EDMONTON, Alberta -- They do not need much, these Oilers.
Take a single step out of position or give them the slightest sliver of an opening, and they are off. Usually at high speed and with malice aforethought.
"They're an opportunistic group," Mike Sullivan said after the Penguins' 5-2 loss at Rogers Place Wednesday night. "They don't need a lot chances."
The Penguins knew that going into the game and, for two periods, played like they not only recognized the quick-strike capability of the Oilers, but just might have been able to contain it.
Sure, they had given up a couple of goals to Edmonton winger Zach Hyman in the first, but they'd countered those with goals of their own from Jake Guentzel and Teddy Blueger. What's more, they had held the Oilers to 13 shots on Tristan Jarry during those first 40 minutes, while launching 26 of their own at Edmonton goalie Mikko Koskinen.
"The way we played the first two periods was really good," Sidney Crosby said.
Which underscores why attention to detail is so important in this game. Details like, there'a always a third period after the second.
And the hard truth is, much of the Penguins' third period against the Oilers didn't look like their first two.
"For the first two periods, I thought we did a great job with our energy, and just trying to dictate the terms out there," Sullivan said. "For whatever reason, we didn't sustain it in the third period."
That's a problem against a team as opportunistic as Edmonton, which has an exceptional transition game and can create and exploit odd-man breaks as consistently as any team in the league.
"You have to be aware that any puck in the middle of the ice, especially in their zone, they're looking to go the other way," Crosby said. "And they're so fast that if you're not above them -- even if you're even -- you're not catching them."
This game had been hyped as a showdown between the previous and current best players in the game -- Crosby and Connor McDavid -- but whatever competition they had on this night was even more lopsided than the third period.
The only distinction they shared was that both were on the ice for all five Edmonton goals. While Crosby picked up an assist on Guentzel's goal, McDavid complemented an empty-net goal by recording the primary assist on the Oilers' first, second and fourth goals.
And while McDavid didn't have an immediate impact -- the Penguins held Edmonton without a shot until 6:52 of the opening period -- once his presence was established, he played a role in almost everything the Oilers accomplished.
It started when McDavid got the only assist on Edmonton's first goal, which happened to come on its first shot.
He pushed the puck to Hyman along the right-wing boards in the Edmonton zone, then watched Hyman carry it up the ice and get around Kris Letang by slicing left to right in the Penguins' end before throwing a shot past Jarry.
The Penguins got that back with flawless execution of a set play that began with Crosby winning a faceoff in the left circle back to John Marino, who fed the puck to Guentzel above the right hash.
Hyman struck again at 16:16, converting a cross-ice pass from McDavid to cap a two-on-one break after Letang had been caught behind the play, but Teddy Blueger pulled the Penguins even again just a minute into the second.
Blueger's goal set the tone for the Penguins' best period of the evening -- not that there had been all that much wrong with their first -- as they ran up a 15-7 edge in shots and had numerous opportunities to get a goal that would have put them in front.
"It would have been nice to grab the lead, obviously," Crosby said. "But we were still in a good spot."
Not for long.
Had the Penguins been able to go in front, forcing the Oilers to play from behind, perhaps the rest of the game would have unfolded differently.
As it was, they probably should have beat the traffic and headed to the airport for their flight to Vancouver when the second intermission ended, because the Oilers quickly eliminated any suspense about the outcome.
Kailer Yamamoto deflected a Tyson Barrie shot past Jarry for what proved to be the game-winner at 2:53 of the third and Evan Bouchard rapped in a McDavid pass -- during a two-on-one break, of course -- at 7:54 before McDavid put an exclamation point on his four-point night with his empty-netter at 17:49.
McDavid's rampage lifted him to within one point of teammate Leon Draisaitl, who is the leader in the NHL scoring race but managed just one assist against the Penguins.
While Draisaitl hardly was invisible -- it's pretty tough to overlook a guy who is 6 foot 2, 208 pounds -- his presence did not begin to rival that of McDavid, who proved again what a lethal cocktail of speed and skill he force-feeds opponents.
"McDavid does everything at such a high rate of speed," Sullivan said. "You just have to have an awareness of who you're on the ice against and you've got to make sure you don't give him those opportunities to generate their speed or generate numbers, and I thought we gave him a few tonight."
