The San Jose Sharks Oscar Lindblom scored the only goal of the night for the San Jose Sharks at SAP Center in San Jose against the Edmonton Oilers on Fri Jan 13, 2023 (San Jose Sharks photo)
By Len Shapiro
SAN JOSE–The Edmonton Oilers (28-18-3) Connor McDavid gifted himself on his 26th birthday scoring two goals to lead the Oilers to a 7-1 victory over the San Jose Sharks (13-23-8) at SAP Center in San Jose on Friday night. McDavid picked up an assist in the contest and now has 25 points with ten goals and five assists for this road trip it’s his longest scoring total for the road.
McDavid now has scored in six straight road games with 37 goals and 45 assists for a total of 82 points McDavid has accomplished it in 44 games. McDavid is scoring Hall of Fame numbers and accomplishments his 80 plus in 44 games since some of the best players in hockey have done it in 44 or less games, Mario Lemieux (31), Jaromir Jagr (37), and Ron Francis (44) all doing it with the 1995-96 Pittsburgh Penguins.
McDavid gave credit to teammate Leon Draisaitl who passed the puck to him that helped him get the scores, “Two pretty good passes from him (Draisaitl) there, so that helps,” McDavid said “I feel pretty good, but it’s about our group in here. We’re continuing to try to lay good games down one after another and take it one day at a time, kind of like our second half last year.”
The Sharks got their only goal of the night from Oscar Lindblom who scored in the third period. The Sharks hardly made any noise against the Oilers offensively and Sharks goaltender Kaapo Kahkonen looked like one of the goalies from the movie the Mighty Ducks getting pelted all night facing 41 shots and saving 37. Kahkonen stayed in the whole game and Sharks head coach David Quinn didn’t pull him out saying he was the only player on the ice doing his best.
Quinn said the team stunk the whole game not being to execute the shots in the Oilers end of the ice, not taking advantage of the power play, and not giving Kahkonen enough protection up front that saw a volley of goals to light the lamp before you could even turn around. “We just stunk. We stunk on the powerplay. We stopped on the penalty kill. We stunk 5-on-5. Our forward’s stunk, (and) our defensemen stunk,” Quinn said. “The only guy that didn’t stink was our goalie. And that hasn’t happened all year, and over 82 games, something like this is going to happen. You can move past it pretty quickly.”
The Sharks after Friday’s loss are sinking further in the Pacific Division to seventh place losing four of their last five games. The Sharks with the loss to the Oilers opened a three game homestand and have struggled at home this season and can’t seem to get it together on home ice. They host the New Jersey Devils (27-12-3) who are hot bringing in a three game win streak to San Jose on Monday for Martin Luther King Jr day a 1:00pm face off at SAP Center.
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