Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl own the two highest point totals in the NHL but the Edmonton Oilers are slumping and threatening to completely undo a fast start.Edmonton hopes to get things headed in the right direction Tuesday night when it hosts the New York Rangers.The Oilers opened the season with five straight wins, the last being a 4-1 win at Madison Square Garden on Oct. 12 when McDavid scored the tiebreaking goal and Draisaitl scored twice. Edmonton's win in New York also was part of a 16-7-3 start through Nov. 24.Edmonton, however, is 4-10-1 in its last 15 games and has been held under three goals in 11 games while allowing at least four goals in nine games. One of those games was a 5-1 home loss to Calgary on Saturday night, when Edmonton fell behind 11 seconds in and allowed a goal within the first two minutes of each period."Our mindset to defend, which was so strong coming out of training camp, has eroded and when you start chasing games as often as we've done, you don't look like a good team and that's exactly how we started the game," Oilers coach Dave Tippett said.McDavid scored Edmonton's lone goal and his 63 points are two more than Draisaitl. McDavid has three goals and 14 points in 13 games this month after getting 26 points (13 goals, 13 assists) in 14 games last month. Draisaitl has six goals and 13 points in 13 games this month after compiling 23 points last month (four goals, 19 assists)."It's a confidence issue," McDavid said. "When things are going good and something bad happens, you bounce back right away. Now, it just seems when something bad happens we're just waiting for another bad thing to happen again. We've got to snap out of that." The Rangers head to Edmonton attempting to get a third straight win for the second time this season. New York's first three-game winning streak was from Nov. 23-27 and the Rangers are 7-6-4 in the 17 games since then.New York has scored 10 goals overall in its last two games and swept a back-to-back set against Carolina and Toronto after going 1-3-1 in its previous five games. The Rangers followed up Friday's 5-3 home win over Carolina with a 5-4 overtime victory in Toronto where they blew a two-goal lead before Tony DeAngelo scored 51 seconds into overtime."There was a buy-in tonight," New York's Chris Kreider said. "Guys not necessarily felt their best after the schedule the way it was. It's never an excuse. Every team is dealing with their own stuff. For us to come in here on the road against a very good team, in a very hard building to play in, and come out with two points is big for us." Artemi Panarin had three assists Saturday and according to NHL Stats and Information is the first Ranger with at least 50 points in the first 38 games of the season since Jaromir Jagr in 2006-07. He has 17 points (eight goals and nine assists) in his last 10 games. His 51 points are eighth in the NHL.Mika Zibanejad also is on a roll for the Rangers. He scored two power-play goals Friday, scored Saturday and has 13 points (eight goals, five assists) in his last eight games. He has 19 points (11 goals and eight assists) since returning Nov. 27 from missing a month with an upper-body injury.--Field Level Media
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