"Sidney Crosby>Connor McDavid", "Such a disgraceful letdown": Fans react after Edmonton Oilers' first-quarter collapse ends in loss to Penguins

Fans reacted as the Edmonton Oilers suffered a disappointing 5-3 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday night at PPG Paints Arena.

The Penguins' explosive four-goal in the first period left the Oilers failing to recover.

Fans took to social media to express their frustration over the Edmonton Oilers's poor performance, with one tweeting:

"Sidney Crosby>Connor McDavid. I will hear no counterarguments"

Another wrote:

"You’re such a disgraceful letdown of a team. How awful is Bouchard, lazy turnovers, afraid of the puck and moment. That last 3 minutes was some of the worst I’ve ever seen."

Here are some more fan reactions on X:

"The team played bad in the first, but Skinner has to make a save on one of those early goals to shut it down," one wrote.

"Yeah, usually starting a game down 3-0 in the first 10 minutes isn’t ideal. But anyways. Dust off, and onto the next one," another posted.

"Threw the game away in the 1st. Didnt show up on time and payed for it with the loss. Couldn’t make up for how terrible they started even by dominating the last 2 periods," another commented.

"Skinner costs us another 2 points yet again," one wrote.

Leon Draisaitl (two goals) and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored for the Edmonton Oilers, while Sidney Crosby, Bryan Rust, Drew O'Connor, Kevin Hayes and Rickard Rakell did so for Pittsburgh.

Stuart Skinner stopped 21 shots, while Alex Nedeljkovic made 40 saves in the Penguins win.

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Game Recap: Edmonton Oilers 5-3 loss to Penguins

Rickard Rakell opened the scoring for the Penguins at 3:19 into the first period with a wrist shot from Marcus Pettersson's pass before Rust made it 2-0 for Pittsburgh on a snap shot from Pettersson.

Kevin Hayes made it 3-0 with a one-timer slot off pass from Drew O'Connor. Draisaitl scored to cut the deficit 3-1 with a backhand shot before O'Connor's wrist shot from the circle made it 4-1.

"We weren't ready," Oilers coach Kris Knoblaunch said. "They outworked us, outskated us. The attention to detail wasn't there. You know we had a heck of a game, effort-wise and work ethic against Boston and tonight the first 20 minutes we took off and the deficit was too big for us to overcome."

Crosby scored a power play goal in the second period on a snap shot set up by Michael Bunting to make it 5-1. Draisaitl cut the lead with his second goal set up by McDavid. Nugent-Hopkins added another power play goal for the Edmonton Oilers to cut the deficit to 5-3 late in the second, but a comeback wasn't to be.