The Edmonton Oilers saw their four-game winning streak come to an end on Thursday (Jan. 9), with a 5-3 loss to the host Pittsburgh Penguins at PPG Paints Arena.
Leon Draisaitl scored twice and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins added a goal for the Oilers. Pittsburgh got one goal apiece from Sidney Crosby, Kevin Hayes, Drew O’Connor, Rickard Rakell and Bryan Rust.
Goalie Alex Nedeljkovic made 40 saves in a winning effort for the Penguins, while Oilers netminder Stuart Skinner stopped 21 of the 26 shots he faced.
Dreadful Start Dooms Oilers
Edmonton fell behind 3-0 before the game was even 10 minutes old and found itself trailing 4-1 after the first period. Crosby’s power-play goal at 5:42 of the second period put Pittsburgh ahead 5-1.
While a four-goal deficit is near insurmountable, Edmonton gave itself a chance at staging an epic rally on Thursday. Draisaitl scored at 10:58 of the middle frame, and Nugent-Hopkins tallied on the power play just before the intermission, cutting Pittsburgh’s lead to 5-3 going into the third period.
As time ticked away, Edmonton threw everything at Nedeljkovic. The Oilers fired 10 shots on goal in the game’s final eight and a half minutes, but couldn’t solve the Penguins netminder, who had a whale of a game.
Arguably, the Oilers were the better team for a greater portion of Thursday’s game. After being outshot 13-7 in the first period, Edmonton held a 36-13 edge in shots and largely carried the play over the final two periods. But that wasn’t enough to overcome their sleepy start. Some holes are just too deep for even a team as talented as the Oilers to dig out of.
It may be true that you can’t win a game in the first period, but you can certainly lose a game in the first 20 minutes. And that’s exactly what happened to the Oilers in Pittsburgh.
Draisaitl and McDavid Log Heavy Minutes
Once his team fell behind 3-0, Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch went with the proverbial “nuclear option”, playing Draisaitl and Connor McDavid together.
While the move resulted in McDavid setting up Draisaitl for two goals, it also led to double-shifting for both players, with Draisaitl logging 27:20 and McDavid playing 26:55.
Those are the two highest ice time totals in a non-overtime game for an Oilers forward in more than two years. For a team that wants to be playing well into June, having its two superstars log such heavy minutes in early January is far from ideal. There’s a reason it’s called the nuclear option.
Defensive Pluses and Minuses
While he finished the night with a save percentage of only .807, Skinner was not to blame for the loss on Thursday. Of Pittsburgh’s five goals, there was maybe only one that the Edmonton netminder should have stopped.
Defensive lapses were a far too frequent occurrence on Thursday for the Oilers, particularly in the early going. Evan Bouchard let Rakell skate right behind him and go to the net to bang home the rebound on Pittsburgh’s first goal. Darnell Nurse’s turnover in his own end following an Oilers faceoff win led to the Penguins’ second goal by Rust. And Adam Henrique lost a puck battle down low to O’Connor, who fed the puck to a wide-open Hayes in the slot for Pittsburgh’s third goal.
Related: Josh Brown Can Provide What Oilers Are Missing on Defence
On the plus side, Bouchard recorded 10 shots on goal, joining current Edmonton assistant coach Paul Coffey, Kurtis Foster and Sheldon Souray as the only defencemen in franchise history with at least 10 shots in a regular season game. And Oilers rearguard Josh Brown, playing his second game since being recalled from the Bakersfield Condors of the American Hockey League last week, continued to make a case for a permanent spot on Edmonton’s third pairing, providing a much-needed physical presence while recording three blocked shots and two hits in 10:02 of ice time.
Streaks End in Pittsburgh
Not only did Edmonton lose for the first time in 2025 on Thursday, the Oilers were beaten by Pittsburgh for the first time since 2019.
Edmonton has dominated the Penguins in recent years. Coming into Thursday’s game, the Oilers were 7-0-0 while outscoring Pittsburgh 37-9 in the teams’ prior seven meetings. Pittsburgh had as many goals in the first 9:46 of Thursday’s game as in its previous four games against the Oilers combined.
The loss was Edmonton’s first at PPG Paints Arena since suffering a 3-1 defeat on Feb. 13, 2019. Draisaitl and Rust both scored in that game, too.
Connor vs. Sid
This was only the 16th time that arguably the two greatest players of the 21st century, Crosby and McDavid, have faced off against each other. Edmonton has won nine of those games, while Thursday’s victory was the seventh for Pittsburgh.
The two superstars put on a show in this latest meeting. In addition to scoring, Crosby added two apples, while McDavid assisted on all three Edmonton tallies.
With three points, Crosby passed Colorado Avalanche legend Joe Sakic for ninth most in NHL history. The Penguins captain has 1,643 points in 1,315 career regular season games. Meanwhile, McDavid moved into a tie with Boston Bruins great Patrice Bergeron for 82nd place on the NHL’s all-time points leaderboard. Edmonton’s captain has 1,040 points in 683 games.
Hockey fans will finally get to see Crosby and McDavid play together, in just over a month, as members of Team Canada at the 4 Nations Face-Off.
In the meantime, Edmonton will be back in action on Saturday night, when the Oilers visit the Chicago Blackhawks for an evening tilt at United Center.
