It was a long time in the making because of an injury, but the first ever Crosby vs McDavid matchup did not disappoint. It was a fun up and down game which featured some excellent play from the Oilers captain.
It didn’t take long for McDavid to put his stamp on the game. He had two beautiful assists in the first period to help give the Oilers the lead. His second assist is why he is the most terrifying player to play against right now. McDavid played the role of the roadrunner while Brian Dumoulin was unfortunately left in the dust with his Acme hockey skates and stick.
Sensational setup. #EDMvsPIT pic.twitter.com/v2qshvml5J
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) November 9, 2016
It is incredible how fast the tables can turn when McDavid is on the ice. The ability to turn a benign play into a high caliber scoring chance is the definition of a game breaker. McDavid had plenty of isolated moments of greatness last night.
You are never going to completely shutdown a player like McDavid and the Penguins didn’t. Overall they didn’t do a terrible job of controlling the game flow when McDavid was on the ice. Kris Letang matched up against McDavid for 11:12 at even-strength and had a shot attempt advantage of 14-9. Sidney Crosby had an 11-9 advantage in 8:10 of head to head ice time. McDavid was 15-15 on the night overall.
Sidney Crosby didn’t have a point in the game but he did create the second goal.
Rightfully there was a lot of talk about Connor heading into this game, but it was Conor who ended up deciding the game. Conor Sheary scored two goals last night in Pittsburgh’s 4-3 victory including the game winner late in the third period. His first goal was just a terrific shot
A lot of teams continue to pigeonhole themselves into believing third and fourth liners have to play a certain way. I’ll take a Conor Sheary type in a bottom six role any day of the week. Play your 12 best forwards and the likelihood for success improves. Even if Sheary does not find himself on Crosby’s wing he can still find himself a productive member of the team in a reduced role.
We didn’t forget about you, Evgeni Malkin. Geno scored on a clever one-handed poke play to beat Cam Talbot which tied the game in the early goings of the third period.
Malkin maintains his point per game average and now has seven goals and 13 points in 13 games played this year.
Phil Kessel did not win the Presidential election last night. He will have to shift his focus to running in 2020. He does however remain a Stanley Cup Champion.
With the Penguins victory they are now 9-2-2 on the season. They currently hold first place in the Metropolitan Division with the Rangers loss last night. Pittsburgh doesn’t play tonight and will go back into action against Minnesota on Thursday evening.
Thanks for reading!