Connor McDavid scored the winner Saturday night as the Edmonton Oilers beat the Calgary Flames 4-1 and pushed their preseason record to a perfect 4-0-0.
It's the first time that's happened in franchise history. Four exhibition games, four wins, and a Battle of Alberta crowd that watched Calgary chase the play all night.
He didn't ease into it. McDavid fired 6 shots on goal, scored once and set up a power-play marker in 19:33 of ice time.
Zach Hyman cashed in on the power play. Kasperi Kapanen added a goal and an assist, and Ryan Shea chipped in from the back end.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins quietly stacked two assists and went plus-2. Leon Draisaitl, the team's biggest cap hit at $14,000,000, settled for a single helper.
Devon Levi went the full 60 minutes and stopped 23 of 24 shots. The only puck that beat him was a Matthew Coronato power-play goal.
This is Mike Babcock's first camp behind the Edmonton bench since his hiring on June 23. So far, the results are exactly what a new coach wants to show his locker room.
Zayne Parekh and the Flames blue line get exposed in Edmonton
Calgary's defence had a rough night. Zayne Parekh played 21:07 and went minus-3.
Jacob Middleton didn't fare any better, finishing with a -3 rating of his own in a little over 15 minutes.
Dustin Wolf faced 28 shots and gave up 4. That's a lot of rubber for a September night, and the skaters in front of him didn't do him many favours.
Ryan Huska's group has now dropped two straight. The Flames are 1-2-1 through four games, which isn't the kind of number that calms a fan base.
On the other side, Evan Bouchard led all Oilers in ice time at 23:22. He threw 4 shots at Wolf and picked up a power-play assist.
Here's the thing, though.
A perfect preseason is like acing your driving test in an empty parking lot. Nice to have. Nobody's handing out parade routes for it.
So does a 4-0-0 exhibition run mean anything? For a team with a new voice behind the bench, it might mean more than usual.
The depth chart is where it gets interesting. Isaac Howard and Colton Dach each logged over 12 minutes, while Owen Michaels got 10:56.
Those are the spots where camp battles get decided. A forward who holds his own in a Battle of Alberta game makes his case a lot louder.
The Canucks visit Tuesday. Babcock has a room full of confidence right now, but nobody in that locker room knows yet whether his structure holds when the points are real.
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Does a perfect 4-0-0 preseason under Mike Babcock actually mean anything for the Oilers?
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