Oilers, McDavid host struggling Penguins and ageless Crosby on Sportsnet

Two of the NHL’s greatest players will clash on Sunday night when the Penguins take to the ice in Edmonton.

But the playoff prospects for Connor McDavid and the Oilers are vastly different than those of Sidney Crosby and his Penguins teammates.

After a rough start to the season that saw them lose 13 of their first 18 games and demote goalie Jack Campbell to the minors, the Oilers went on a tear, winning eight and then later 16 games in a row.

And while they’ve cooled off a little, they still come into this game (9 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. MT on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+) on a three-game streak, thanks in no small part to McDavid, who has five points during that span and is sitting third in the NHL with 95 points.

All of which has the Oilers (36-20-2) in second place in the Pacific Division with 74 points, one point up on the defending Cup champs Golden Knights and nine points back of the Canucks. That’s with four games in hand on Vancouver and three on Vegas by the way — an improbable scenario to imagine back in November.

And then there’s Crosby and the Penguins …

Now 36, the three-time Cup champ has barely slowed down, putting up a goal total so far (32) that is just three off his best season in the last seven years and just one more shy of his second-best career year. You can nit-pick that his current points-per-game mark of 1.09 would rank as his lowest since 2017-18, but the guy is still averaging more than 20 minutes a night and leads his team in goals and points (63).

How the Penguins, currently mired in seventh place in the Metropolitan, would be doing without him is not difficult to imagine. Pittsburgh is 10 points back of a wild-card spot in the East, with many wondering if GM Kyle Dubas should be seriously consider selling at the trade deadline, despite the question of how many seasons Crosby has left to be answered.

And they arrive in Edmonton on a two-game slide and on the heels of a 4-3 loss to the Flames in Calgary on Saturday night.

Fans will no doubt enjoy watching these two future Hall of Famers cross paths for the first time this season and should savour the return game next Sunday in Pittsburgh. There’s very little chance of a Crosby-McDavid Stanley Cup Finals this spring. Best to enjoy these games and imagine what the pair could look like in next year’s “4 Nations Face-Off” tournament, when they will be teammates.