Connor McDavid got the better of his old friend, Adam Pelech, on Tuesday at the Coliseum, though the 5-2 thumping the Oilers put on the Islanders wasn’t a direct result of McDavid crushing the matchup against Pelech and Ryan Pulock.



McDavid and Pelech were teammates for two seasons in Erie of the Ontario League. McDavid, of course, was the can’t-miss star in waiting; Pelech was the same type of player he is now — a dependable, smart, un-flashy defenseman. That it would be McDavid, the unquestioned star of the NHL, seeing his old buddy almost every five-on-five shift may be a surprise to some.



“Nothing surprises me with Pel,” McDavid said before Tuesday’s game. “He’s such a smart player.”



“He’s very undervalued and underappreciated,” said Kris Knoblauch, who coached Pelech and McDavid at Erie, including in their 2013-14 breakout season along with Connor Brown, Andre Burakovsky and Travis...