Chicago Blackhawks contain McDavid and get first win

The Chicago Blackhawks knew they would have a good chance to beat the Oilers if they contained Connor McDavid and that is exactly what they did.

The Chicago Blackhawks knew they had a chance to get their first win of the season if they stopped Connor McDavid or at the very least kept him to a soft roar. You can argue they did that in the game on Monday night as they defeated the Edmonton Oilers by a final score of 3-1. They got goals from Patrick Kane, Alexander Nylander, and Brandon Saad to get past the Oilers win and their first win of the season. It was the most complete game the Blackhawks have had yet this season and they are hoping that can continue.

The Oilers were able to score a power-play goal with the goalie pulled late as Leon Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins were able to set up James Neal to get the Oilers within one but Saad was able to put in an empty netter and seal it. Other than that, Corey Crawford was perfect and made 27 saves on 28 shots. It was a great showing and they executed their game plan perfectly as the game’s best player was kept off the scoresheet.

The Blackhawks did a great job of neutralizing McDavid by giving him unfavorable matchups. The David Kampf line was matched up against him a lot and whenever Jeremy Colliton could get the Duncan Keith–Connor Murphy line out there against him he did. Oilers coach Dave Tippett would get his line off to avoid that matchup but it didn’t work in getting him any points.

He definitely had his chances, however. He had a couple of chances in tight and set up his teammates with grade A opportunities but Crawford was there to make the saves. He even put the puck in the net at one point but the officials determined that there was incidental goalie interference keeping the goal from counting. It is definitely a rare thing for McDavid to not be on the score sheet but the Blackhawks were able to keep him off by matching up well with him, some nice saves by Crawford, and a little bit of luck.

Now the Blackhawks have their first win of the season and can try to go on a bit of a run. This was only their fourth game of the season as they started overseas so now it is about getting on a role. They are back in action on Friday when the Columbus Blue Jackets come to town for a 7:30 game at the United Center. Columbus is in a much different spot than the Oilers are in the standings but that doesn’t mean the Blackhawks don’t need to prepare just as much. It is important that the Blackhawks learn from this win and bring it to the rest of their upcoming schedule.