The stage is set for Rogers Place to host a historic night in Edmonton Oilers history as Connor McDavid is just a single point away from hitting 1,000 in his NHL career.
With the Nashville Predators in town, a team that the Oilers have absolutely dominated over recent years, the expectation is that McDavid will find his way onto the scoresheet to become the fourth-fastest player to hit the 1,000-point plateau. The only players to do it faster than him are Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, and Mike Bossy.
If it happens, his Oilers teammates are prepared to celebrate their captain.
“He’s the best in the world, and he proves it every night,” Mattias Ekholm said this morning. “Very often you see him out there taking a game over and doing it himself.
“It’s a great feeling to have him on your side as opposed to playing against him. It’s been a pleasure so far.”
“It’s about turning the page. I think we’ve done a good job of that now as we start to look more like ourselves & play a better brand of hockey.”
Mattias Ekholm on the #Oilers starting to play to their capabilities. @Enterprise | #LetsGoOilers pic.twitter.com/xHi19cttk4
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) November 14, 2024
It’s going to be a night where the entirety of Rogers Place will be on the edge of their seats, waiting for that one point to be scored. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, the team’s longest-tenured Oilers player, says that it would be special to be one of the players to help make that point happen but said every teammate will have a role in it when it happens.
“I think it would be fun to be a part of the immediate celebration,” Nugent-Hopkins said. “I think, no matter what, we’ll all get a chance to be a little part of all it. It’ll be fun. We hope it happens tonight.
“It’s legendary stuff.”
The pressure is on McDavid just a tiny bit, considering this is the team’s last home game before going on a three-game road trip out east. Edmonton will be in Toronto on Saturday, and while that may be a special place to capture his thousandth point, doing it in front of Oil Country would mean that much more.
“He definitely would want to do it here in front of our fans and see the roof pop off this building tonight,” Nugent-Hopkins said.
Hitting the plateau would also further cement McDavid as one of the greatest Oilers players of all time. He would become just the fourth player in franchise history to score 1,000 points with the team, alongside Gretzky, Mark Messier, and Jari Kurri.
It’s sure to be a night to remember if it does indeed happen.