EDMONTON — The early stages of the season have seen the Pittsburgh Penguins stumble because of self-inflicted wounds.
On this night, the other team was just better. Much, much better.
In what has become expected in recent seasons when these teams meet, the Edmonton Oilers toyed with the Penguins in a 4-0 victory Friday night at Rogers Place. Edmonton outshot the Penguins 50-27.
The Oilers looked fast, sleek and every bit the part of Stanley Cup favorite despite their sluggish start to the season.
Meanwhile, the Penguins looked old, slow and utterly incapable of handling a team like the Oilers. More than anything, the Penguins looked lost.
“Well, it’s concerning because we just aren’t good enough right now,” Mike Sullivan said outside of a very quiet dressing room. “We didn’t play hard enough. We didn’t play together as a group. We weren’t good enough.”
Only rookie goaltender Joel Blomqvist kept the game reasonably interesting through two periods. Making his fourth NHL start, Blomqvist was simply sensational. The Oilers had the puck early and often, firing 19 shots on goal in the first period and another 20 in the second period.
“He played terrific,” Sullivan said. “He was really good tonight. He kept us in the game.”
The Penguins were simply ambushed from the opening draw until the final few minutes, when the Oilers, victory secure, went out of their way to try and get Zach Hyman his first goal of the season. They were unsuccessful in that pursuit but otherwise did exactly what they wanted against a Penguins team that was utterly overmatched.
Many Penguins agreed this final score could have been considerably more lopsided if not for the play of their goaltender.
“Could have been a lot uglier,” Bryan Rust said. “He was great.”
What was the biggest problem for the Penguins in this game?
“When you don’t play the way you know you can play, it gets frustrating,” Rust said.
Why didn’t the Penguins play the way they know they can play?
“If I had answers,” Rust said, “we wouldn’t have done it.”
The Penguins are winless in four straight, 3-5-1 on the season and 0-2-1 on this road trip.
No one wants to admit it’s panic time, but that point isn’t far off.
“Whether it’s October or February, no one likes to lose,” Sidney Crosby said. “We just have to find a way to get a win.”
Blomqivst made a number of outstanding saves, stopping the first 32 shots he faced.
Leon Draisaitl finally beat him on the Oilers’ 33rd shot, a perfectly placed wrister off the post and in.
Leon picking corners 🎯 #LetsGoOilers pic.twitter.com/ntkDRR5HqO
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) October 26, 2024
The game was never really in doubt, and when the Oilers took the lead, they never looked back.
From midway through the first period to midway through the second, the Oilers recorded 21 shots in a row.
Evan Bouchard, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Mattias Ekholm added goals for the Oilers. The Nugent-Hopkins goal came 16 seconds into the third period off of a Kris Letang misplay and signified that the rout was on.
Nuge with a rocket from the slot 🚀 #LetsGoOilers pic.twitter.com/5hGwali9cN
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) October 26, 2024
The Penguins were unable to muster much offense throughout the night.
“We didn’t have the puck enough,” Sullivan said. “We’ve got to hang onto pucks more.”
Making matters worse for the Penguins is that, less than 24 hours after chasing the Oilers for 60 minutes, they’ll have to face a rested Canucks team in Vancouver.
Blomqvist was the only bright spot, and though it certainly wasn’t intentional, his thoughts on the performance were pretty illustrative of just where the Penguins are right now.
“You stay in the game pretty well when there are shots coming at you all the time,” he said.
Ten postgame observations
• It was jarring to see the Penguins look this bad, this overmatched.
They could have played this game 10 times and I don’t believe the Penguins would have won even once. The Oilers were faster, more skilled, stronger on the puck and hungrier. This marked Edmonton’s eighth straight win against the Penguins, and the last handful have seen the Penguins get absolutely dominated. This was more of the same, and frankly, this one was even more decisive than the others.
The Penguins didn’t have a power play until the final minutes and, again, this was because they almost never had the puck. It was a game of keep-away for the Oilers and an impressive one at that.
