The Day After 82.0: Oilers close out 2022-23 season with 5-2 win over San Jose Sharks

The Edmonton Oilers 2022-23 regular season has officially come to a close.

It finished off in solid fashion last night as the team rolled past the San Jose Sharks by a score of 5-2. For the Oilers, it concluded what had been a season of highs and lows.

The high for the club is obviously their play down the back half of the season. Since January 10th and last night — a stretch that saw the Oilers play 40 games — the team had the best points percentage in the league at .800. Close behind them, however, were the Boston Bruins at .798.

But getting to that point where the season turned around was a slog for the Oilers. From the start of the season to January 10th, they had the 11th-worst record in the league with a points percentage of just .524. A 20-18-3 record was far from how the team wanted to start the year.

As the new year rolled through things started to turn around for this team and that January 10th date was a very important one. You see, the night prior was one of the toughest Oilers’ losses up to that point falling 6-3 at the hands of the LA Kings. LA took it to the Oilers on the special teams scoring four times with the man advantage and limiting the Oilers to none of their own.

Now, credit where it’s due as the Oilers fought back in that game, quite literally. Jesse Puljujarvi fought Phillip Danault. Zach Hyman fought Sean Durzi. Klim Kostin fought Brendan Lemieux. And afterwards, the Oilers went on a run for the ages. It really was a catalyst moment for the Oilers in their season and now, they are set for another round-one matchup with the Kings. 

Last night, much like they did all the way through the second half of the year, the Oilers just took care of business. They got on the board early with a Mattias Janmark goal 4:16 into the game, and never looked back. He would add another tally in the second period, as Leon Draisaitl, Evan Bouchard and Evander Kane would all add goals of their own.

Most notably, Draisaitl ended up with a three-point night tying him with Nikita Kucherov for most points in the 2000’s by a player not named Connor McDavid. Pretty decent year for The Big Man. One of those points was his goal on the powerplay, which ties him with Dave Andreychuk for second-most goals in a single season (32).

As a whole, it also gave the Oilers their ninth straight victory tying a franchise record set back in 2001. The Oilers at the time had went on a run between February 20th and March 13th that saw them outscore opponents 35-13 en route to nine straight wins.

Now, the work begins to prepare for the LA Kings next Monday night.