Hyman breaks unexpected double-digit goal drought with Edmonton Oilers
As it turns out, Zach Hyman only needed to fire his teammate he refers to as the best player in the world in order to regain his scoring ability.
However, Hyman’s first goal of the season eventually snapped a 10-game scoring drought, while Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid missed his first start of the season due to an ankle injury he acquired during his first shift of Monday’s 6-1 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets.
It followed a 5-1 victory Thursday over the Nashville Predators, who have been a bit of a punching bag for the Oilers lately, as Edmonton has managed to score points in 14 of their last 15 encounters.
However, you can guarantee Hyman will accept it as he just finished a season with a career-high 54 goals and is now facing a double-digit drought.
According to Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch, “he’s expected goals more this year than he was last year, he just hasn’t been able to finish.” “I watched our bench get really excited when he scored that goal.” There isn’t usually much emotion when a team scores a 5-1 goal late in the game, but for that one, the players were ecstatic for him.
To start, McDavid is still on course to miss two to three weeks as originally predicted.
At the top of that projection, that equates to a maximum of nine games, which includes Sunday’s away game against the Calgary Flames (6 p.m., Sportsnet One).
“Not much has changed. Knoblauch stated, “It’s still looking to be two or three weeks, but maybe it speeds up a little.” “Probably about the same, but probably closer to two weeks than three weeks.”
Since arriving home early from the road trip ahead of the squad, McDavid has started to try out his ankle.
“I wouldn’t say skating, but he went on the ice for a few moments,” Knoblauch said.
The Oilers are still searching for other ways to cover the void on the ice, so it’s not at the level his teammates and fans are used to seeing McDavid do.
Every team experiences injuries. Naturally, it’s bad that the world’s top player isn’t participating, and that doesn’t help,” Hyman remarked. However, it provides a chance for everyone there to take the stage and perform a bit better. And I believe that this team will benefit from playing a little better and then adding Connor McDavid when he returns.
“I hope he returns to a better team than when he left.”Naturally, a major component of that improvement would be witnessing their top scorer regain the form that carried the Oilers through a variety of challenges last season, including an even slower start than they are now experiencing, on their way to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final.
“Obviously, it felt fantastic to score. “Great victory,” Hyman said, adding that the important thing is to avoid being frustrated. “I wasn’t too concerned because I’ve looked at it a lot and seen a lot of excellent shots. I’m fairly certain that I can score in this league when you get those chances.”After the Oilers recovered to an even.500 on the season, sitting 5-5-1 after starting the season 0-3, he wasn’t the only one who felt a little more at ease.
As they tackle the meat of their early schedule this week, they will need to defeat some formidable opponents without their undeniable leader in the starting lineup if they want to maintain that upward trend.
“Isn’t there greater opportunity? “Those minutes are available because Connor logs a lot of them, and it will be by committee, of course,” Hyman stated. “Connor McDavid won’t be replaced by anyone entering the room. Everyone is doing a little bit more and getting more chances.
Leon Draisaitl, who led the way with two goals and an assist against the Predators, has taken the majority of the blame thus far.
“That is the reason we are in this position as a Stanley Cup-chasing team,” Hyman stated. Two of the world’s top players are on our team. Between the two of them, we most likely have the world’s top player on any given night, isn’t that right? That’s what they say to one other all the time.
When one falls, the other one rises. Thankfully, no one has sustained any long-term injuries since I’ve been here, but if it does occur, we have plenty of excellent players who can fill in.
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