The Edmonton Oilers secured a 5-3 victory over the San Jose Sharks at Rogers Place on Tuesday. Thirteen Oilers players recorded at least one point in the contest. This was Edmonton’s first game since news broke that Leon Draisaitl would be sidelined for at least the remainder of the regular season due to a lower-body injury.
Oilers Overcome Draisaitl’s Absence
Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch expressed confidence in his team’s ability to overcome adversity. He stated that the team has players capable of stepping up. Knoblauch added, “I liked how we came out and played most of the third period. I thought we just simplified our game a lot, played a lot more tenaciously. We were a lot simpler, a lot more direct.”
Adam Henrique spearheaded the Oilers’ attack with two assists. Connor McDavid also contributed with an assist. Connor Ingram stopped 27 shots for the Oilers.
“We talked about that no one guy is going to be able to replace him,” Henrique said of Draisaitl. “It’s something that collectively we’re going to have to do right from here to the end of the season and see where that takes us.
Sharks’ Perspective on the Loss
Dmitry Orlov and Kiefer Sherwood each scored a goal and added an assist for the Sharks. Alex Nedeljkovic made 32 saves in goal for San Jose. The Sharks concluded their five-game road trip with a 2-3-0 record.
Nedeljkovic commented on the game, “We had a great second period. I thought we had a really good response to how the first period went. I think we let the game get away from us there in the first,” Nedeljkovic said. “We had a great bounce back, we played our game, I thought we dominated that second period, for the most of it.
Orlov opened the scoring for the Sharks at 7:24 of the first period after a giveaway in the neutral zone by the Oilers.
Playoff Implications for San Jose
San Jose are now one point behind the Seattle Kraken for the second wild card from the Western Conference. Nedeljkovic emphasised the importance of every remaining game. “Every game is a playoff game now. Every game matters. We need to be at our best or close to our best every single night that we can here. If we’re not picking up points, someone else is. Tonight was a four point game, so this was a huge game for them in terms of getting the result. But we’ve got to stay with it, we’re not out of it. We’ve still got some games in hand and we play them again, play Anaheim a couple times in a few divisional games coming our way. So, a couple more four point games. I think the big picture message is every game is a playoff game for us at this point.”
Edmonton now shares the lead in points with the Anaheim Ducks in the Pacific Division, sitting one point ahead of the Vegas Golden Knights. The Oilers have picked up points in five of their last six games (4-1-1).