It was touted as a superstar showdown, but neither Connor McDavid nor Sidney Crosby could find the scoresheet in the Edmonton Oilers’ clash against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday night.
Instead, Stuart Skinner made 27 saves for his fifth career shutout, and Viktor Arvidsson had a standout performance with three assists — his first points as an Oiler — as Edmonton snapped a two-game losing skid with a 4-0 victory over the Penguins.
“We played on both sides of the puck really good today for 60 minutes,” Arvidsson said. “I think that was a great statement game. I think that is how we have to play and how we are going to be good.”
Oilers defenceman Mattias Ekholm, who was a teammate of Arvidsson’s in Nashville, said it was great to see him finally get some points.
“That’s the Viktor I know,” he said. “He is always the hardest working (guy) out there, he’ll beat you out for icing and is a pain in the ass to play against. I thought he had a really big night.
“He is getting more and more comfortable every night that he gets to play here and get chemistry with his linemates and I think tonight he showed what he can really do. Kudos to him, he really played a solid night.”
Ekholm and Evan Bouchard each had a goal and an assist.
“I thought just all around, start to finish we just played a really solid game,” Skinner said. “It started with the D-zone obviously, and from there we were able to capitalize on some offence. And that’s normally how it starts for us, when we are solid in the D-zone we get a lot of chances. In the first period, I had five shots and everything was from the outside, so just an amazing team effort.”
Despite the loss, Joel Blomqvist was very strong in net for the Penguins, making 46 stops.
“He continued to battle, he saw some really good looks, odd-man rushes and I thought he hung in there kept competing,” Crosby said. “They have some dangerous shooters and he did a great job hanging in there for us.”
Blomqvist was playing in just his fifth NHL game.