Connor McDavid takes an 18-game season-opening point streak into Monday night, and the Edmonton Oilers will try to keep him moving toward two milestones when they host the New York Rangers at Rogers Place. He leads the NHL with 47 points and can become the third player in league history to reach 50 points in 19 or fewer games.
That is why this game draws so much attention. McDavid has 10 goals and 37 assists, leaving him one strong night from 50 points and within range of becoming the fastest player in NHL history to reach 40 assists. The Oilers are 12-3-3, so the streak is not happening in isolation; it is driving a team that has spent most of the season near the top of the standings.
The Rangers are the opponent because they have already seen what Edmonton can do. They lost 4-1 to the Oilers at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 1, and now they arrive on a three-game winning streak after having lost four straight. They are trying to turn that rebound into a fourth straight victory on the second game of a four-game road trip, which gives this rematch a sharper edge than a normal regular-season meeting.
Adam Fox gives New York a milestone chase of its own. He leads the Rangers with 22 points, including two goals and 20 assists, in 18 games, and needs one more assist to pass Brian Leetch and tie Jaromir Jagr for the second-most assists before a player’s 20th game of a season in Rangers history. Andy Bathgate holds the club record with 22 assists in 1961-62, so Fox is already close enough to force the number into the conversation on Monday night.
For McDavid, the math is simple. One more point keeps the streak alive. One more assist puts 40 assists within reach and keeps him on a pace that links his start to the kind of historic company that only comes up when Mario Lemieux and Wayne Gretzky are mentioned in the same sentence. For the Rangers, the task is just as clear: slow him down enough to make this rematch look less like Nov. 1 and more like a road test they can survive.
The game starts at 8 p.m. ET, and the stakes are not limited to Edmonton and New York. Monday also brings the Philadelphia Flyers against the Vancouver Canucks at 9:30 p.m. ET, and the New York Islanders against the San Jose Sharks at SAP Center at 10 p.m. ET. But the spotlight remains on McDavid, who has turned a November matchup into a chance to keep history moving.
