Edmonton Oilers (23-26-3) (6th, Pacific)

San Jose Sharks (28-18-8) (3rd, Pacific)

8:00 PM MDT

SAP Center

TV: Sportsnet

Radio: 630 CHED

SB Nation Opponent: Fear The Fin

BREAKDOWN

The Oilers needed to win every one of their three games in California to have a ghost of a chance at a playoff run. They’ve yet to pick up a point on their road trip, and things aren’t looking rosy. A 3-2 loss to Anaheim now has the Oilers fourteen points out of a wild card. It hasn’t been pretty, and it’s going to get worse before it gets better.

Edmonton is in San Jose tonight to take on the Sharks.

The Oilers are saying

“It’s history repeating itself...It’s frustrating for the players and the group.”

Source

That’s Oilers head coach Todd McLellan on his team’s penchant to yield the first two goals to the opponent.

It happened in Los Angeles, and you know it happened again last night. Everyone’s Best Friend Ryan Kesler scored the game winner for Anaheim, and three was the magic number. Edmonton got goals from (rolls dice)...Anton Slepyshev and Kris Russell.

The Sharks are saying

“I loved our first period, but we came out with nothing to show for it. You play like that, you should come out in front. We didn’t, and it hurt.”

Source

That’s Sharks coach Pete DeBoer on his club’s 5-3 loss to Vegas on Thursday.

San Jose and Vegas traded goals in the first two periods before Vegas blew it open with a three goal third.

Have some of this

• Three. more. years.
• OH BUT YOU’RE BEING BIASED: First point, stop saying “you’re bias” when you mean “you’re biased”. Bias is a thing. People are biased. Rant over. No, I’m not being biased. Here’s the goal that Russell scored last night to bring the Oilers to within one. Look at that goal, he shoots the puck like a giraffe learns to walk We cool now? Good. Let’s get back to the goal that got us here. That clearing attempt on Corey Perry’s goal is atrocious and should catch you a night off. In other words, he’ll be on the middle pair tonight against San Jose. Fill your boots if you want to.
• SPECIAL TEAMS: 0/3 on the power play in Anaheim. Ryan Strome had 4:08 on the power play. 30th overall in the league on the power play. Same as it ever was.
• Both Drake Caggiula and Andrej Sekera will be out tonight after taking pucks to the head. The Oilers have recalled Keegan Lowe.
• ANOTHER BUBBLE TEAM: Like the Ducks (and Kings), San Jose is another wild-card bubble team. They currently occupy the third spot in the Pacific with 64 points, but they’ve got Anaheim (64 points), Calgary (64 points) and Colorado (62 points) right behind them. Two of these four teams are likely to make the second season.
• USELESS STAT DEPT: I enjoy when the good ol’ plus/minus debate pops up from time to time. Brent Burns leads the Sharks in points, but has a minus 24 on the season. If you’re reading this, plus minus is a near-useless statistic that provides no real value. Eat at Arby’s.
• POWER PLAYS: The Sharks own the league’s second best power play at 24.2% That’s probably not a good thing for Edmonton, who own the league’s most dismal PK at 71.9%.
• NET GAINS: Wouldn’t surprise me to see Al Montoya (4-3-1, .888SV% / 2.96 GAA) tonight on the tail end of a back-to-back. The Sharks are going with Aaron Dell (13-4-3, .919 SV% / 2.44 GAA / 2 SO)
• SICK BAY: Edmonton is without Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (ribs), Andrej Sekera (face), Drake Caggiula (mouth) and Adam Larsson (personal). The Sharks are without Joe Thornton (knee) and Joel Ward (shoulder).