.

“Where we turned the game was in the second half of the second period”, Blues coach Ken Hitchcock said.

“Looking at the players they seem like they can’t wait to turn this thing around”.

In other words, Eichel knows what could be in store for himself and Connor McDavid. His 2,857 points are 970 more than the No. 2 player on the scoring list.

His first official game was played before a full house, on a warm night a few blocks from the Mississippi River.

With McLellan taking over the reins as head coach of the Edmonton Oilers, it will mark the second Taberite he has coached with Davidson. Eichel wants to be better than McDavid and vice versa. Now they have people who would at least appear to have a better plan going forward. In between there is a vast middle, about 25 teams virtually indistinguishable from each other on paper. Different personalities. We don’t think of Ovechkin when we think of Crosby. Anything can happen of course, but if McDavid stays healthy and continues propelling his game as he has so visibly over the last three seasons, the league may never be the same again.