Ryan Nugent-Hopkins returned Nov. 29 after missing nine games with an undisclosed injury and picked up right where he left off, with 15 points (six goals, nine assists) in his past 13 games. The forward has 31 points (11 goals, 20 assists) in 29 games this season.
Forward Jack Roslovic returned Dec. 21 after missing 11 games with a lower-body injury, and has 18 points (10 goals, eight assists) in 25 games.
“That’s a big part of it, too,” McDavid said. “You ask what the biggest difference is and we’re healthier. We’re still missing a couple of guys, but we’re healthier and [Hyman] is in there and playing well, and [Nugent-Hopkins] is in there doing his things. We get [Roslovic] back and guys are feeling good and healthy.”
The Oilers feel they are once again playing like the Stanley Cup contender they have been the past two seasons, and appear to be headed in the right direction after hovering around the .500 mark going into December.
“We demand to be a playoff team,” Draisaitl said. “When you start the season the way we did, nobody is happy, nobody likes it. We knew we could be better and (play) a lot better in here. Everyone just stepped up and started playing better. Now we’re rolling a little better and obviously we’re looking to continue that.”
Getting through a grueling portion of their schedule, which featured three extended road trips through the Eastern Time Zone prior to the holiday break, has Edmonton optimistic heading into the new calendar year. The Oilers have no road games against Eastern Conference foes remaining this season and will play 26 of their final 44 games at home.
“I don’t know if there’d been a team that started their schedule as bad as ours was, just with going to the East Coast twice and the amount of road games,” coach Kris Knoblauch said.
“Now the worst part of it is over, we have a lot more home games and our travel’s a lot closer, everything’s pretty much in our conference. But it’s nice to know we’ve gone through those difficult travel times and we are where we are right now.”
