Pluses, minuses for Oilers-Penguins

Each Wednesday throughout the regular season, Kevin Weekes will be offering his pluses and minuses for the teams competing in the NBCSN Wednesday Night Hockey game in his Weekes on the Web blog.

The Pittsburgh Penguins ended a four-game losing streak with a 4-1 win against the Philadelphia Flyers on Monday and hope to continue that momentum against the Edmonton Oilers.
The Oilers have one win in eight games (1-5-2) and are heading in the wrong direction as they begin a three-game road trip in four days, also facing the Carolina Hurricanes and New York Islanders.
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First, Edmonton (24-26-5) visits Pittsburgh (29-20-7) at PPG Paints Arena on "Wednesday Night Hockey" (8 p.m. ET; NBCSN, TVAS, SN).
Here's my breakdown of the game:

Oilers

Pluses: Connor McDavid is on pace for his third straight 100-point season. He is third in the NHL with 81 points (31 goals, 50 assists) and has been their most consistent player all season. Leon Draisaitl is second on the Oilers with 66 points (32 goals, 34 assists), and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is third with 52 points (17 goals, 35 assists).
Edmonton's power play ranks in the top 10 in the NHL at 22.8 percent and has scored in four straight games, going 6-for-12 (50 percent).
Perhaps the road trip will be good for the Oilers, who play better away from home; they're 12-11-4 on the road compared to 12-15-1 at Rogers Place.
Minuses:After McDavid, Draisaitl and Nugent-Hopkins, the next-highest scoring player is defenseman Darnell Nurse, who has 28 points. The Oilers' top scoring full-time wing is Alex Chiasson, who has 27 points. That's a problem when your centers are the top three leading scorers by a wide margin.
Coach Ken Hitchcock needs to right the ship. Edmonton has allowed at least five goals in five of its past eight games. After going 8-2-1 in his first 11 games, the Oilers are 7-14-3 under Hitchcock since and have allowed 3.37 goals-per game.
Although the power play has been hot, the penalty kill has not been. The Oilers have allowed eight power-play goals in their past five games going 12-for-20 (60 percent) on the penalty kill, including allowing four in one game against the Philadelphia Flyers on Feb. 2. That will be something to watch against Pittsburgh's lethal power play.

Penguins

Pluses: The offense starts with Sidney Crosby. He has 65 points (24 goals, 41 assists) and is plus-18 this season. When good things happen for the Penguins, he likely is involved.
Defenseman Kris Letang has 48 points (13 goals, 35 assists) and is plus-11. He's definitely in the Norris Trophy conversation and just became the Penguins all-time leader in goals by a defenseman with his 109th in the win against the Flyers.
Matt Murray made an NHL career-high 50 saves against the Flyers and is 12-4-0 with a 2.18 goals-against average and .935 save percentage since returning from injury. He's playing well at the right time for the Penguins.
Minuses: They'll be without Evgeni Malkin, who was suspended one game for high-sticking Flyers forward Michael Raffl on Monday. It was a very undisciplined play by him and although his two-way game hasn't been great this season, he ranks third on the team in points with 56 behind Phil Kessel (58) and Crosby (65).
Injuries have been a problem all season, and that trend continued when defenseman Olli Maatta was placed on injured reserve on Tuesday because of an upper-body injury. He'll be out indefinitely, which is concerning, especially with Justin Schultz remaining sidelined with a fractured left leg.
They've been very inconsistent, following up winning streaks with losing streaks. The Penguins aren't used to being this far into the season without being a lock for the playoffs; their streak of 12 straight years in the postseason -- the longest current run in the League -- is in jeopardy.

THREE THINGS TO WATCH

1. Crosby vs. McDavid
2. How do the Penguins fare on defense without Schultz and Maata?
3. How does Malkin's absence affect Pittsburgh?