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It’s always billed as an epic showdown between two of the greatest hockey players of all time when Edmonton and Pittsburgh meet, but Oilers-Penguins games these days are more like an epic showdown between a mouse and a trap.
Only less merciful.
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The Oilers dragged Pittsburgh’s most recent demise over 60 minutes Sunday, torturing them for three long periods before the final horn put the visitors out of their misery.
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The 6-1 thumping is Edmonton’s fifth win in a row over the Penguins by a combined score of 29-9 (6-1, 7-2, 6-3, 5-1 and 5-1).
Connor McDavid and Sidney Crosby are generational talents who are leaving indelible marks on the game, but this series hasn’t even been close lately
And with the Penguins arriving in Edmonton at 3 a.m. Sunday morning after playing the late game in Calgary Saturday night, it was no contest before the puck even dropped.
It was more like stats night.
Zach Hyman had two goals. Leon Draisaitl had three assists. Calvin Pickard came seven minutes away from a shutout. Connor McDavid extended his point streak to 11 games. Warren Foegele reached a career high 31 points with his two assists. And Cody Ceci, after scoring just two goals in 186 games, scored his second in the last 11.
It was one of those nights when everything went right as Edmonton won its fourth game in a row and solidified second place in the Pacific Division standings. They’ve held their opponents to six goals in the last four games.
OUCH
Hyman rubbed a little more salt in the wound of former Leafs GM Kyle Dubas, who is now running the show in Pittsburgh, by scoring his 41st and 42nd goals of the season. Hyman has a goal in nine straight home games (12 goals in total during that span) and has 10 goals in his last eight games overall. The Leafs let him walk away for nothing.
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ON THE MOVE
Ryan McLeod got things going offensively with a goal and an assist in the second period after a stretch of one point in the previous 16 games. He set up Corey Perry on a three-on-one and then scored on the patented Connor McDavid play where he banks a sharp-angle shot off the goalie’s mask and in.
OUCH II
With his team playing the second of back-to-back games and in need of some fresh legs, the Penguins still made former Oiler Jesse Puljujarvi a healthy scratch. He’s played 25 games with Carolina (17) and Pittsburgh (8) since the Oilers traded him away in February 2023 and has yet to score a goal. He’s sat out five of the last seven games for the Penguins and didn’t even get the sympathy start against his old team. Ouch.
E-mail: rtychkowski@postmedia.com
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