Is there anything better than a generational showdown between Connor McDavid and Sidney Crosby on a Friday night to kick off your weekend? No. That’s the answer. But for both of these clubs, the early portion of the 2024-25 campaign has been anything but kind, and that makes tonight’s matchup a big one as both teams come into Friday riding losing streaks.

1. On October 16th, Sidney Crosby becomes the 10th player in NHL history to record 1,600 regular-season points, reaching it in the fifth-fewest games. It’s the first time an NHL player has reached this milestone since Jaromir Jagr on October 6th, 2011.

2. On the very same night, Evgeni Malkin notched his 500th career goal. Malkin became just the 20th NHL player to reach the 500-goal milestone with one team. Malkin is also just the 48th player in NHL history to reach the mark, accomplishing the feat in the 1150th game of his career.

3. Pittsburgh is currently allowing a disastrous 5.46 expected goals against per hour with Crosby and Rust on the ice at 5v5, prompting many Penguins fans to push for Rickard Rakell to be reunited with the star centre. Rakell has previously shown some chemistry with Crosby and has been on the ice for just 2.02 xGA/60 through eight games. To this point in their season, Crosby’s most common linemates have been Anthony Beauvillier and Bryan Rust, and the results have been pretty grim. Not only is this trio not scoring goals, but they’re bleeding chances in the defensive zone.

4. Despite the Penguins being near the top of the league in goals scored with 27—that’s nearly double the Oilers total of 14, by the way—they’ve also given up 35 for a goal differential of -8. Unfortunately, Oilers fans would probably be thrilled with a -8 goal differential given that our side is currently -13 after giving up 27 goals against through seven games.

5. In an attempt to unlock some offence, Kris Knoblaunch ran some new line combos at practice on Thursday morning that saw Vasily Podkolzin jumping up onto the second line with Leon Draisaitl and Viktor Arvidsson while Jeff Skinner returned to his spot on the left wing with Adam Henrique and Connor Brown. Personally, I thought the Carolina game was the best night Skinner, Draisaitl, and Arvidsson have had so far, and I’m wondering how much this move has more to do with Henrique’s line being ineffective as it does trying to elevate Podkolzin.

6. After being scratched against the Carolina Hurricanes, Ty Emberson makes his way back into the lineup and will slot in alongside Brett Kulak on the third pairing. Knoblauch is also reuniting Troy Stecher with Darnell Nurse after the latter played his first game in over seven years on the right side against the Hurricanes. Clearly, finding the right d-partner for Nurse is a battle the coaching staff is still working through, but I couldn’t think of a more critical piece of the puzzle to get sorted out than this one.

7. I almost can’t believe these two stats for Edmonton coming into this eighth game of the season: the Oilers are 10.5% on the power play and 54.6% on the PK. That’s bananas to think about, given how successful the power play has been over the last number of years and how dialled in the penalty kill was during the playoff run. These two numbers do not make sense to me, and I’ll be interested to see if the new PP configurations help or not.

8. The Oilers changed up their power play line combos at practice on Wednesday, and I’ll be curious to see how these revamped units look. As I mentioned above, Edmonton’s usually lethal PP is sitting at 10.5% as we come into this game, and it was only a matter of time before they a) got themselves going or b) Kris Knoblauch made some changes. I’m most curious to see whether Knobby keeps these new units together for any length of time or if he goes right back to what has been working for us historically. Either way, it’s been a minute since the Oilers have made a change on the power play, and it’s a move I certainly didn’t have on my 2024-25 Bingo card.

9. If you’re a fan of the Corskis and the Fenskis, the underlying numbers suggest that Edmonton will start turning things around sooner rather than later. Their 58.07 CF% and 55.43 xGF% say that the boys are moving the puck in the right direction and that they should be scoring more than they are. For whatever reason, however, the team is still rocking a 4.81% shooting percentage at even strength, which is good for dead last in the NHL. That won’t last forever, and it’s only a matter of time before all of these chances start going in the net.

10. In 13 head-to-head matchups, Connor McDavid has nine goals and 18 assists for 27 points while Crosby has produced on three goals and four assists. I know +/- isn’t a stat many people care about anymore, but I did find it interesting to see that Crosby has a -12 rating through those 13 games, while Connor McDavid is a sparkling +15.

11. I’m happy to see that our old friend Jesse Puljujarvi seems to be settling in with the Penguins, registering one goal and four assists through seven games. Puljujarvi is averaging 12:02 in TOI in mostly offensive zone duty (65.7 oZS%) on the Penguins’ third line. Daily Faceoff has him listed next to Lars Eller and Anthony Beauvillier based on the last update.

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