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PITTSBURGH — When asked after the morning skate why his Edmonton Oilers had been so dominant against his childhood favourite player Sidney Crosby and Pittsburgh Penguins, Connor McDavid suggested it was because these matchups hold extra significance.
“It’s a game we get up for, for sure,” McDavid said. “It’s definitely one we’re excited about.”
That sure wasn’t the case on Thursday in a 5-3 loss, which ended a seven-game winning streak against the Penguins dating back to Dec. 20, 2019.
The Oilers slept-walked through most of the first period.
“We expect a lot better out of ourselves to start games,” blueliner Brett Kulak said.
They fell behind three goals before the midway mark of the frame, trailed 4-1 heading into the intermission, and then allowed the sixth tally of the contest before the six-minute mark of the second.
“We just didn’t play defence for three-quarters of a period,” Oilers winger Zach Hyman said.
“Sometimes you can play probably a worse period and just be down two or one,” defenceman Mattias Ekholm said. “For some reason, they all seemed to go in. We made some mistakes, and they ended up in the back of our net.”
The Oilers chipped away, made it a game, and might have had a chance to pull even if they had better puck luck or if Penguins goalie Alex Nedeljkovic had an off night.
The reality was that the hole they dug was too deep.
“It was 3-0 and then we woke up,” Hyman said. “You’re behind. You’ve got to catch up. It’s hard.”
It’s almost unfathomable that a team can play almost a flawless game defensively in the previous outing in Boston and then appear lost in their own zone the next.
The Oilers went from giving the Bruins next to nothing on Thursday — Stuart Skinner did have to stop Pavel Zacha on a short-handed breakaway — to allowing the Penguins to seemingly do whatever they wanted early on.
Penguins attackers were left uncovered around the net. Trailing forwards weren’t picked up. Skinner was hung out to dry.
“We weren’t ready,” Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said. “They outworked us, outskated us, attention to detail wasn’t there.
“We had a heck of a game effort-wise and (with) work ethic against Boston. Tonight, the first 20 minutes we absolutely took off. The deficit was too big for us to overcome.”
It took the go-to move by Knoblauch of loading up the top line with McDavid, Hyman and Leon Draisaitl to spark the Oilers offensively and get them back in it.
Leon Draisaitl nets his second of the game.✌️ pic.twitter.com/2Xw6aK3FhA
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) January 10, 2025
Draisaitl scored twice, upping his league-leading goal total to 31, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins wristed a shot home on a power play to pull the Oilers within two. McDavid assisted on all three goals one night before he is to have his No. 97 retired by his junior team, the Ontario Hockey League’s Erie Otters.
They closed the gap to two goals after 40 minutes but couldn’t get any closer in the third.
“It’s hard to score six goals in a game — in any game,” Hyman said.
The Oilers were 8-3-3 in the McDavid era against the Penguins before Thursday, winning those previous seven contests. Most wins, like the 4-0 trashing in Edmonton on Oct. 25, haven’t been close. The Oilers outscored the Pens 37-9 during that span.
Maybe the Penguins were just due.
“I’m sure they’re not happy about that. Everyone’s aware of stats like that,” Kulak said. “If a team’s got your number for a while, you’ve always got a little extra bite in your game coming into it.”
It was Crosby, long regarded as the league’s best player before McDavid came along, who led the charge for Pittsburgh.
He recorded a goal and two assists, matching McDavid’s three-point effort in the last meeting before the two generational stars become teammates for the first time for Canada at the 4 Nations Face-Off in February.
The Oilers couldn’t contain Crosby. He upped his career points total to 1,643 and passed Joe Sakic for ninth on the all-time list in the process.
“He’s still special, that’s for sure,” Kulak said. “He’s a top player in the league. No doubt. He brings it every night. He’s done that for a long time now. He knows what he’s doing out there.”
It just wasn’t the Oilers’ night as a poor opening period — or even first half — just did them in. The Oilers controlled play from there, but it was too little too late.
“We can dwell on it as much as we want,” Ekholm said. “It wasn’t to our standard, and that’s the end of that.”
No, it wasn’t to their standard — not the one they set two nights before. They’re kicking themselves about how they started, especially in their own zone.
“You want to play perfect every game. It’s not realistic,” Hyman said. “But it’s realistic to play hard and be conscious defensively. These are games that you can avoid.
“You’re not going to play a perfect game, but you can avoid a disastrous 15 minutes or whatever it was.”
The Oilers will have to settle for winning 15 of their last 20 games — a sterling 15-4-1 mark since Nov. 23. That was no consolation after this effort, though.
Instead, a dreadful stretch of hockey provides motivation as they head to Chicago before going home for a game.
“I don’t want to flush it completely,” Ekholm said. “We don’t want it to happen again. We have a chance on Saturday to have a 3-1 road trip, which is pretty good. That’s the focus right now.”
(Photo of Connor McDavid: Justin Berl / Getty Images)
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