NBCSN’s coverage of the 2018-19 NHL season continues with Sunday night’s matchup between the Edmonton Oilers and Vegas Golden Knights. Coverage begins at 10 p.m. ET on NBCSN. You can watch the game online and on the NBC Sports app by clicking here.
Like the first game of Sunday’s doubleheader on NBCSN, the second features a team whose playoff hopes are on life-support at the moment.
The Edmonton Oilers scored a big win last night, 3-2 in overtime against the Arizona Coyotes -- but only gained a point after not being able to close Arizona out in regulation. The Oilers are seven points back of the idle Coyotes and have a game in hand, so theoretically, a win vs. Vegas in the second half of a back to back would place them within five points.
“I’ve liked our game coming back from the bye week, minus a couple of hiccups here and there,” Connor McDavid said after the game. “We haven’t necessarily been rewarded by it, but we are starting to now.”
McDavid will be featured on Star Sunday. He had his hand in all three of Edmonton’s goals on Saturday, including potting the game-winner in overtime. Oilers head coach Ken Hitchcock called it a “typical Connor game” and said, “he wasn’t going to be denied.”
McDavid is on a run of seven straight multi-point games, matching the longest streak of the season, which is shared by Auston Matthews and Nikita Kucherov. The 22-year-old is average 1.54 points per game, which would be a career-high. Thus, he’s on pace to set a new career-high in points. He had 108 last season and enters Sunday with 103. He’s set a new career-high in points in every season he’s played in the NHL.
[WATCH LIVE – COVERAGE BEGINS AT 10 P.M. ET – NBCSN]
Vegas enters the day firmly entrenched in third place in the Pacific Division, where they sit five points up on the Arizona Coyotes with a game in hand. Their current form has seen them win of seven of their past eight, erasing a spell prior to it where they lost six-of-seven.
The reason for the turn around has been an uptick in scoring and a downtick in goals allowed -- usually a pretty good mixture for finding success.
“When we play our best hockey, it starts in the defensive end, and that’s really important to our group,” Golden Knights coach Gerard Gallant said after their win against Dallas on Friday. “I don’t want us to be a high-flying team. I want us to be a good, solid team and find ways to grind out wins like we did tonight.”
Part of the scoring has come from Mark Stone, who went from having one assist in his first four games with his new team to having two goals and three assists in over his past four outings.
“I’m starting to settle in,” Stone said. “It’s been pretty easy so far. Teammates have been really good with me. You almost get that feeling that you’ve been here for a lot longer than you have. Even though I’ve been here for two weeks, I’m starting to get a lot of familiarity.”
Marc-Andre Fleury will be the focus of Star Sunday for the Golden Knights.
Fleury leads the NHL with 35 wins and eight shutouts this season and is currently riding a six-game winning streak.
Inside Fleury’s 6-game winning streak
- 0.83 GAA, .973 SV%, 2 shutouts
- 5 goals allowed on 183 shots
- Has not allowed more than 2 goals in a game
- Wins over DAL (2x), VAN (2x), CGY, ANA
Chris Cuthbert (play-by-play) and Shane Hnidy (‘Inside-the-Glass’ analyst) will have the call from T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nev.
Scott Billeck is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @scottbilleck
