The real work starts now.
On Wednesday evening, the Edmonton Oilers defeated the San Jose Sharks 3-0, ending the 82-game season. I don’t know about you, but it never felt as if this regular season mattered after the Oilers came two goals short of winning the Stanley Cup last June. Well, the real season starts this weekend. But first, let’s take a look at what happened in Game 82.
The Oilers opened the scoring just over eight minutes into the game. Connor McDavid had the puck, like he usually does, and passed it to Ty Emberson at the point. The former Sharks’ shot beat Georgi Romanov through a screen to open the scoring and give McDavid his eighth 100-point season.
Midway through the second period, the Oilers scored an insurance goal. After Emberson got the zone entry, the puck was cycled around the zone for a bit. A rebound came to Emberson, who passed it behind the net to Adam Henrique, with the vet finding Max Jones in front of the net for his first goal as an Oiler.
Corey Perry iced the game with an empty net goal for his 19th of the season.

Takeaways…

On the Oilers’ first goal of the game, Connor McDavid picked up his 100th point of the season. He became just the fourth player to register eight or more 100-point seasons, joining Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, and Marcel Dionne. What could’ve been had he not been injured in the 2015-16 and 2019-20 seasons.
Ty Emberson has scored two goals this season, with both goals coming against the Sharks in the past four games. Aside from a few games last month, he’s been a steady presence on the third pairing alongside Brett Kulak.
Speaking of Kulak, he was one of the Oilers’ alternate captains in this game. That’s now five different players to have donned the “A” this season, with Corey Perry donning it a few games ago due to a bunch of players being injured.
Perry was terrific this season, finishing with 19 goals and 30 points in 81 games. That’s the most for any player who averages less than 12 minutes a game. If he wishes to return, the Oilers should be over that.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Logan Couture at some point in this article. The Sharks’ legend retired the other day due to injury, a sad end to the captain’s career. Personally, I watched Couture a ton when he played for the Ottawa 67’s when I was a kid, and I’ve always had a soft spot for the Sharks (except for in the 2017 postseason). Hopefully, he will stick around in hockey to some extent.
Jeff Skinner fell one point shy of reaching his 700th point this season. Who knows if he’ll reach that mark as an Oiler – his contract is up at the end of the season. But that doesn’t matter as he’s set to play his first NHL playoff game soon.
Overall, Skinner finished with 16 goals and 28 points, down from his 24 goals and 46 points the year before. Still, he had a diminished role and found chemistry with McDavid towards the end of the season. Overall, it’s a pretty good depth scoring signing.
The Oilers finished the season with as many double-digit scorers as they had last season (10), but three additional players finished with 20 or more points. Moreover, Mattias Janmark was just two points shy of reaching the 20-point mark, an improvement over last season’s 12 points. Playoff Janmark is a different beast.
Stuart Skinner has been solid since returning to the pipes as well. He saved all 18 shots he faced for his third shutout of the season. In his return game on Apr. 13, he saved 17 of 18 shots against the Winnipeg Jets, this is the Skinner the Oilers need heading into the postseason. 
Up next… well, all anyone knows is that the Oilers will take on the Los Angeles Kings in the traffic-ridden city. The time and date are unknown, but the Los Angeles Lakers play on Saturday, so there’s a good chance they play on Sunday.
Ryley Delaney is a Nation Network writer for Oilersnation, FlamesNation, and Blue Jays Nation. They can be followed on Twitter @Ryley__Delaney.

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