EDMONTON — There’s nothing scarier for an NHL defenceman than to get caught flat-footed at centre ice with the Edmonton Oilers’ Connor McDavid coming right at you.

That’s what happened to the Canadiens’ Ben Chiarot early in Saturday night’s 4-3 loss to the Oilers at Rogers Place and it resulted in goal by Leon Draisaitl on a two-on-one with McDavid to open the scoring only 1:30 into the game.

“I was flat-footed because there was a battle on the half wall,” Chiarot said after the game. “I thought our forward was going to poke it out, but it got knocked down. So I was flat-footed and McDavid doesn’t really stop in his own end, he just kind of carries his speed. So he picks that puck up in top gear and I’m standing still. I don’t care how good a skater you are, you’re not catching that guy when you’re standing still.”

McDavid caught Chiarot and defence partner Shea Weber flat-footed again when he broke through the middle on an Oilers power play in the second period to go in alone on goalie Carey Price and score with a nice move to his forehand.

“He’s definitely got a couple of more gears than anyone else,” Chiarot said about McDavid. “He’s on top of you so quick. It doesn’t look like he has anything and then he’s gone. Like the power-play one. It doesn’t look like anyone’s coming through the neutral zone and then it goes to Draisaitl on the wall and he just one-touches it and McDavid’s gone already. He’s good at carrying his speed. It looks like there’s nothing and then he gets the puck with speed and you’re not catching him once he touches the puck in full gear.

“Obviously, we didn’t do a good enough job of limiting his chances or keeping him to the outside,” Chiarot said. “We made it pretty hard on ourselves.”

Giving the Oilers five power plays certainly didn’t help. Jordan Weal took two tripping penalties and was in the box when McDavid scored. The Oilers have the best power play in the NHL, clicking at 29.4 per cent.

“I’m disappointed,” coach Claude Julien said after the game. “I felt, or we felt, like we beat ourselves. Some really bad penalties in the offensive zone at bad times. Some real bad decisions. Two two-on-one goals. I didn’t think we were sharp tonight. Simple as that. We battled back, but at the end we have only ourselves to look at because we beat ourselves.”

Before the game, Julien said the key to beating the Oilers was to stay out of the penalty box.

“It doesn’t matter what I feel like right now,” Julien said after the game when asked about his frustration level. “I’m disappointed that we took those penalties — simple as that. A lot of them in the offensive zone. So those aren’t good penalties and that’s why I say we beat ourselves. We gave them what they wanted, the momentum with some power plays and, eventually, it came back to bite us.”

Jeff Petry (short-handed), Phillip Danault (power play) and Max Domi scored for the Canadiens. The shots were 26-26 and Carey Price saw his career record against the Oilers fall to 3-8-1.

Danault’s goal was the first of his career on the power play.

“I’m trying to do all those little details,” said Danault, who would love to get more time on the power play. “I won the draw, we worked hard to get that puck. A nice shot by Petey. I’m in front of the net, that’s where you score. It was good to score, but it would be even better if we won.”

Danault, who is averaging 1:08 of power-play ice time per game, now has as many power-play goals this season as Weal, who is averaging 2:03 of ice time with the man advantage.

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Since it was a road game and Julien didn’t have the last line change, it was more difficult for the coach to get Danault — his best two-way centre — on the ice against McDavid. Oilers coach Dave Tippett reunited McDavid with Draisaitl on the same line with Zack Kassian, which made the defensive job even more difficult.

McDavid (21-40-61) and Draisaitl (22-38-60) rank 1-2 in the NHL scoring race after playing 39 games. They are the first teammates to reach 60 points before game No. 40 since Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1996-97.

“Those turnovers we can’t afford against them,” Danault said about the McDavid-Draisaitl duo. “They live on that. They don’t play defence, they just play offence. So we make a little turnover on the hash mark and it’s over.

“They’re good on PP,” Danault added. “They’re tough to stop on PP. Five-on-five, too, they’re pretty good. It’s definitely a hard line to play against and they play every two shifts so you can’t match them every time. It’s a good line.”

Too good for the Canadiens to stop on this night.

scowan@postmedia.com

twitter.com/StuCowan1

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