Edmonton (3-4-1) is off to a slow start this season and Connor McDavid didn’t even register a point. Yet it didn’t matter. The Penguins have played in three games against legitimate Stanley Cup contenders in the New York Rangers, Toronto Maple Leafs and Oilers. They’re 0-3 and have been outscored 14-2.
I think that tells a pretty piercing story.
• What a magnificent performance from Blomqvist. Really, the kid was sensational. This game very easily could have been 8-0, and that’s not an exaggeration. The Penguins were outshot 19-5 in the first period, yet the game remained scoreless because of his performance.
Sullivan spoke before the game about the athleticism that Blomqvist possesses, and it played a large role in his ability to frustrate the Oilers for a big chunk of the night.
On the surface, it’s easy to say that it’s difficult to send him back to Wilkes-Barre. Statistically, he’s without question been the Penguins’ best goaltender. Of course, given the way this season might be trending, letting him learn and get better in Wilkes-Barre might not be the worst idea.
High marks to Blomqvist. Disregard the number of goals he allowed. This was a wonderful performance against the NHL’s most explosive team.
• Late in the third period, Marcus Pettersson bumped a vulnerable Viktor Arvidsson from behind, which set off some fireworks.
victor arvidsson gets taken hard into the boards by marcus pettersson, who answers the bell with darnell nurse off the next faceoff. pic.twitter.com/3LRkEjXWmH
— zach (@zjlaing) October 26, 2024
Darnell Nurse immediately challenged Pettersson to a fight, and he landed some heavy shots on the much lighter Pettersson.
Pettersson wasn’t around in the dressing room after the game, so we won’t know until Saturday night if he is good to go against the Canucks. This is obviously an important player for the Penguins.
It was a dangerous hit by Pettersson but surely an unintentional one. He’s a clean player.
• I’ve been pretty hard on Erik Karlsson, but he actually enjoyed one of his better games of the season.
He was responsible for a handful of the few chances the Penguins had in the offensive zone. Karlsson also was fine defensively.
I haven’t been impressed with his game, but perhaps this was a step in the right direction.
• I also think Jack St. Ivany has been much better in his past couple of games. I spoke with him before Friday’s game and he admitted he hasn’t been pleased with his work early this season.
“Definitely not satisfied,” he said. “I have to be better and I know I’m capable of it. The game in Calgary was better.”
Given who the Penguins were playing against, I’d say his performance was pretty good Friday.
• Crosby has only 7 points in nine games this season, which includes just one goal. He does not look himself.
I wouldn’t worry about him just yet. He’s had many slow Octobers. But he doesn’t look right.
• The Oilers looked like men against boys. I don’t know any other way to put it.
I don’t recall ever seeing the Penguins look this physically outmatched in the Crosby era. And afterward, it was clear they knew it. And they weren’t sure what to say about it.
• The Penguins didn’t have many chances to score, but when they did, they passed up good looks. It was the wrong game and wrong situation to look for the perfect play.
Not good.
• I can’t help but think of Tristan Jarry as the Penguins head to Vancouver, his hometown.
Last Saturday, two hours before the Penguins left Pittsburgh for this road trip, this is what Jarry said: “Obviously, it’s good for me. I get to see my family. Being on the West Coast, you don’t get to see your family very often. Only get to see my parents once or twice a year. It’ll be a nice little reset to see my family and to spend time with them.”
The Penguins sent Jarry back to Pittsburgh one day before playing in Edmonton, where he won the Memorial Cup in 2014, and two days before playing in Vancouver. Sullivan said it was part of the plan to send Jarry back to Pittsburgh halfway through the trip. Perhaps Jarry wasn’t aware of that when he was speaking with the media last Saturday.
Either way, it’s a strange story.
• The Canucks are really good and really rested, having not played since Tuesday. This is a brutal way for the Penguins to end the road trip. Look for Alex Nedeljkovic to get the start.
(Photo of Edmonton’s Darnell Nurse getting the better of Marcus Pettersson: Perry Nelson / Imagn Images)
