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Penguins 6, Oilers 5 (OT): Crosby’d
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Photo credit: © Perry Nelson-USA TODAY Sports
Cam Lewis
Oct 24, 2018, 12:24 EDTUpdated: Oct 24, 2018, 15:46 EDT
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It was Sidney Crosby vs Connor McDavid last night in Edmonton, as the two best players in the league squared off for the first time this season. The Oilers played, I thought, their best game of the season, but Crosby ended up getting the last laugh with a ridiculous overtime winning goal that reminded everybody just how good he is.

What happened…

Crosby came into the game with no goals on the season. It isn’t like he had been playing poorly, or anything, he was just mired in a six-game slump. Everybody joked before the game that the Oilers would oblige as slump busters, and then…
Leon Draisaitl would tie the game at 1-1 early in the second period. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins tried a drop pass but didn’t put enough juice on it, but the Oilers kept the puck in at the blueline and the puck found its way to Draisaitl in the slot. He sniped a shot past Matt Murray’s low blocker side to tie the game.
A couple minutes later, Alex Chiasson gave the Oilers the lead with his first goal with the club. Chiasson, who had been flying around on the fourth line with Zack Kassian and Kyle Brodziak, giving them an added element of skill in the offensive zone, absolutely dummied Daniel Sprong before working the puck in front of the net, getting a shot, and grabbing his own rebound out of mid-air and sniping the puck bar down. I don’t think he wants to watch from the press box anymore.
Despite the Oilers dominating play in the second, the Penguins grabbed the lead back half-way through the period. First, Phil Kessel and Evgeni Malkin worked to find a streaking Jamie Oleksiak in front of the net, and then, Dominik Simon made a pass from behind the net that bounced off of a diving Kris Russell’s stick and right to Patric Hornqvist. The Penguins didn’t have many chances that period, but when they did, they capitalized.
Alex Chiasson, who is now officially The Answer with Ty Rattie on the Injured Reserve, scored his second goal of the game to tie things back up. Chiasson took an outlet pass from Adam Larsson, then Tobias Rieder got on his horse and came out of nowhere to turn it into a quick two-on-one. Chiasson fed Rieder the puck and then Rieder dished it back to him for a cross-crease tap-in.
With a minute to go in the third, the Penguins grabbed the lead again. Brian Dumoulin got a shot towards the net from the point, Matt Cullen managed to slide it over to Hornqvist who slid it past Talbot despite being tied up nicely by Oscar Klefbom. It looked like Hornqvist kicked this one in, but the goal would stand.
Connor McDavid would tie the game back up at 4-4 in the third period. He did a give-and-go with Klefbom and then took a shot from the top of the circle that fooled Murray.
The Oilers grabbed a 5-4 lead a couple minutes later when the McNutl line combined for a beautiful goal. Klefbom blocked a shot in front of the net, and Draisaitl, McDavid, and Nugent-Hopkins flew up the ice the other way. Draisaitl brought the puck into the zone, found McDavid, and then got it back before sniping it past Murray. This trio together is lethal.
The Penguins would tie the game soon after that. Hornqvist streaked into the zone and fired a shot off of Talbot that bounced in front of the net. Oleksiak pinched in from the point and slammed a slapshot over Talbot’s glove. Where’s the coverage from the winger there?
In overtime, Sidney Crosby reminded everybody how good he is. He got the puck near the blueline, skated it down behind the net, then proceeded to spin Ryan Strome into the ice before taking the puck across the crease and firing a backhander over Talbot’s glove. It’s one we’re going to be seeing on replays all year.

By the numbers…

The Oilers started off slow but completely turned the jets on for a dominant second period. The game was evenly matched in the third period, and, all told, the teams were split right down the middle in terms of shot attempts at even strength. The place where the Oilers broke ahead, and where I think it represents that they were the better team, was the fact they dominated Pittsburgh for 17 high danger chances for and 10 against.

Thoughts…

  • Cam Talbot needed to be better that game, plain and simple. He allowed six goals on 31 shots, and while the Penguins are a good team with a lot of skill, he really needed to come up with a save. Obviously, there were mistakes on the Oilers’ part, like Russell diving for the puck and putting it right on Hornqvist’s stick and Kassian not checking Oleskiak properly at the point, but this is a game in which the team played well and the goalie played just poorly enough for them to lose.
  • As frustrating as coming out with a loser point is, there are a lot of positives to garner from that game. The Oilers managed to generate quite a bit of offence without Connor McDavid on the ice. I mean, he was still in on two of the goals, but they also got offence from players like Chiasson and Rieder, which is a must. Speaking of Chiasson, I think he’s earned himself a consistent spot in the lineup based on these last couple of games. Zack Kassian looks completely lost out there right now while Chiasson managed to nearly singlehandedly create offence for the fourth line.
  • Cooper Marody had himself a solid debut. He didn’t manage to get on the scoresheet, but he looked fast and creative in the offensive zone. The Lucic-Strome-Marody line was strong all night and dominated the Penguins in terms of shots. It’s unfortunate Strome got caught looking like a goat on the Crosby overtime goal, but it was at the end of his shift, and players as good as Crosby can make you look bad pretty easily.
  • I actually really enjoy when McDavid, Nugent-Hopkins, and Draisaitl get on the ice together. The skill the three of them possess is insane and it’s hard for just about anybody to stop it.
  • Jesse Puljujarvi played just 9:00 tonight and he lost his spot on the second line part way through the game to Chiasson. If this is the kind of usage Puljujarvi is going to get, the team might as well send him to Bakersfield, because he isn’t going to develop this way. Same goes for Evan Bouchard. There isn’t much point in having the young defender playing 8:37 when he can play a major role for London in the OHL.

Post Game

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