That wasn't a good idea since, if McDavid isn't the best player in the world, he's a pretty good place-holder until the real one comes along.
"He's just so good at creating something from nothing," said Crosby, something of an authority on that subject. "It's not like there's a lot of danger going on, and all of a sudden, he's on a two-on-one or he's got a fast break, so it's a pretty small margin for error."
MORE FROM THE GAME
• The Penguins won the special-teams showdown between the NHL's top-rated power play and penalty-kill, snuffing all three of Edmonton's chances with the extra man. "I thought we had a good game plan," Blueger said. "Just sticking to our same concepts that we've been doing all year."
• The loss snapped a streak of 19 games (15-0-4) during which the Penguins had taken at least one point from the Oilers. Their last regulation loss to Edmonton Jan. 10, 2006, a game best remembered for then-coach Michel Therrien's postgame tirade, during which he called the Penguins' defense corps "soft" and wondered aloud if the unit's objective was "to be the worst defensive squad in the league."
• Hyman thought he had gotten his first NHL hat trick when he scored midway through the final period, but the goal was waved off when the Penguins challenged that the play had been offside. He had another opportunity to get his third goal after the Penguins pulled Jarry for an extra attacker, but Evan Rodrigues blocked the passing lane that would have allowed Hyman to score into the empty net if he'd gotten the puck from McDavid.
• Zach Aston-Reese had eight hits, swelling his total for the season to 80. That's the sixth-most in the league, and leaves him only one behind former teammate Brandon Tanev.
• The Penguins have scored two or fewer goals in three of their past four games, during which they are 1-2-1. "It's hard to win games if you're scoring one, two goals every night," Crosby said. "We have to find a way to put a few more in the back of the net and keep on defending hard."
• With Edmonton's defense savaged by injuries and illness, veterans Tyson Barrie and Kris Russell were deployed as Dave Tippett's top pairing. Barrie played 28 minutes, 26 seconds and Russell logged 26 minutes, 53 seconds of ice time. Russell, honored before the game for being the NHL's all-time leading shot-blocker, was credited with a game-high four of those.
• Guentzel's goal extended his scoring streak to 11 games, the longest active one in the league. He also has at least one point in each of the Penguins' first 10 away games, one shy of the franchise record set by Evgeni Malkin in 2008-09.
• The Penguins finished with a 30-28 edge on faceoffs, in part because Crosby won 11 of 17.
• The Penguins had won their previous six games in Edmonton and were 8-0-2 in the previous 10 there.
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
• Live file
• Scoreboard
• Standings
• Statistics
THE THREE STARS
As selected at Rogers Place:
1. Zach Hyman, Oilers
2. Connor McDavid, Oilers
3. Mikko Koskinen, Oilers
THE HIGHLIGHTS
THE INJURIES
• Evgeni Malkin is recovering from offseason knee surgery. He participated in an optional game-day skate Wednesday, the third consecutive day he was on the ice with teammates.
• Bryan Rust has missed the past four games and is on injured-reserve because of an unspecified lower-body injury. He is listed as "week-to-week" and did not accompany the team on this four-game road trip.
• Brian Boyle did not play against the Oilers because of an unspecified upper-body injury and is listed as "day-to-day," although he participated in the optional game-day skate.
THE LINEUPS
Sullivan's lines and pairings:
Jake Guentzel-Sidney Crosby-Evan Rodrigues
Jason Zucker-Jeff Carter-Kasperi Kapanen
Dominik Simon-Sam Lafferty-Danton Heinen
Zach Aston-Reese-Teddy Blueger-Brock McGinn
Brian Dumoulin-Kris Letang
Marcus Pettersson-John Marino
Mike Matheson-Chad Ruhwedel
And for Tippett's Oilers:
Zach Hyman-Connor McDavid-Zack Kassian
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins-Leon Draisaitl-Kailer Yamamoto
Warren Foegele-Ryan McLeod-Jesse Puljujarvi
Tyler Benson-Derek Ryan-Colton Sceviour
Kris Russell-Tyson Barrie
William Lagesson-Evan Bouchard
Markus Niemelainen-Philip Broberg
THE SCHEDULE
The Penguins are scheduled to be off Thursday and will practice Friday in Vancouver at 5 p.m. Eastern to prepare for a game against the Canucks Saturday night.
THE CONTENT
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