The Oilers superstar scored a milestone hat trick to propel the team to a comeback 5-3 win over the Canucks in their season opener Wednesday night. 

Vancouver had built a 3-0 lead by the first minute of the second period, but McDavid and Co. rattled off five consecutive goals for the victory. McDavid added an assist to his hat trick to finish the night with four points. 

Leon Draisaitl potted a goal and had two assists while Zach Hyman collected two helpers of his own. Jack Campbell made 33 saves in his Oilers debut. 

It is the 11th hat trick of McDavid’s career and the second time in his career he has scored on in a season opener.

Not only did McDavid open the season with three goals, but his goal in the third period was his 700th career point. He’s the sixth fastest player to do so. 

For the Canucks, Andrei Kuzmenko scored in his NHL debut while Elias Pettersson and J.T. Miller also found the back of the net. Thatcher Demko stopped 20 of 24 shots. 

The win comes on a night where the Oilers paid tribute to Ben Stelter, an Edmonton fan who died at the age of 6 after a battle with cancer. He became a favorite to the Oilers’ faithful and the team during last season’s playoff run, known for always chanting, “Play La Bamba, baby!”

“Tonight was for our buddy Ben,” McDavid said after the game. “We miss him. For the whole Stelter family, we think about him. . . . I think about him after big wins and tonight was a big win and I’m thinking about him.

“You know his favorite saying was ‘Play La Bamba, baby!’ so I think we’ll have to listen to that tonight.”

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The back-to-back Art Ross Trophy recipient is looking to build off his career-high 123 points from last season. More importantly, the Oilers grabbed a momentum-shifting win to kick off their season, in which they once again have Cup aspirations. 

Connor McDavid career hat tricks

The hat trick was the 11th of McDavid’s career. He has scored at least one in six of his eight NHL seasons. 

Fastest players to get to 700 NHL points

McDavid’s showing in the 2022-23 opener is just the latest in a remarkable career. He became the sixth-fastest player to reach 700 points, needing just 488 games to do so. The all-time list: