This hasn’t been the follow-up season the Edmonton Oilers had in mind after dropping Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final last June.

After coming inches away from the ultimate goal, the hope for the reigning Western Conference Champions was to win the Pacific Division for the first time since the 1980s. Instead, a slow start in October coupled with an ice-cold stretch following the 4 Nations Face-Off in February has the Oilers battling for home-ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs.

Edmonton officially clinched a spot in the playoffs with a 4-2 victory over the San Jose Sharks on Friday, highlighted by four points from captain Connor McDavid. Goaltender Calvin Pickard turned aside 22 of 24 shots in the win while defenceman Evan Bouchard led the team with 28:24 on the blueline along with a goal and an assist.

What should have been a celebratory night for the Oilers was clouded by two players leaving the game with injuries. Mattias Ekholm suited up for the first time in seven games but only played a couple of shifts before leaving. Zach Hyman also left the game in the latter part of the second period and didn’t return.

The injury-riddled Oilers have three games left in the regular season and they’re two points behind the L.A. Kings in the standings. The Kings have four games remaining and they’ll host the Colorado Avalanche on Sunday before facing Edmonton on the road on Monday. The Oilers will be on the second leg of a back-to-back in that game, as they play the Winnipeg Jets on Sunday.

“It’s been up and down, but that ‘x’ is beside our name and that’s step one,” Perry said. “That’s what we talk about. You come to training camp, step one is to make the playoffs, and then step two is to get in and get going and see where we can go from there. It’s nice to have that beside our name right now.”

“It’s good to win and it’s good to make it official that we’re going back to the playoffs,” Pickard said. “We’ve got three games left to keep playing the right way. The guys in the room here, we’ve got to take care of business and hopefully everybody gets healthy.”

“The NHL schedule is a grind, especially after the season we had last year,” Knoblauch said. “Going so late, there’s disappointment and there’s a lot on guys’ minds that we’re going to do this again (get to the Stanley Cup Final). But we’re not doing it for several, many months later. You still have to play 82 games and we’ve done a pretty good job of battling through that mental fatigue.

Then as you get closer to playoff time, like in the last few weeks, you’re thinking of who you might be playing, and the importance of winning games to get into the playoffs. Unfortunate, the injury aspect, losing so many guys, but this is an exciting time.”

“Remarkable,” Knoblauch said. “Coming back and playing at the level he has. And the one goal that we scored that he didn’t get an assist on was in fact started with him. He drew a penalty… He’s been a big boost to our team, that’s an understatement. But to play at the level he’s been playing has been a huge advantage for our team.”