Edmonton Oilers face frightening future with Connor McDavid injured

What are the Edmonton Oilers going to do without a healthy Connor McDavid in the lineup?

The short answer, of course, is hopefully better than they did with him, so far.

Somehow.

It’s no secret things haven’t been going according to plan for the Oilers in another start to the season that has fallen well short of expectations.

And that was before their hands-down leader, a.k.a The Best Player on the Planet, went down on his first shift Monday before skating gingerly to the bench, then off to the dressing room, then a quick trip back to Edmonton while the rest of the team remains on the road.

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Officially, it’s a lower-body injury, while an already distraught Oilers fan base anxiously awaits word on whether it’s an ankle or a knee and, more importantly, how much time he’s expected to miss.

They care less about what the Oilers do to bridge the gap in McDavid’s absence. There is no one down on the farm — or anywhere else, for that matter — who can hold a candle to the generationally large shadow cast by No. 97.

So, it becomes a grin-and-bear-it sort of situation for the Oilers faithful — which has kind of been the case around Edmonton for pretty much the entire first month of the season anyway.

But it mutated into a living nightmare Monday, in a Halloween preview that had to have Oilers fans averting their eyes.

And the most horrifying sight was what followed, as the Oilers appear to have been exposed in their biggest moment of weakness.

Losing their star player almost immediately on the way to a 6-1 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets does little to dispel the myth his team is nothing without him.

In fact, it could be argued they haven’t really done all that much with a healthy McDavid in the lineup so far this year, either.

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For all that’s going wrong for the Oilers on the way to a 4-5-1 record, as they tread water while sputtering in the bottom half of the Pacific Division, McDavid has still been a point-per-game player. The problem is we’re talking about a guy who’s put up a point and a half per game over his career.

And as we await word from the club about how long they might be without their captain after getting tripped in the boards and hobbling to the bench just 37 seconds into Monday’s loss, the team is left with the stark reality that for the following 59:23, they might as well have all followed him off the ice at the same time, the way they played in his absence.

Ineffective.

Incongruent.

Inconsolable.

Bottom line: In trouble.

Oh, sure. They got a goal in the dying seconds to avoid getting shutout, which would have added insult to his injury. So, at least it wasn’t as bad as getting blanked 6-0 in their season opener against the Winnipeg Jets.

And that was with McDavid in the lineup.

He was also present for the next two losses to the Chicago Blackhawks and Calgary Flames, two teams that weren’t even supposed to be on the Oilers’ radar coming into this year.

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They would end up bouncing back and reaching .500 earlier this week — in the standings, at least, thanks to the Bettman loser point. But they still have yet to actually win as many games as they’ve lost this year. And that was with a healthy McDavid in the lineup.

Prior to Monday’s game, they had been outscored 29-21, 22-6 of which came in losses. Again, with McDavid in the lineup.

Their power play went an atrocious 3-for-23 (13.0 per cent) with McDavid in the lineup and, as bad as it was without him Monday, 1-for-6 (16.7 per cent) is still slightly better.

And it should be pointed out the last two power-play goals came complements of Mattias Ekholm on the second unit, accounting for the same productivity on the man advantage as both McDavid and Leon Draisaitl so far this year, with a goal apiece on the top power-play unit.

The picture doesn’t begin to look any brighter when you consider the opponents the Oilers have beaten, either.

So far, you have the Philadelphia Flyers and Pittsburgh Penguins, who occupy the last two spots in the Metropolitan Division with a total of five wins throughout their first 19 combined games.

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And then there was a 4-2 win over the Nashville Predators, who sit second-last in the Pacific with a rematch scheduled Friday at Bridgestone Arena (8 p.m., Sportsnet West). You could refer to them as the hapless Preds, but at 3-5-1, they are only one win behind the Oilers right now.

The best team Edmonton’s managed to beat up to this point are the Detroit Red Wings, squeaking out a 3-2 overtime win to start their four-game road trip Sunday. And considering the Wings (4-4-1) are an even .500, the Oilers have yet to defeat a team with a winning record this year.

They will have every opportunity next week, when they come up against the Metro-leading New Jersey Devils, as well as a Vegas Golden Knights squad currently first in the Pacific. Not to mention the rival Flames and Vancouver Canucks, all of whom boast winning records.

And pending a miraculous recovery this week, chances are the Oilers will have to undergo that murderer’s row without the services of McDavid.

While surviving will likely take a trick or two, it certainly won’t be a treat.

E-mail: [email protected]

On Twitter: @GerryModdejonge

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