The silver lining on the 2025 Penguins is that they're on a three-game point streak. The pitfall is that they're winless since December 29th...and things aren't getting any easier.
Tonight, Pittsburgh will continue their long homestand against the Edmonton Oilers (25-12-3), who are an absolute wagon this season *insert shocked face here*.
Connor McDavid needs no introduction, and he's doing McDavid things again this season with 16 goals and 39 assists. The crazy thing is that he might not even be the best player on the Oilers this season.
Leon Draisaitl has been so far and away better than McDavid this year. Don’t even think it’s up for debate
— SD 🦦 (@_sD98_) January 5, 2025
Leon Draisaitl is the modern Oilers' version of Evgeni Malkin - always elite, but rarely gets the spotlight due to Sidney Crosby. Draisaitl has 29 goals and 30 assists to lead Edmonton in points.
If you're into betting odds, some confounding Hart Trophy odds include McDavid at +320. Draisaitl is +2000. Production alone (obviously assuming the NHL doesn't operate with a bias), Draisaitl is more deserving of the award at the halfway point of the season. But remember, odds are just odds (these specific odds are according to DraftKings Sportsbook).
The more you dive into the history of the Pittsburgh vs. Edmonton matchup, there are a lot of things working against the Penguins tonight, but let's start with recent history.
The Oilers are on a HEATER 🔥
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) January 8, 2025
Hottest team in the league right now? 🤔 pic.twitter.com/UzjuhKZhk6
The Oilers are riding a four game winning streak and a streak of six games where they've scored at least three goals. At this juncture of the season, the Oilers are going full Oiling (is that a thing?). They win four. They lose just one. They win five more. They lose one randomly. Right now, the Penguins are either going to be the continuation of the streak or be the team the break it.
Now we'll look at ancient history: all the way back to December 2019. That's the last time the Penguins beat the Oilers...straight up. Seven straight wins for Edmonton against Pittsburgh.
Oh, and here's the best part: the Oilers have scored no less than four goals in every single one of those games. Four goals twice, five goals twice, six goals twice, and seven goals once to boot.
How is it that the Penguins are running into every single team that have ludicrous streaks involved in the matchup right now? First it's Carolina in Raleigh. Tuesday it was Columbus in Pittsburgh (they win in Pittsburgh for the first time in almost a decade...yes, a decade). Now it's the second coming of Wayne Gretzky, and none of these games were close.
Oh yeah, and then there's this stat...
The Edmonton Oilers are 21-0-1 in their last 22 January games 🤯 #LetsGoOilers
— Golden Era Hockey (@NHLGoldenEra) January 8, 2025
Their goalie tandem of a revitalized Stuart Skinner and Calvin Pickard have been league average this season, but the one surprising problem (if you can even call it that) with Edmonton is their special teams. Their power play is middle of the road, which is quite shocking. Their penalty kill is also not the best either. Take it with a grain of salt, though, they aren't bad. A team that wins like this doesn't have many "bad" characteristics.
The Oilers don't give up a lot of shots in comparison to the rest of the league, and their goalies have been fine, so the key to victory is to win the battle when it's not 5v5. But it can't stop at that. A full 60 minute effort is needed tonight. No more blown two goal leads late. Heck, maybe the better option would be to come from behind. Who knows?
It's not out of the question to say a miracle is needed to win tonight. It's a shame it's come to that, but the Penguins are in desperate need of some type of miracle to stop the bleeding and get themselves back in the Wild Card hunt.