The Upshot: Another bad start sinks the Islanders in 4-2 loss to Edmonton

HOW IT HAPPENED

Connor McDavid had two assists to reach 500 in his career, and Leon Draisaitl scored and registered his 400th NHL assist as the Edmonton Oilers snapped a five-game home winless streak with a 4-2 win over the New York Islanders at Rogers Place on Thursday night. Kailer Yamamoto scored a short-handed goal, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins added two assists for the Oilers (21-17-2). Jack Campbell made 20 saves for his first win since Dec. 13.

Mathew Barzal scored for the fifth straight game, Cal Clutterbuck scored in his return to the lineup after missing eight games, and Ilya Sorokin, making his eighth straight start, made 34 saves for the Islanders (22-16-2).

WHAT WENT RIGHT

Mathew Barzal's goal streak extended to five games at 4:42 of the second period when he snapped a wrist shot past Jack Campbell to pull the Islanders to within a goal at 2-1. After not scoring a goal in his first 18 games, Barzal has a team-leading 11 goals over the last 22 games and is T-3 on the team in goals with Zach Parise.

Cal Clutterbuck also scored in his return to the lineup and looked his always physical self as he finished the game with a team-high tying seven hits in 10:32 TOI.

WHAT WENT WRONG

Where to start? The first 20 minutes were particularly bad as the Islanders were outshot 18-4, but things didn't get much better from there. For the game, the Oilers had 20 high-danger shots compared to zero for the Isles, a disparity to rarely see in a NHL game. The Islanders contributed to this by not staying out of the box and giving Edmonton two early PPs that handed over momentum that they never yielded back.

“We failed to make little plays to get pucks out of your zone when teams are coming at you hard,” said Lane Lambert. It didn’t help that we gave the power play two chances early and they gained a bunch of momentum off of that. We’ve just got to be better. That’s it.”

STATS OF THE GAME

With two assists, Connor McDavid reached 500 for his career and became the fifth fastest player in NHL history to reach the mark, doing so in just 527 games. His linemate Leon Draisaitl would record his 400th assist as well during the 4-2 win.

SOCIAL MEDIA MOMENT OF THE GAME

We love it when Isles alumni are at road games. Trent Hunter joined Thomas Hickey and Shannon Hogan during intermission to

WHAT'S NEXT

The four-game road trip ends later tonight at the Scotiabank Saddledome as the Isles visit the Calgary Flames.

Face-off is scheduled for 9:00 PM ET.