The Edmonton Oilers had a very strong showing in the month of March and, although the Oilers’ focus will remain on the Stanley Cup playoffs ahead, a number of their players have been recognized for their exceptional performances.
On Saturday, the National Hockey League announced it’s 3 stars for the month of March and two of Edmonton’s top stars made that very short list. Both forward Leon Draisaitl and Oilers captain Connor McDavid were recognized by the league, and they claimed the top two spots on the list on top of it, with the Arizona Coyotes’ Clayton Keller earning the third star in spite of his team’s struggles.
In the case of McDavid, his dominant point production of 11 goals and 18 assists for a whopping 29 points over just 15 games gave him the edge over his teammate, earning him his third “first star” of the 2022-23 regular season so far.
Draisaitl was right behind his teammate in terms of production with 11 goals of his own, albeit only 17 assists, giving him a total of 28 points and falling just 1 shy of his Oilers counterpart.
The pair are the first pair to earn the first and second star in the same month in two consecutive seasons since Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito did it back in the 70s, and that is some legendary company to be keeping.
McDavid and Draisaitl weren’t the only Oilers recognized on Saturday though, with goaltender Stuart Skinner also receiving some love from the league. Skinner appeared in 12 games for the Oilers recording a 2.83 goals against average, a .908 save percentage and earned 10 wins in the process. That was enough to earn him rookie of the month honors from the NHL, edging out forward Matias Maccelli (Coyotes) forward JJ Peterka (Sabres), forward Wyatt Johnson (Stars), forward Luke Evangelista (Predators) and forward Pavel Dorofeyev (Golden Knights) to do so.
