Stats, LLC
EDMONTON, Alberta — Connor vs. Sidney. The two hockey heavyweights collide Friday at Rogers Place, and there isn’t a hotter ticket in the league.
As of Thursday morning, the cheapest ticket for Friday’s meeting between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Edmonton Oilers would set you back $130 US on StubHub. Tickets in the lower bowl were going for as high as $675 US each. (As a comparison, the prices range from $65-$220 to snag a ticket for the Bruins’ visit to Edmonton next week.)
The best player of his generation, winner of two Stanley Cups and two Olympic gold medals, Sidney Crosby, leads the NHL in goals scored. Connor McDavid, the No. 1 pick in the 2015 draft, is the NHL’s current leader in assists and points.
To call Friday’s game a marquee match-up might be a bit of an understatement.
“You get excited about it,” McDavid said after Thursday’s practice session. “It’s always a good test for me.”
When the teams met earlier this season in Pittsburgh, Crosby’s line and McDavid’s line went head-to-head most of the night. McDavid won the battle — he had three assists, while Crosby was held off the scoresheet — but lost the war. The Pens beat the Oilers 4-3.
“It’s definitely a test going up against the world’s best,” McDavid said.
“He’s consistent,” Crosby said of McDavid. “That’s what allows him to produce so much every night. He’s creating chances, he’s producing and he’s there (the scoring leader) for a reason. He’s had a great season and continues to play really well down the stretch.”
But it’s not just Crosby who could cause the Oilers problems. Evgeni Malkin joined Crosby the 70-point mark in Wednesday’s 7-4 win over Winnipeg. Both trail McDavid by four points each. Malkin has eight points over his last three games.
And Nick Bonino bagged a hat trick against the Jets. The question about the Penguins isn’t “who is hot right now?” It’s more like, “who isn’t?”
“They’re the defending Stanley Cup champions, they’ve been hot lately, scoring goals almost at will, so it’ll be a good test for us defensively,” McDavid said.
Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said a red-hot Bonino makes his team “more difficult to play against.”
“He’s a very good player, he has the ability to generate offense, he can play at both ends of the rink, we use him in so many key situations,” Sullivan said. “He plays on our second power play, he’s one of our top penalty killers.”
The Oilers will play the third of an eight-game homestand, and will try to recover from Tuesday’s 4-1 loss to the New York Islanders. That game saw McDavid’s five-game point streak snapped.
The Penguins will be without defenseman Kris Letang, who is back in Pittsburgh nursing what Sullivan called an upper-body injury. Right winger Patric Hornqvist is recovering from a concussion and will also miss the Edmonton date.
Oilers left winger Benoit Pouliot, who hasn’t played since Feb. 11 because of an injury suffered at practice, is expected to draw back into the Oilers lineup for Friday’s game.
“It was a long three weeks, four weeks,” said Pouliot. “It feels good to be back in the mix, and just practicing with the guys is a nice feeling and tomorrow should be fun.”
The game also sees Justin Schultz return to Edmonton. Schultz spent the better part of four seasons for the Oilers, where he went on to become the whipping boy for media and fans. Frustrated by the team’s lack of success, fans often targeted Schultz as one of the major reasons for the Oilers’ lack of progress.
But, wow, has Schultz earned the last laugh. This year, in his first full season with the Penguins, he has 45 points in 62 games, and has posted an outstanding plus-28 rating.
Penguins tough guy Tom Sestito, who was just called up from the AHL on Wednesday, will miss the game as he begins serving a four-game suspension for boarding Winnipeg’s Toby Enstrom.
No comments:
Post a Comment