Oilers next to tangle with Crosby’s mighty Penguins
Get ready for a night of comparisons when the Oilers play host to the Pittsburgh Penguins in Edmonton on Tuesday.
Sidney Crosby says Connor McDavid is the best player in the world today.
In a rank-and-file vote, most NHL players would agree with Sid. But Crosby has two Olympic golds and three Cup rings, so he can live with not being the most dangerous. In Sid’s first three years in the league, he had 102, 120 and 72 points, good for 294 points overall.
In the Oiler captain’s first three years, he had 48, 100 and 108 — a total of 256 points.
Connor won two scoring titles and one Hart as MVP in his first three seasons. Crosby got one Art Ross and one Hart.
No Stanley Cups for either guy, but Crosby got his first in 2009.
Here are 5 Things to Watch for in Tuesday’s game:
1 One Man Gang
If the Penguins have access to the game tape of Nashville swarming McDavid every time he got the puck, you can bet they’ll be trying to do the same. Just six games in, but it’s painfully obvious that if you stop McDavid, the Oilers are hooped. He didn’t get anything going against the Predators and the Oilers lost three-bagel.
2 What supporting cast?
The Oilers only have two goals from forwards who wouldn’t be considered big guns — Jesse Puljujarvi (six shots) and Kailer Yamamoto (eight). Nothing from Ryan Strome (nine shots), Jujhar Khaira (2) or Tobias Rieder (10). And only one snipe from a defenceman, Darnell Nurse, but then that’s not earth-shattering news. Last year, the Oilers had 32 goals from the back-end.
3 Lest we forget Malkin
The Penguins are always called Crosby’s Team, but Evgeni Malkin has 12 points in six games this year. The notoriously average faceoff man is also winning 58 per cent of his draws. Malkin has 930 career points in only 784 games, with 63 gamewinners. He should have been voted one of the 100 best players of all-time but somehow got the dirty end of the stick. He’s third highestscoring Russian of all-time behind Sergei Fedorov and Alex Ovechkin.
4 About that power play
The Penguins have only given up one power play goal, snuffing out 13 of 14 opposing team attempts. The Oilers have one of the top 10 PPs in the league, but the Predators with a pedestrian PK (19th) handled the Oilers easily and even scored a shortie from P.K. Subban.
5 Time to step up, Leon
If McDavid and Crosby go head-to-head and it’s a sawoff, then it’s up to Draisaitl to take it upon himself to match Malkin. Leon’s point total (six in six games) looks good on paper but he’s also minus-7, worst on the team. Draisaitl absolutely has to want the challenge and, maybe for the first time this year, outplay McDavid.