<p>For a long time it was hard to get excited about Edmonton Oilers games.</p>
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<p>But after the team drafted Connor McDavid first overall in the 2015 draft, there was one game everybody had pencilled in on their calendars in his rookie season: November 6th, 2015. It would mark the first matchup between McDavid and Sidney Crosby, a head-to-head that, in one form or another, signalled the passing of the torch from The Kid to The Next One.</p>
<p>The Oilers had been off to a slow start that 2015-16 season, going 3-7-0 through their first 10 games before opening up a four-game homestand. It would feature the Montreal Canadiens, Calgary Flames, Philadelphia Flyers and, lastly, the Penguins, before Edmonton would hit the road for four of their own.</p>
<p>The homestand would open with a <a href="https://oilersnation.com/news/gdb-11-0-wrap-up-habs-oilers">4-3 come from behind win over the Habs</a>, in thanks to a two-assist performance from McDavid and a two-goal night from teammate Leon Draisaitl. Edmonton <a href="https://oilersnation.com/news/gdb-12-0-wrap-up-dr-drai">would fall 5-4 to the Flames</a> on Halloween night after going down 3-1 in the first period, failing to find more comeback heroics.</p>
<p>And then, there was November 3rd, 2015, a night eternally baked into the minds of Oilers fans. Down 2-1 late in the third, McDavid broke out of the Oilers zone shorthanded, going wide on defenceman Brandon Manning, who would push the down hard into the boards. McDavid <a href="https://oilersnation.com/news/mcdavid-injury-update">would suffer a broken collarbone on the play</a>, taking him out of the lineup for three months just three days before he was set to meet Crosby for the first time.</p>
<p>McDavid&#8217;s injury push their first matchup a calendar year back, when on November 8th, 2016, the Oilers would visit the Penguins. <a href="https://oilersnation.com/news/gdb-14-0-wrap-up-that-was-fun-until-it-wasn-t">Edmonton would fall 4-3 in the game</a>, with Penguins forward Conor Sheary scoring a game-winning goal with under two minutes left in the third period.</p>
<p>The Penguins were aggressive that night in trying to limit McDavid, hard-matching Crosby against him all night. But The Next One wouldn&#8217;t be stopped, with primary assists on all three of Edmonton&#8217;s goals, and the goals 2-0 in favour of McDavid against Crosby in over eight minutes of five-on-five ice-time.</p>
<p>Now, eight years later, the pair have squared off against each other 13 times, with McDavid keeping up his domination. He&#8217;s scored nine goals and 27 points in 14 games against Crosby&#8217;s Penguins, while the latter has tallied just three goals and seven points in 13 games.</p>
<p>In the head-to-head matchups, the Oilers have gone 7-6, outscoring the Penguins 49-31 in those games. Crosby and the Penguins would win all six of their first games against McDavid&#8217;s Oilers, but that&#8217;s flipped in the opposite direction in the last seven games, all won by the Oilers.</p>
<p>Here&#8217;s a look at all the matchups, how McDavid and Crosby performed, and their point totals in games against each other.</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-162959" src="http://publish.oilersnation.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/image-3.jpg" alt="" width="1112" height="1206" srcset="https://publish.oilersnation.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/image-3.jpg 1112w, https://publish.oilersnation.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/image-3-277x300.jpg 277w, https://publish.oilersnation.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/image-3-944x1024.jpg 944w, https://publish.oilersnation.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/image-3-768x833.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1112px) 100vw, 1112px" /></p>
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<p><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Zach Laing is the Nation Network’s news director and senior columnist, making up one-half of the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@daily_faceoff/streams">DFO DFS Report</a>. He can be followed on Twitter at</span></i> <a href="http://www.twitter.com/zjlaing"><span style="font-weight: 400;">@zjlaing</span></a><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">, or reached by email at zach@thenationnetwork.com.</span></i></p>
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For a long time it was hard to get excited about Edmonton Oilers games.


<div class="bam-inline-promotion-block" data-max-length="2" data-placement-id="2107" data-context="web-content-promocard" data-property-id="325"></div>
But after the team drafted Connor McDavid first overall in the 2015 draft, there was one game everybody had pencilled in on their calendars in his rookie season: November 6th, 2015. It would mark the first matchup between McDavid and Sidney Crosby, a head-to-head that, in one form or another, signalled the passing of the torch from The Kid to The Next One.

The Oilers had been off to a slow start that 2015-16 season, going 3-7-0 through their first 10 games before opening up a four-game homestand. It would feature the Montreal Canadiens, Calgary Flames, Philadelphia Flyers and, lastly, the Penguins, before Edmonton would hit the road for four of their own.

The homestand would open with a <a href="https://oilersnation.com/news/gdb-11-0-wrap-up-habs-oilers">4-3 come from behind win over the Habs</a>, in thanks to a two-assist performance from McDavid and a two-goal night from teammate Leon Draisaitl. Edmonton <a href="https://oilersnation.com/news/gdb-12-0-wrap-up-dr-drai">would fall 5-4 to the Flames</a> on Halloween night after going down 3-1 in the first period, failing to find more comeback heroics.

And then, there was November 3rd, 2015, a night eternally baked into the minds of Oilers fans. Down 2-1 late in the third, McDavid broke out of the Oilers zone shorthanded, going wide on defenceman Brandon Manning, who would push the down hard into the boards. McDavid <a href="https://oilersnation.com/news/mcdavid-injury-update">would suffer a broken collarbone on the play</a>, taking him out of the lineup for three months just three days before he was set to meet Crosby for the first time.

McDavid's injury push their first matchup a calendar year back, when on November 8th, 2016, the Oilers would visit the Penguins. <a href="https://oilersnation.com/news/gdb-14-0-wrap-up-that-was-fun-until-it-wasn-t">Edmonton would fall 4-3 in the game</a>, with Penguins forward Conor Sheary scoring a game-winning goal with under two minutes left in the third period.

The Penguins were aggressive that night in trying to limit McDavid, hard-matching Crosby against him all night. But The Next One wouldn't be stopped, with primary assists on all three of Edmonton's goals, and the goals 2-0 in favour of McDavid against Crosby in over eight minutes of five-on-five ice-time.

Now, eight years later, the pair have squared off against each other 13 times, with McDavid keeping up his domination. He's scored nine goals and 27 points in 14 games against Crosby's Penguins, while the latter has tallied just three goals and seven points in 13 games.

In the head-to-head matchups, the Oilers have gone 7-6, outscoring the Penguins 49-31 in those games. Crosby and the Penguins would win all six of their first games against McDavid's Oilers, but that's flipped in the opposite direction in the last seven games, all won by the Oilers.

Here's a look at all the matchups, how McDavid and Crosby performed, and their point totals in games against each other.

<img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-162959" src="http://publish.oilersnation.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/image-3.jpg" alt="" width="1112" height="1206" />

<hr />

<i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Zach Laing is the Nation Network’s news director and senior columnist, making up one-half of the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@daily_faceoff/streams">DFO DFS Report</a>. He can be followed on Twitter at</span></i> <a href="http://www.twitter.com/zjlaing"><span style="font-weight: 400;">@zjlaing</span></a><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">, or reached by email at zach@thenationnetwork.com.</span></i>

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A look at the head-to-head battles of Connor McDavid and Sidney Crosby

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