Connor McDavid owns the NHL season-opening assist streak record alone this morning, and the morning after has added the layers Wednesday night could not: the captain’s own reaction, the settled record book around his October, and a real injury picture in the Calgary crease. The full story of the record night itself is in iimiTV’s breaking report on McDavid breaking the Gretzky record in the Oilers’ shutout win.
FINAL: Edmonton Oilers 4, Calgary Flames 0. McDavid assisted in a 13th straight game to open the season on Wednesday night at Rogers Place, passing the 12-game mark shared by Wayne Gretzky, Ken Linseman and Sebastian Aho, and Tristan Jarry made 24 saves in the first Battle of Alberta of the season.
Next for Edmonton: Edmonton Oilers at New York Islanders, Saturday, October 31, 2026, 2 p.m. ET at UBS Arena
Next for Calgary: Seattle Kraken at Calgary Flames, Friday, October 30, 2026, 8 p.m. ET at Scotiabank Saddledome
TV (Canada), Calgary: Sportsnet West
McDavid Puts The Team First In His Record Reaction
The Connor McDavid assist streak record drew exactly the reaction anyone who has watched him for a decade would have predicted. Asked about passing Gretzky after the game, the captain moved the conversation straight back to the two points. “We wanted to win the game, that was first and foremost,” McDavid said, in NHL.com’s post-game report. “I thought the game was pretty solid, it’s what we needed to do tonight. Calgary had been playing really, really well and scoring lots of goals. We had to defend hard and find a way to get a win.”
That deflection is not false modesty so much as an accurate reading of where Edmonton stood. The Oilers arrived at Wednesday having lost consecutive games for the first time this season, and Calgary arrived as the hottest team in the province, winners of four straight. Jarry backed up his captain’s framing from the other end of the ice: “I think any time you can blank the board like that, it also gives credit to the team in front,” the goaltender said. “I think they did a great job, they kept everything to the outside and they made it easy for me.” Oilers coach Mike Babcock used the same word his captain did, calling it “a good team game” in which “everybody was involved.”
McDavid’s full post-game media session, posted by the Oilers’ official channel, is the reaction in his own words:
The Record Book Around The Assist Streak Settled Overnight
With a night to check the books, the streak now sits inside a larger October that the NHL’s own notes have put into context. Wednesday’s two assists gave McDavid his second career month with at least 25 assists, after February 2024, and he joins Gretzky, who did it 14 times, and Mario Lemieux, who did it three times, as the only players in league history to reach that mark more than once. His 36 points through 13 games lead the NHL, built on eight goals and 28 assists, and he has recorded a point in every game Edmonton has played.
The next markers are already visible without any stretching. McDavid sits four games short of the longest point streak of his own career, 17 games, and the fastest run to 50 points in a season remains Gretzky’s 18 games from 1983-84, a pace McDavid’s 36 points in 13 games keeps in live conversation. Wednesday also closed one teammate’s run: Leon Draisaitl’s point streak ended at seven games, at 15 points. The NHL’s official highlights carry the whole record night, from Mathieu Joseph’s opener on McDavid’s first assist to Kasperi Kapanen’s power-play goal on his second:
Cooley Vows A Reset As Wolf Takes Calgary’s Crease
The one open question from Wednesday night was Devin Cooley, and Thursday brought the first real answers. The Flames goaltender, hurt late in the first period when Colton Dach collided with him in the crease, posted on his Instagram Story after the game, in a message reported by TSN: “Injuries suck but I’m a very fast healer! Can’t wait to be back and what a great opportunity to reset physically, mentally, and find ways to gain an edge in my game off the ice so I can come back even better than before.” TSN read the message for what it plainly says: Cooley expects to miss time. He had won four straight starts entering Wednesday, allowing no more than two goals in any of them, and he left after stopping eight of nine shots with Edmonton leading 1-0.
Dach, assessed a goaltender interference penalty on the play, addressed it post-game with no excuses offered. “I hate going out for the second period and seeing him not lead their team out,” he said. “I’m just trying to take it to the net and create a chance. But really unfortunate that he got hurt.” Dustin Wolf, who made 20 saves in relief, said the same from inside the Calgary room: “You don’t want to see anyone get hurt, let alone a guy that’s been playing some of his best hockey.”
The club’s own Friday preview, published by the Flames this morning, settles who owns the crease now: “It’s Dustin Wolf’s crease. No doubt about it.” Head coach Ryan Huska had no update Thursday on Cooley’s lower-body injury, and he framed the weekend plainly, with a back-to-back against Seattle at home on Friday and Colorado on Saturday still to staff. “He’s going to get a chance to go now and we’re expecting him to be our best player,” Huska said of Wolf. Behind him, AHL Wranglers goaltender Arsenii Sergeev made 36 saves in a 4-2 win over Laval on Thursday. There was still no update on Brennan Othmann, who left Wednesday’s game in the first period with an upper-body injury.
What The Morning After Means Next
For Edmonton, the streak now travels. The Oilers open a three-game trip in New York against the Islanders on Saturday afternoon at UBS Arena, carrying a 5-0-0 road record and a 9-2-2 mark overall, with the Rangers waiting in a back-to-back on Sunday. Every game on the trip is another chance for the assist streak to reach 14, 15 and 16, and another game closer to the personal point-streak mark of 17 that now stands as the next clean target.
For Calgary, Wednesday’s cost is clearer this morning than it was at the final horn: a four-game winning streak ended, the starter who powered it sidelined with no timeline given on Thursday, and a home back-to-back starting Friday night against a Seattle team that beat the Flames twice by 6-1 scores in the season’s opening week. The record belonged to McDavid by Wednesday night. By Friday morning, its consequences belong to both teams, and both of them skate again within the next two days.
