McDavid scored at 11:01 of the first period to give Edmonton a 1-0 lead. He picked up a loose puck in front of the net and deked Rinne.
Draisaitl made it 2-0 at 19:07 on the power play with a wrist shot from the left circle that beat Rinne glove side.
"The first period was tough, I don't think we played that bad," Predators coach Peter Laviolette said. "The chances were in our favor. I like some of the things we did. Our defenseman didn't have his stick on the first goal, and the second one they were able to score a goal off the rush on the power play."
Hartnell scored at 16:28 of the second period to make it 2-1, capitalizing on a turnover by Ryan Strome deep in the Oilers zone. Nick Bonino knocked Strome off the puck in the corner and set up Hartnell for a one-timer in front.
Arvidsson tied the game 2-2 at 19:50, converting a pass from Filip Forsberg on a 2-on-1.
"It was a big goal with [10] seconds left," Arvidsson said. "Filip made a big pass and I just had to have my stick down and put it in the net."
Arvidsson put Nashville up 3-2 at 14:52 of the third period on a rebound off a shot from Forsberg.
Watson made it 4-2 at 16:50 on a one-timer into an open net after a pass from Ryan Hartman.
"I thought it was a fairly evenly matched game and when all was said, we made a few more mistakes than they did, and they capitalized more on our mistakes than we did on theirs," Oilers coach Todd McLellan said. "We played a solid third period, there wasn't much going on either way, but we had a couple of breakdowns from veteran players that really cost us."
