Canada’s Connor McDavid celebrates after his team’s quarter-final win over Russia at the 2018 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship.
photo: Andre Ringuette / HHOF-IIHF Images
Connor McDavid is hoping to fill the net more this season. After scoring a career-best 41 goals and winning his second consecutive Art Ross Trophy as the NHL’s top point producer (108), McDavid feels he can do more offensively.
“I’ve always said I want to score more,” McDavid said. “I think that’s what I want to do. I want to find ways to score, I think I’m a good passer and could make plays and all that, but there’s definitely a knack for putting the puck in the net that I seemed to find a little bit later in the year last year and hoping to carry that into this year.”
For teammate Darnell Nurse, who had an assist in 10 games for Canada at the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship in May, there’s no surprise that his captain is looking to improve.
“He never gets worse. Every single year he steps up another notch and when you think he can’t get better, he continues to get better so it’s going to be a lot of fun to play with him,” Nurse said.
“I think you guys see it night-in, night-out, that guy is one of the biggest competitors I’ve ever played with, he always wants to win and as much as his personal success was great, I know there’s no part of him that’s satisfied with the way the team went. I think that goes for everyone. The type of hunger that he shows and the willingness to do whatever it takes to win. We all have to feed off that.”
McDavid, a member of Canada’s fourth-place team at the 2018 IIHF Ice Hockey World Hockey Championship, had a typical off-season: working out with Gary Roberts and regular on-ice work.
It’s a routine, which the 21-year-old believes will help him take his game to another level.
“I think there’s areas of your game that can improve. Not offensively mainly. Being better defensively, I think that alone would help - all the little stuff,” said McDavid, who contributed five goals and 12 assists in 10 games for Canada in May. “There’s different ways to impact the game.
“You just want to continue on the growth that I think I’ve been on. There’s always ways to improve your game and ways to be more dangerous and dynamic. I’m looking to do that this year obviously.”
Edmonton enters this season after a disappointing 2017/18 campaign. Coming off a year where they snapped a 10-year playoff drought, expectations were high heading into last season; however, the Oilers faltered out of the gate and never recovered finishing 23rd overall with a 36-40-6 record while missing the playoffs.
Despite the lack of success, the Oilers have returned a large portion of the team, which finished sixth in the Pacific Division a year ago – something McDavid believes can be a positive.
“I think it’s a good thing. Keep everyone together,” said McDavid. “Didn’t really want to go in and blow it up. Peter’s (Chiarelli) kind of always said all along, if there was a move to be made, he was going to make it, and if there wasn’t, then we’d keep it all together.
“We’re confident that everyone’s going to come back and get back to where we were about two years ago where everyone was just buzzing altogether.”
Nurse, fresh off signing a two-year, $6.4 million extension in September, believes part of the Oilers problems was that the players got caught up in the the pre-season expectations heading into last year.
“One of the things we learned is you can’t believe your own hype,” Nurse said. “I think we kind of went in with… we didn’t have that hunger that we had the year before that made us so successful and for us, this year, it’ll be good to have that back in the room and the guys will be all ready to go.”
Edmonton finished the season 17 points back of the Colorado Avalanche for the second wildcard spot in the Western Conference – a year McDavid calls one of the toughest of his young NHL tenure.
“I think either that or my first year in the NHL. Both years weren’t years that we wanted to have as a team,” McDavid admitted. “The first year was a little bit different where expectations weren’t very high. Last year they were as high as they possibly could’ve been.
“Confident we’ll get back to where we were.”
Heading into the first year of his new eight-year, $100 million contract McDavid enters this season hoping to shed the disappointment of 2017-18.
“I think the only thing that really changes is there’s just that bitter taste in everyone’s mouth that where we finished and where left off last year,” he said. “Everyone should be highly motivated and everyone had a good summer, worked hard so it’s time to show it.”
The NHL regular season starts with four games today. The Oilers will open the season on Saturday with a regular-season game in Europe, against the New Jersey Devils in Gothenburg, Sweden.
“I’ve always said I want to score more,” McDavid said. “I think that’s what I want to do. I want to find ways to score, I think I’m a good passer and could make plays and all that, but there’s definitely a knack for putting the puck in the net that I seemed to find a little bit later in the year last year and hoping to carry that into this year.”
For teammate Darnell Nurse, who had an assist in 10 games for Canada at the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship in May, there’s no surprise that his captain is looking to improve.
“He never gets worse. Every single year he steps up another notch and when you think he can’t get better, he continues to get better so it’s going to be a lot of fun to play with him,” Nurse said.
“I think you guys see it night-in, night-out, that guy is one of the biggest competitors I’ve ever played with, he always wants to win and as much as his personal success was great, I know there’s no part of him that’s satisfied with the way the team went. I think that goes for everyone. The type of hunger that he shows and the willingness to do whatever it takes to win. We all have to feed off that.”
McDavid, a member of Canada’s fourth-place team at the 2018 IIHF Ice Hockey World Hockey Championship, had a typical off-season: working out with Gary Roberts and regular on-ice work.
It’s a routine, which the 21-year-old believes will help him take his game to another level.
“I think there’s areas of your game that can improve. Not offensively mainly. Being better defensively, I think that alone would help - all the little stuff,” said McDavid, who contributed five goals and 12 assists in 10 games for Canada in May. “There’s different ways to impact the game.
“You just want to continue on the growth that I think I’ve been on. There’s always ways to improve your game and ways to be more dangerous and dynamic. I’m looking to do that this year obviously.”
Edmonton enters this season after a disappointing 2017/18 campaign. Coming off a year where they snapped a 10-year playoff drought, expectations were high heading into last season; however, the Oilers faltered out of the gate and never recovered finishing 23rd overall with a 36-40-6 record while missing the playoffs.
Despite the lack of success, the Oilers have returned a large portion of the team, which finished sixth in the Pacific Division a year ago – something McDavid believes can be a positive.
“I think it’s a good thing. Keep everyone together,” said McDavid. “Didn’t really want to go in and blow it up. Peter’s (Chiarelli) kind of always said all along, if there was a move to be made, he was going to make it, and if there wasn’t, then we’d keep it all together.
“We’re confident that everyone’s going to come back and get back to where we were about two years ago where everyone was just buzzing altogether.”
Nurse, fresh off signing a two-year, $6.4 million extension in September, believes part of the Oilers problems was that the players got caught up in the the pre-season expectations heading into last year.
“One of the things we learned is you can’t believe your own hype,” Nurse said. “I think we kind of went in with… we didn’t have that hunger that we had the year before that made us so successful and for us, this year, it’ll be good to have that back in the room and the guys will be all ready to go.”
Edmonton finished the season 17 points back of the Colorado Avalanche for the second wildcard spot in the Western Conference – a year McDavid calls one of the toughest of his young NHL tenure.
“I think either that or my first year in the NHL. Both years weren’t years that we wanted to have as a team,” McDavid admitted. “The first year was a little bit different where expectations weren’t very high. Last year they were as high as they possibly could’ve been.
“Confident we’ll get back to where we were.”
Heading into the first year of his new eight-year, $100 million contract McDavid enters this season hoping to shed the disappointment of 2017-18.
“I think the only thing that really changes is there’s just that bitter taste in everyone’s mouth that where we finished and where left off last year,” he said. “Everyone should be highly motivated and everyone had a good summer, worked hard so it’s time to show it.”
The NHL regular season starts with four games today. The Oilers will open the season on Saturday with a regular-season game in Europe, against the New Jersey Devils in Gothenburg, Sweden.