EDMONTON — For hockey coaches, over-playing Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl is like a drug. A drug that Mike Babcock swore he wouldn’t take.

Then his entire second line landed on the injured list, and his third-line centre has been dropping in and out of the lineup as well.

It’s a wicked elixir, to be sure, one that even the strongest-willed prohibitionist could not keep from their lips.

"We needed our big boys, obviously. I played them too much," Babcock admitted after Edmonton’s first regulation loss of the season, a 4-2 setback at the hands of the Utah Mammoth.

Edmonton chased the game, minus an entire unit of Zach Hyman, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Matt Savoie, all injured. Down 1-0, down 3-1, then 3-2, the game was always in reach.

Always just a McDavid-to-Draisaitl one-timer away from being rescued.

So Babcock rode McDavid for 25 minutes and 52 seconds, more than any Mammoth player. He played Draisaitl 23 minutes, and Evan Bouchard, hockey’s most dynamic defenceman of late, skated to the tune of 27:03.

The trio combined for a goal — Draisaitl’s fifth from McDavid and Bouchard — and 10 shots on goal. But for the first time this season, the Oilers'........

© Sportsnet