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More McDavid magic as Oilers keep winning

Oilers Blackhawks Hockey

Edmonton Oilers’ Connor McDavid, left, scores the winning goal against Chicago Blackhawks’ Cam Ward during overtime of an NHL hockey game Sunday, Oct. 28, 2018, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Jim Young)

AP

Don’t look now but the Edmonton Oilers are ... winning?

With their 2-1 overtime win over the Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday evening the Oilers extended their current winning streak to three games and are now 6-1-1 in their past eight games after a dreadful two-game start to the season.

Their win on Sunday capped off an impressive weekend where they played a back-to-back in Nashville and Chicago, taking all four points.

This little run has done a lot to perhaps cool off coach Todd McLellan’s seat, and also helped push them to the top of the Pacific Division (pending the result of Sunday’s Sharks game, which is still ongoing as of this posting, the Oilers are at the top of the division).

On Sunday night it was Connor McDavid scoring the overtime winner on an absolutely perfect saucer pass from Leon Draisaitl during an odd-man rush.

For McDavid that is already his eight goal (and 17th total point) of the season in just his 10th game.

He has now scored a goal in four consecutive games.

For as great as McDavid has been, one of the most encouraging thing for the Oilers during this recent streak is they have not been completely dependent on him for offense.

The big story in the first weeks of the season was how McDavid was either scoring or assisting on literally every Oilers goal over their first few games. Yeah, he was great, but it was not really a sustainable recipe for success. But over the past few games the Oilers are starting to get some offense from players that are not Connor McDavid. He has scored or assisted on just seven of their past 19 goals (which is still a lot, especially over only six games) after scoring or assisting on nine of their first 10.

How long will they continue to get that secondary scoring remains to be seen, but for right now McDavid is continuing to do his thing and his teammates are starting to help him out.

The result has been a better than expected start for the Oilers during what has been an absolutely grueling stretch of the schedule.

MORE: Your 2018-19 NHL on NBC TV schedule

Adam Gretz is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @AGretz.