If you were hoping to see Connor McDavid score his 1,000th point Saturday night against his hometown team, you’re out of luck.

The Oilers captain reached the milestone Thursday evening against the Nashville Predators, scoring a rare one-timer set up by none other than his best friend, Leon Draisaitl, and another early teammate, Darnell Nurse.

“It’s actually kind of fitting,” Draisaitl said after the game. “If there is a third assist, you would also like Nuge to be there somewhere.

“All three of us arrived at the same time, year after year, three years in a row. Knowing each other for a long time, being friends for life off the ice, it’s a good story.

The accumulation towards 1000th point came quickly, with the previous two games seeing McDavid rack up two goals and seven points, his first games back from an ankle injury. The Oilers have stayed afloat in his absence, and now they’re starting to find their game.

It was a slow start to the season for the Oilers after a trip to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final, but slow starts aren’t exactly anything new for this team either. They struggled out of the gate last year, leading the team to fire head coach Jay Woodcroft after a 3-9-1 start to the year. Edmonton bounced back well, stringing together several long winning streaks, including a near-NHL record 16-game streak.

Edmonton might struggle to replicate such a long streak this year, but the team’s three-game winning streak heading into tonight surely has them feeling good.

Oilers winger Viktor Arvidsson missed Thursday’s match against the Predators with an undisclosed illness, but head coach Kris Knoblauch indicated he could return this weekend. The team had 11 forwards and seven defensemen that night, but there is no indication as of this writing what the lineup might look like.

Connor McDavid

Who else but Connor? He’s been rolling since returning from injury and still gets up for games against the Leafs. In his 10 games in Toronto, McDavid’s tallied three goals and 16 points. Although he has racked up goals and assists since returning from injury, now up to three goals and nine points in three games, he also shoots the puck a lot, with 20 shots on goal in those games. That, for reference, is a significant increase from 2.9 shots on goal per game before his injury, jumping up to 6.6 per game since his return.

Zach Hyman

Hyman could also easily be in the “who to watch” section, but for different reasons. The start of this season has been far from ideal for the winger, scoring just three goals and seven points in 17 games. His decline in scoring and point production was significant, and other offensive numbers declined as well. He’s making just 7.6 shots per hour, down from 11.2 last year, and his scoring chance rates have also dropped, from 14.5 per hour to 12 per hour.

His 7.1 percent shooting percentage is more than half of his historical percentage with the Oilers, and Hyman should experience a regression in goals toward the average sooner rather than later.

Connor Brown

After Connor Brown was scoreless in his first 54 games with the Oilers last year, the same cannot be said for this season, as he has already accumulated three goals in 17 games this year, one of less than last season’s total.

Brown’s return from an ACL injury was a tougher hill to climb than many expected, but he really started to find his game late last season and into the playoffs. That continued this season as he was more engaged offensively.

Travis Dermott

Dermott arrived in Edmonton for a professional tryout, putting together an impressive pre-season that earned him a contract. He has largely been in and out of the lineup this season as the seventh defenseman, and although he was named the seventh defenseman on Thursday, he only played 5:44 of ice time.

This is largely due to newcomers Ty Emberson and Troy Stecher finding their way to the blue line and Brett Kulak taking a big step forward for the team.