On Thursday evening, they took on the Pittsburgh Penguins in the penultimate game of their four-game road trip, falling 5-3 to snap Edmonton’s winning streak. Things didn’t start great for the Oilers, as Rickard Rakell scored just over three minutes into the game as Stuart Skinner allowed a juicy rebound, with the Penguins’ forward banging it home for the lead.
The Penguins extended their lead about seven and a half minutes into the period, as Bryan Rust banged one off the post and in with an assist from Sidney Crosby to put the Penguins up two.
It went from bad to worse for the Oilers midway through the first period, as a pass from behind the net found Kevin Hayes all alone in front of Skinner, with the forward making no mistake to put the Penguins up by three. As you can imagine, this was not textbook defence.
The Oilers stopped the bleeding, if momentarily, with seven and a half minutes left in the period. Zach Hyman got a breakaway, with the rebound falling to Leon Draisaitl who backhanded it in for his league-leading 30th goal of the season.
Unfortunately, the good times didn’t last long, as the Penguins’ Drew O’Connor scored just over a minute later from the faceoff dot. Again, this wasn’t particularly good defence but at some point, you need a save.
The Penguins scored again, this time six minutes into the second period on the power play as a weird bounce landed on the stick of Crosby. Pittsburgh’s captain made no mistake, beating Skinner for his 604th career goal.
However, the Oilers started to turn the momentum in the second half of the middle frame. With nine minutes to go late in the period, Draisaitl scored his second of the game with his patented one-timer to beat the Penguins netminder to make it 5-2.
In the final minute of the second period, the Oilers had a power play and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins made a nice move before beating the Penguins’ netminder for his fourth goal in five games. It put the Oilers down by two with 20 minutes left.
Unfortunately, the Oilers were unable to find the last two goals to complete the comeback, even though they were close on multiple occasions in the third period.
Takeaways…
For the first time since Dec. 2019, the Oilers lost a head-to-head matchup against the Penguins. It’s the first time the Oilers have lost with both Sidney Crosby and Connor McDavid in the lineup since Feb. 2019. The pair of generational talent’s first showdown was in 2016, with the Penguins winning an exhilarating game 4-3. The Penguins won the first six games, while the Oilers have won the last eight games (with both in the lineup) before Thursday’s game.
Speaking of Crosby and McDavid, both players had three-point games, with Crosby picking up a goal and two assists and McDavid assisting on three goals. McDavid now has nine goals and 30 points in 15 games against the Penguins while the Penguins captain has four goals and 10 points in 15 games against the Oilers since the first showdown.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins has been quietly performing the best he has in a while. With his goal to make it a 5-3 game, he now has four goals in his last five games and is on a five-game point streak.
Leon Draisaitl picked up two goals Thursday, bringing him to a league-leading 31 goals for the season. Midway through the season, it’s becoming increasingly clear he’s the front-runner to win not just the Rocket Richard Trophy, but also the Hart Memorial Trophy.
Coming into this game, Stuart Skinner had been playing terrifically, but Thursday was not his night. He allowed five goals on 26 shots for an .808 save percentage. As you can imagine, his save percentage dipped back below .900 with this performance.
From one generational talent to another potentially generational talent, the Oilers return to action on Saturday. They’ll face Connor Bedard and the Chicago Blackhawks at 5:00 PM MT.
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