The game was stacked against the San Jose Sharks before Monday’s game against the Edmonton Oilers even began.
A handful of Sharks veterans were too tired to make the team’s trip to Alberta, the team said, leaving a handful of inexperienced players to face the world’s most dangerous forward, Connor McDavid, and an Oilers attack which ranks among the most dangerous in the world. powerful in the NHL.
The result wasn’t pretty, but also rather predictable for anyone who has spent any time watching the Sharks try to play defense this season.
The Sharks allowed four goals on 10 shots in the first period and five more on 17 shots in the second as they were crushed 9-2 by the Oilers, who handed San Jose one of its most lopsided losses in this dismal season.
Sharks starting goaltender Devin Cooley was sidelined multiple times as the skaters in front of him looked completely clueless on how to defend McDavid and the Oilers.
After allowing his eighth goal of the game, with Oilers defenseman Evan Bouchard scoring his 18th of the season at 13:49 of the second period, Cooley momentarily lay down on the ice – face down – as the music blared at Rogers Place. .
Cooley allowed eight goals on 22 shots before being fortunately removed.
Georgi Romanov replaced Cooley, making his NHL debut, and allowed the Oilers’ ninth goal at 15:35 of the second, while Connor McDavid recorded his 100th assist of the season, setting up Zach Hyman for his 54th goal. .
McDavid joins Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux and Bobby Orr as the only players in NHL history to record 100 assists in a season. His production helped the Oilers have the fourth-most prolific offense in the NHL this year.
Danil Gushchin and William Eklund both scored for the Sharks, who have now allowed 326 goals this season, the highest total since allowing 357 in 1995-96. Romanov finished with 14 saves on 15 shots.
Several Sharks players did not join the team for their final road trip of the year, ending their respective seasons and for a few of them, likely their tenure with the organization.
Forwards Kevin Labanc, Mike Hoffman, Filip Zadina and Alexander Barabanov, forward/defender Jacob MacDonald, defenseman Jan Rutta and goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood all did not travel with the Sharks.
As much as the Sharks missed the veteran presence of these individuals, Blackwood’s absence seemed to really hurt.
Blackwood started Saturday’s game and stopped 32 of 38 shots in the Sharks’ 6-2 loss to Minnesota. Sharks coach David Quinn, however, said Blackwood is “fighting something.” In fact, he’s been doing it for a while,” leading the team to call up Romanov.
The Sharks have now lost by six goals or more seven times this season. Their most lopsided losses came in November, when they were beaten 10-1 and 10-2 respectively by the Vancouver Canucks and Pittsburgh Penguins in successive games.
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