McDavid hits 100 points as Oilers finish strong
While most of the province had its fingers crossed for a Battle of Alberta, the Edmonton Oilers will instead meet the San Jose Sharks in the first round of the playoffs.
But like Mick Jagger once said: You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you might find you get what you need.
And for a city that has needed playoffs for a long, long time, an opening round date with the Sharks is just fine with them.
If Oilers-Flames was meant to be it will happen in the second round. In the meantime, Edmonton opens up at home on Wednesday at 8 p.m.
The Oilers wrapped things up in style Sunday at Rogers Place, with Jordan Eberle’s hat trick laying the foundation for a 5-2 victory over the Vancouver Canucks in the 1,230th and final game of the NHL schedule.
First place in the Pacific Division and a Battle of Alberta with wild card Calgary still very much alive in the third period, but just as Eberle scored his third of the night the Anaheim Ducks got the point they needed against L.A. to secure the title and claim the Flames for themselves.
The Oilers were 3-1-1 against the Sharks this season.
In the other big news of the night, captain Connor McDavid put an exclamation point on his season, finishing the night with two assists for 100 points. He wins the Art Ross Trophy in his first full season in the NHL and becomes just the fifth player in the last seven years to reach 100 points (and the first Oiler in 21 years).
Overall, it’s been a remarkable turnaround season for the Oilers, who head into the Sharks series playing their best hockey of the year.
They finish with nine-straight home wins and a 12-2 record over their final 14 games for 103 points. They moved up 21 spots in the standings, from 29th to eighth from last season and improved their goal differential from -48 (28th in the NHL) to plus 32 (sixth in the NHL).
The Oilers also finish the year with five 20-goal scorers — Eberle, McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Milan Lucic and Patrick Maroon and a 33-11-6 record against the Western Conference (20-6-3 versus the Pacific).
There was no drama to be found in the 82nd game, though, as the Oilers made convincing and clinical work of the Canucks, who came to Edmonton with nothing more on their agenda than to finish their death rattle.
Edmonton was in control for most of the first period and held a 14-6 advantage in shots at the first intermission, going up 1-0 on Eberle’s 18th of the season at 18:46.
The Canucks tie it two minutes into the second period, creating a little uneasiness in the building, but the Oilers settled down and pulled away with two goals of their own. Eberle’s second of the game at 4:10 restored the lead and Drake Caggiula converted a sweet pass from McDavid at 14:46 (not long after an Anton Slepyshev goal was wiped out by an offside call).
Eberle rounded out the hat trick early in the third and McDavid hit the century mark when he set up Draisaitl three minutes later, prompting chants of “MVP! MVP!” at playoff ready Rogers Place.
All the suspense took place in Anaheim, where an L.A. Kings win would have pitted the Oilers against the Flames in round one.
Anaheim went up 1-0, the Kings tied it. Anaheim went up 2-1, the Kings tied it.
Then Dustin Brown deflected Jarome Iginla shot with 12 minutes left in the third period to put Los Angeles up 3-2, and a Battle of Alberta was just so close we could touch it.
It would have been brilliant if Iginla set up the goal that made Edmonton-Calgary possible, but the Ducks fought back on Nate Thompson’s goal at 11:34 and won it in overtime.
So Sharks it is.
LATE HITS: Edmonton had six players (five of them top six forwards) play all 82 games. McDavid, Eberle, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Draisaitl and Lucic didn’t miss a game this year. Oscar Klefbom, who wrestled with a lot of injuries earlier in his career, played 82 as well.