Edmonton Oilers superstar Connor McDavid is in the midst of one of the best season-opening runs in NHL history.
New York Islanders phenom Matthew Schaefer is also doing unprecedented things on a seemingly nightly basis.
McDavid and Schaefer will duel for the first time this season Saturday afternoon, when Edmonton opens a three-game road trip in and around the Big Apple by visiting the Islanders in Elmont, N.Y.
The Oilers have been off since Wednesday, when McDavid had two assists in a 4-0 win over the visiting Calgary Flames. The Islanders closed out a successful road trip Thursday night, when Schaefer scored his second goal 33 seconds into overtime to lift New York past the Minnesota Wild, 4-3.
Edmonton’s win resoundingly snapped a two-game losing streak for the Oilers — who were outscored a combined 11-5 by the Toronto Maple Leafs and Detroit Red Wings on Oct. 24 and Monday, respectively — and continued McDavid’s torrid start.
McDavid has at least one assist in each of the Oilers’ first 13 games, which breaks the previous NHL record for assists to start a season at 12 games first set in 1982-83 by Wayne Gretzky, the Edmonton legend and the NHL’s all-time leader in points and assists. The Boston Bruins’ Ken Linseman (1985-86) and the Carolina Hurricanes’ Sebastian Aho (2018-19) each matched Gretzky’s streak.
McDavid leads the NHL with 28 assists and 36 points. He is on pace for 181 assists and 233 points in the expanded 84-game season, each of which would shatter the single-season records set by Gretzky in 1985-86, when he had 163 assists and 215 points in an 80-game campaign.
The relative ease with which the Oilers defeated the Flames might help in McDavid’s pursuit. McDavid (18:50) and linemate Leon Draisaitl (19:06) each set a season-low for ice time as Edmonton won in regulation for the first time since Oct. 17, when it cruised past the Utah Mammoth 6-2.
“In the end you can roll everybody,” Oilers head coach Mike Babcock said of providing a comfortable lead against the Flames. “It looked much more reasonable and sets you up for success long-term.”
Few players appear as well-positioned for sustained success as Schaefer, who is following up his Calder Trophy-winning rookie season with a historically durable and productive second season.
Schaefer, who turned 19 on Sept. 5, became the first teenage defenseman with at least three game-winning overtime goals Thursday, when the Islanders completed a 2-1-0 Western Conference road trip.
Two nights earlier, in a 4-3 shootout win over the Nashville Predators, Schaefer became the first player to play all five minutes in a regular season overtime period since official real-time ice-time tracking began in the 2009-10 season.
Schaefer is also the youngest player ever to play at least 30 minutes in consecutive games. He played 30:01 Thursday after recording a career-high 32:16 of ice time against the Predators — the most ice time for a teenager in a single game since ice time became an official statistic.
Schaefer’s two-goal game Thursday was his fifth, tying him with Phil Housley for the most by a teenaged defenseman. And with as many as 71 games remaining in his age-19 season, Schaefer ranks among the top three in team history in goals, assists and points by a teenager.
“That competitiveness and edge he has to be a difference-maker is really rare,” Islanders head coach Pete DeBoer said.