Game Preview: Edmonton Oilers @ Pittsburgh Penguins 1/9/2025

The Pens look to do something they’ve never done in the 2020’s: defeat the Edmonton Oilers in a hockey game

Who: Edmonton Oilers (25-12-3, 53 points, 2nd place Pacific Division) @ Pittsburgh Penguins (17-17-8 42 points, 5th place Metropolitan Division)

When: 7:00 p.m. ET

How to Watch: SportsNet Pittsburgh for the local market, Sportsnet, TVAS up north, streaming on ESPN+

Pens’ Path Ahead: The Pens get ready for a busy weekend of action at PPG Paints Arena; first the Ottawa Senators come to town Saturday at 4:00pm and then Tampa takes a trip to the ‘Burgh for a game Sunday at 5:00pm. The home-stand concludes against Seattle next Tuesday, after which the Penguins head out on the road for seven straight games that eats up the rest of the month of January.

Opponent Track: This is the third game of a four game road trip for the Oil. So far, so good — they beat Seattle 4-2 and Boston 4-0 on the first two stops of their trip. They start heading back towards home with a game in Chicago on Saturday as the road swing comes to an end.

Season Series: As has been the case recently, the Oilers dominated the Penguins in the first matchup of the year, winning 4-0 in Edmonton back on October 25th. Edmonton is 7-0-0 against PIT in the last seven games, with a combined score of a 37-9 margin along the way. It hasn’t been close and it hasn’t been pretty.

Hidden Stat: Stick tap to Pens PR for pointing out that Blake Lizotte has been plus or even in 23 of his 26 games played this season.

Getting to know the Oilers

Projected lines

FORWARDS

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins - Connor McDavid - Connor Brown

Vasily Podkolzin - Leon Draisaitl - Viktor Arvidsson

Jeff Skinner - Adam Henrique - Zach Hyman

Kasperi Kapanen - Mattias Janmark - Corey Perry

DEFENSEMEN

Mattias Ekholm / Evan Bouchard

Darnell Nurse / Josh Brown

Brett Kulak / Ty Emberson

Goalies: Stuart Skinner and Calvin Pickard

Potential Scratches: Derek Ryan, Troy Stetcher

IR: Evander Kane

—Skinner recorded a 26-save shutout against the Bruins, but had to tag out for 5:25 of the game after getting run over by a Boston player and getting checked out quickly. He was able to return and finish the game, so we’ll see if he’s able to play tonight.

—Interesting setup for the Oilers these days, looking like a talent spread to see what they can get from Brown and Podkolzin while stacking a very solid third line. Best of all, they can always go back to Hyman back on the McDavid line when the games start to really matter.

—Fresh off being claimed off waivers, the former Penguin Kapanen has found his latest home in Edmonton. He’s been alright there — he does has three goals in the last 12 games this month — pitching in from a mostly depth/supporting type of role. Time will tell if he manages to achieve any staying power with the Oilers, at age 28 and approaching almost 500 career NHL games (he’s at 490 now), amazingly enough he’s well-past being a young player.

Player stats

(via hockeydb)

—Injuries have bit into a lot of their important players’ seasons, but it’s funny to see the predictable top-two scorers combine for 114 points so far this year and then just a handful of players with even 20+ points on the season so far.

—Henrique scored two goals last game against Boston, lifting his modest total to just five on the season. The big centers up front eat up a lot of the offensive opportunities.

—Shoutout to Jeff Skinner, who plays career game 1,046 tonight and still has 0 career playoff games under his belt. He’s been in the NHL consistently since 2010 and finally a team that employs him will make the playoffs this spring.

MVP?

Leon Draisaitl isn’t really Robin to McDavid’s Batman, if anything Draisaitl is Batman to McDavid’s Superman. This year Draisaitl has done more of the heavy lifting, his 29 goals are five more than anyone in the whole league at the moment, and he’s starting to get MVP talk at the mid-way point of the season.

Team matchups

Edmonton has the reputation and perception of being a run ‘n gun, offensive-minded team looking to go high-octane and out-score their problems, but that impression is more than a little outdated and inaccurate to how they’ve evolved lately.

With each passing year, the Oilers have improved defensively — as of yesterday their rank in goals/game (3.30) was 8th, matching their spot in goals against/game (2.73, also 8th). They don’t trap like the ‘90s Devils or anything but Edmonton is not simply an all-offense, all the time type of club. They’ve become more than respectable defensively and a lot more well-rounded than many might realize (particularly for the more Eastern Conference-focused observers).

And now for the Pens

Projected lines

FORWARDS

Rickard Rakell - Sidney Crosby - Bryan Rust

Michael Bunting - Cody Glass - Anthony Beauvillier

Drew O’Connor - Kevin Hayes - Jesse Puljujarvi

Matt Nieto - Blake Lizotte - Noel Acciari

DEFENSEMEN

Marcus Pettersson / Kris Letang

Matt Grzelcyk / Erik Karlsson

Owen Pickering / P.O. Joseph

Goalies: Tristan Jarry, Alex Nedeljkovic

Potential Scratches: Ryan Shea, Ryan Graves, Evgeni Malkin (day-to-day undisclosed upper body injury)

IR: Philip Tomasino

—Malkin skated with the team yesterday but did not participate in line rushes. It would be a big plus if he is able to go tonight, but as of this morning there’s no indication if he will or won’t be back.

Doing the most with one team

From the Penguins:

Most Goals With One Team, NHL History

Player Team Goals

Alex Ovechkin WSH 872
Gordie Howe DET 786
Steve Yzerman DET 692
Mario Lemieux PIT 690
Joe Sakic COL 625
Bobby Hull CHI 604
Sidney Crosby PIT 603

He’s also three points shy of tying Hall-of-Famer Joe Sakic for the fifth-most points with one franchise in NHL history:

Most Points With One Team, NHL History

Player Team PTS

Gordie Howe DET 1,809
Steve Yzerman DET 1,755
Mario Lemieux PIT 1,723
Wayne Gretzky EDM 1,669
Joe Sakic COL 1,641
Sidney Crosby PIT 1,638

McDavid, who turns 28 next week, has 351 goals and 1,037 points and it might not be too much longer before he starts making a run at this list too, should he extend his contract with the Oilers for one more long-term deal.