Following Tuesday’s win in Vegas, the Edmonton Oilers will continue their four-game Pacific Division road trip in San Jose.
1. The Oilers have eight games left to play in the 2024-25 regular season and three of them are against the Sharks. Edmonton edged out a 3-2 overtime victory at home in the first meeting between the two teams back in December.
Over the past four seasons, the Oilers have gone 11-1-0 against the rebuilding Sharks, with the one blip coming early in 2023-24 shortly before head coach Jay Woodcroft and assistant coach Dave Manson were fired.
2. All three teams vying for playoff positioning in the Pacific Division will be in action on Thursday. The Los Angeles Kings are on the road to face the Utah Hockey Club and the Golden Knights will host the Winnipeg Jets.
The Oilers are in third place in the division, two points back of the Kings and seven points back of the Golden Knights. Each team has eight games remaining, so there isn’t much room for error if Edmonton wants to avoid being the road team in the playoffs.
3. The Sharks are last in the NHL with a 20-44-10 record, though this season has already been an improvement on the 19-54-9 disaster they had in 2023-24.
San Jose will be out of the playoffs for the sixth consecutive year and they’ll be looking to win their second consecutive first-overall pick at the draft lottery this spring. They’ll pick four times in the first two rounds of the draft, twice with their own selections and also with ones they acquired from the Dallas Stars and Ottawa Senators.
4. The version of the Sharks the Oilers face three times in April is different than the one they beat back in December. San Jose moved Mikael Granlund, Cody Ceci, Jake Walman, and Fabian Zetterlund ahead of the trade deadline and young players have been playing more minutes since.
William Eklund, San Jose’s pick at seventh overall in the 2021 draft, leads the Sharks with 55 points in 69 games. Right behind him is 18-year-old Macklin Celebrini, the top pick from last year’s draft, with 21 goals and 53 points in 62 games. Veteran Tyler Toffoli leads the team with 27 goals.
5. This looks like the perfect opportunity for the Oilers to give goaltender Olivier Rodrigue his first NHL start.
The team’s second-round pick from the 2018 draft was called up from the American Hockey League last week after Stuart Skinner was injured in a 4-3 loss to Dallas. Calvin Pickard was lit up for five goals the following night against the Seattle Kraken and Rodrigue came into the game in relief for the third period and stopped seven of eight shots.
Pickard has started in three consecutive games for the Oilers with Skinner injured. He struggled along with the entire team against Seattle but has rebounded with two strong starts against the Flames and Golden Knights since that loss. With an important Pacific Division match against the Kings on Saturday, Thursday’s game against San Jose should be an off night for Pickard.
6. Head coach Kris Knoblauch confirmed on Wednesday that Trent Frederic will be the first of Edmonton’s three injured forwards to return to the lineup.
Connor McDavid, Evander Kane, and Frederic have been skating as the team’s fifth line at practice lately and the latter could make his Oilers debut on this road trip. McDavid isn’t expected to suit up for the Oilers until later in the season and Kane might not be ready for the start of the playoffs.
7. This will be Jake Walman’s first game against the Sharks since he was traded to Edmonton in exchange for a first-round pick and minor-leaguer Carl Berglund. Since joining the Oilers, the 28-year-old has six points over 12 games while logging an average of 21:20 per night on the team’s blueline.
The Oilers might also be facing a former friend on Thursday. The Sharks acquired Vincent Desharnais from the Pittsburgh Penguins before the deadline for a fifth-round pick and the big defender has suited up in seven games with San Jose. He missed the team’s most recent game on Tuesday with an upper-body injury.
