Another year, another playoff run.
On Friday evening, the Oilers played their penultimate home game of the season, defeating the lowly San Jose Sharks by a score of 4-2 to clinch a postseason berth for the sixth consecutive season. Let’s take a look at what happened in this one. The Oilers opened the scoring about seven minutes into the game, as Evan Bouchard’s point shot on the power play deflected off a Sharks defender and behind their netminder for the 1-0 lead.
With just under four and a half minutes left in the first period, the Oilers had sustained zone time. Connor McDavid had the puck on the half-boards and found a cutting Ty Emberson for his first goal as an Oiler against his former team.
A few minutes later, Sharks forward Will Smith received the puck at the top of the faceoff dot, sneaking it past Calvin Pickard to cut the Oilers’ lead in half.
About six minutes into the second period, Henry Thurn’s shot from the wall took a deflection off Darnell Nurse’s skate and into the back of the net for the 2-2 tie.
On another power play, about seven and a half minutes into the third period, McDavid’s pass to the front of the net found Corey Perry, who banged it in to give the Oilers the lead and the eventual win. Connor Brown added an empty net for the 12th of the season.
Takeaways…
The injury bug continued to plague the Oilers. Defenceman Mattias Ekholm returned to the lineup for the first time in a while, but early in the first period, he tumbled and did not return. Zach Hyman also sustained an injury and didn’t play from the second period onward. Not great. Hopefully, their removal from the game was just precautionary.
With that being said, there are some positives in this game as well, namely Connor McDavid. Since returning to the lineup on Wednesday evening, the game’s best player has seven assists on the Oilers’ eight goals. He now has 97 points this season, just three shy of reaching 100 for the eighth time in 10 seasons.
Stuart Skinner returned to the roster on Friday, but it was Calvin Pickard who started for the Oilers. He saved 22 of 24 shots for a .917 save percentage, bringing his season save percentage to .902. It’s hard to argue he doesn’t deserve to start come playoff time.
Ty Emberson picked up his first goal as an Oiler in this game. How sweet must it be to come against his former team? Evan Bouchard also picked up his 14th of the season and led the Oilers with 28 minutes and 24 seconds of ice time. Darnell Nurse and Brett Kulak also played over 24:30.
Corey Perry has been one of the most surprising Oilers this season, as his game-winning goal in the third period was his 17th of the season. Only Leon Draisaitl, Hyman, McDavid, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins have more.
The Oilers may have clinched, but they still have things to play for, namely, home-ice advantage in the first round. Up next for them is the Winnipeg Jets on Sunday at 5:00 PM in Manitoba. They’ll play their final home game against the Los Angeles Kings on the final day, before heading to San Jose to face the Sharks. Edmonton has played one more game than the Kings. For their final four games, they face off against the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday, the Oilers on Monday, the Seattle Kraken on Tuesday, and finally the Calgary Flames, who remain alive in search of a wild card.
As it stands, the Oilers have a 46-28-5 record with 97 points and three games remaining, while the Kings have a 45-24-9 record with 99 points and four games remaining.
Ryley Delaney is a Nation Network writer for Oilersnation, FlamesNation, and Blue Jays Nation. They can be followed on Twitter @Ryley__Delaney.
