Total command. Absolute control.
We could be talking about Connor McDavid’s five-point night in a 5-2 win at San Jose. Or perhaps it was an Edmonton Oilers power play that entered the game on a two-for-20 run, but scored on all three opportunities versus the Sharks.
Or we could be referencing Edmonton’s defensive play, surrendering just 14 Sharks shots on goal — including only four in the third period, when Tristan Jarry came on in relief of an injured Connor Ingram.
“Finding a way to get three on the power play should win a lot of nights,” offered McDavid, who notched his 15th career hat trick. “But everyone defended. We checked hard. They’ve got some special players over there, one in particular. So I thought we did a good job defending.”
It was a game that San Jose absolutely needed, using up one of their two games in hand while still trailing Nashville by three points for the final wild-card spot. And Edmonton played the night before in Utah, getting to their hotel rooms at around 1:30 a.m.
But it was the Oilers who were on point and detail-oriented. And it was McDavid not Macklin Celebrini (one goal) who brought the fans out of their seats in this one.
“I’ve grown to like back-to-backs a lot this year,” McDavid said. “There’s just something about them that I’ve been feeling really, really good in them. Feel on right away. And tonight, that was really the case.”
McDavid was otherworldly in this one, pulling six points clear of Nikita Kucherov in the chase for his sixth Art Ross Trophy. Ever since Leon Draisaitl went down he’s taken it upon himself to provide, and on this back-to-back he was in on seven of Edmonton’s 10 goals.
“He knows that our team needed to win, and also we’re playing a little shorthanded,” head coach Kris Knoblauch said. “Who needs to pick us up? You know he’s going to be the guy.
“Every shift, he was really dialled in. Played extremely well. I’ve seen him play a lot of good games, and that was one of his best.”
With five points McDavid passed the great Bobby Clarke to move into 50th place on the NHL’s all-time scoring list, with 1,215 points. Next up is Jeremy Roenick (1,216), Larry Murphy (1,217) and the esteemed Jean Beliveau (1,219).
He’s also got 47 goals, and needs a goal-per-game pace in Edmonton’s final three games to reach 50 for just the second time in his NHL career.
On a night this one, what goes through Evan Bouchard’s mind?
“Just get him the puck,” chuckled Bouchard, who was excellent at both ends of the rink after an off night against Utah.
The Oilers scored 10 goals in this back-to-back — minus injured snipers Draisaitl and Zach Hyman — and collected three of four points.
They are 5-1-2 in their last eight road games and 6-1-1 in their past eight overall, with three games left to play: Saturday in Los Angeles, and at home next week against Colorado and Vancouver.
Edmonton hasn’t won their division in the regular season since the 1986-87 season, the longest current drought in the entire NHL. Now, they’ve won two Stanley Cups in the interim and been a Cup finalist three other times, but Edmonton won their third Stanley Cup in the spring of 1987 — so that’s not nothing.
Uh oh…
Much to everyone’s surprise, Jarry took the Oilers’ net for the third period, after Ingram had stopped eight of the 10 shots he faced through 40 minutes.
Jarry had played the night before in Utah, surrendering all six goals in a 6-5 overtime loss. On Wednesday he gave the Oilers the saves they needed to close this one out, stopping all four shots he faced behind an Oilers defensive front that gave up virtually nothing to the Sharks.
As for Ingram, it sounds like he tweaked something. It was not bad enough, however, for the Oilers to have requested the EBUG in San Jose. Ingram served as the backup for the third period, skating out on the ice to stretch during TV timeouts.
“With about six minutes left, the last TV timeout in the second period, he felt a little discomfort,” Knoblauch said. “He got tested out in the training room (in the intermission), and then we felt it was best for him, and obviously our team, to not push it and make something worse.”
Edmonton has a day off in L.A. Thursday. The Bakersfield Condors are at home this weekend, so if Ingram is anywhere less than 100 per cent, we’d expect Calvin Pickard to drive down from Bako for Friday’s practice and to back up Jarry on Saturday versus the Kings.
OIL SPILLS — With two assists Evan Bouchard crested the 90-point plateau for the first time in his career, with 91. Paul Coffey (four times) is the only other Oilers D-man to reach 90 points in a season. He also joins Coffey as the only defencemen in franchise history to register 70 assists in a season, something Coffey did three times … Bouchard becomes only the 13th D-man in NHL history to score 90 points in a season … With 795 career games, Darnell Nurse ties Kelly Buchberger for the eighth spot in games played in franchise history (credit to X user 50Oilers).
