Oilers Grease Penguins Skid, 5-2

In a very real way, last night’s 5-2 loss at the hands of high-powered Edmonton at Rogers Place represents more than a simple defeat. It represents a changing of the guard as well.

Our Penguins (10-8-5), among the NHL elite for the past 15 seasons are teetering on the edge of mediocrity. The Oilers, who stumbled aimlessly for years despite a slew of high (and mostly misspent) draft picks, are a smoking-hot 16-5 and have at long last hit their stride.

Out with the old. In with the new.

Symbolizing this sudden shift in power are the teams’ reigning superstars, Sidney Crosby and Connor McDavid. Struggling to overcome the combined effects of wrist surgery and Covid (and perhaps advancing age as well) our beloved captain collected an assist on our first goal but was a minus-four on the night.  For the season, Sid’s recorded a rather pedestrian (for him) two goals and eight points in 11 games.

Worse yet, he seems to be making mistakes he hasn’t made since bantam, as witnessed by his team-worst minus-eight.

Contrast that with the high-flying McDavid, who tallied a goal and three assists while finishing the night a plus-five. Through 21 games, the Oilers’ captain has recorded a Mario-esque 15 goals and 40 points. Indeed, he and gifted sidekick Leon Draisaitl (20 goals and 21 assists) are the new Sid and Geno.

After viewing last night’s contest, it’s safe to say the torch has been passed to a new generation.

The Goals

At 6:52 of the opening frame, marquee free-agent pickup Zach Hyman took a short pass from McDavid, curled across the top of the black-and-gold zone and beat Tristan Jarry with a wicked against-the-grain wrister. Oilers 1-0.

Eight minutes later, Crosby won a faceoff cleanly and drew the puck back to John Marino along the left wall. Marino immediately fed Jake Guentzel drifting through the slot with his stick cocked and Jake did the rest, beating Mikko Koskinen with a blistering drive for his 10th goal of the season. Tied 1-1.

Eighty-one tics later the Oilers regained the lead on Hyman’s second goal of the night. Breaking into the Pens zone on a 2-on-1, he ripped a pretty feed from McDavid past Jarry from the left circle. Oilers 2-1.

Skating with a renewed purpose, the Pens knotted the score a minute into the second period. Evan Rodrigues worked a give-and-go-and-give-again with Teddy Blueger, who toasted Koskinen stick side. Tied 2-2.

Following a second period largely dominated by the Pens, the Oilers took over in the third. Kailer Yamamoto did the honors 2:53 into the period with a beautiful redirect of a Tyson Barrie blast. Jarry had no chance. Oilers 3-2.

Evan Bouchard applied the crusher five minutes later on a 2-on-1 with McDavid, finishing off a back-door play initiated by a stunning backhand stretch pass from Draisaitl. Oilers 4-2.

McDavid closed out the scoring with an empty-netter at 17:49 off yet another 2-on-1. Oilers 5-2.

Puckpourri

The Pens dominated statistically, outshooting the Oilers, 34-22, and winning 52 percent of the draws. We piled up a surprising 45-15 edge in hits as well. We had 64 shot attempts to our host’s 41 and 32 scoring chances to their 21.

For once Jarry wasn’t able to save our bacon. Nine of the Oilers’ 21 scoring chances were of the high-danger variety. McDavid and Co. showed an uncanny ability to get behind our defense on odd-man breaks.

Guentzel and Rodrigues continue to display hot hands for the Pens. The former has goals in his past two games and points in his last 11. The latter has points in four of his last six. Among players who’ve appeared in at least 10 games, E-Rod’s fourth in the league in 5v5 Shot Attempts Percentage (63.4).

With Bryan Rust on IR and Brian Boyle nursing an injury, Sam Lafferty dressed for a second-straight game. He recorded four hits in 6:13 of ice time. I like Sam and would play him over Dominik Simon. But I don’t get why Mike Sullivan hasn’t dressed Drew O’Connor since his recall. Then again, I don’t get a lot of things…

Despite our recent 0-2-1 stretch, with several Metro teams in retrograde we continue to cling to fourth place in the division with 25 points. Next up, Vancouver on Saturday night at Rogers Arena.