Luck of the Oilers

The way the Twittersphere blew up one evening last week, you would have thought the hockey world was in mourning. Edmonton Oilers wunderkind Connor McDavid crashed hard into the end wall and broke his collarbone.

The news came out the next day that he underwent surgery, and it's much more severe than the collarbone injuries that sidelined the Wild's Jason Zucker and Chicago's Patrick Kane last season.

Oilers GM Peter Chiarelli said McDavid, who would have been in the running for the Calder Trophy as the NHL's top rookie, will be out "not weeks, months. Plural."

Knowing the Oilers, this will probably put them back in the lottery conversation for Auston Matthews in a few months.

Over the past nine years, the Oilers' average first-round draft position is first in the NHL at 4.67. The Wild, for perspective, is 15th, averaging a 15th pick every first round the past nine years. The Oilers had four No. 1 overall picks in their lineup last month against the Wild (2010, Taylor Hall; 2011, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins; 2012, Nail Yakupov, and 2015, McDavid).

Brush with fame

With Hall of Fame weekend going on and former Detroit stars Nicklas Lidstrom and Sergei Fedorov being inducted, several Red Wings planned to catch up with them. Detroit played at Toronto on Friday.

"As a fan of hockey you have great appreciation for what all those people did for the game," coach Jeff Blashill said. "It's a special thing. Hockey does it right in that it's hard to get inducted, and those who get in, deserve it."