Sharks ease on past Oilers

In Edmonton, the long slow process of sliding into irrelevancy in the NHL’s Western Conference continued for the Oilers on Saturday.

Kevin Labanc scored his first NHL hat trick for the San Jose Sharks in a 5-2 thumping of Edmonton.

Kevin Labanc scored first NHL hat trick in win in Edmonton – file photo by Lewis Bleiman

“It’s unbelievable. It’s great, there are no words to describe it,” Labanc said. “It’s pretty cool that there was a couple of hats thrown out there. It was fun, it was a good game. Besides the hat trick, we got the two points and that was huge for us.”

Aaron Dell made 21 saves in the win.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Zack Kassian were the strikers for the Oilers.

The Oilers dropped to 24-26-5 and have lost seven of eight matches.

“We didn’t give ourselves a chance,” Oilers coach Ken Hitchcock said. “We turned it over so many times in the first period we didn’t give ourselves a fighting chance. The game was over. When you turn it over that many times and you make casual plays like that, you give yourself no chance.”

Evander Kane and Tomas Hertl also scored for the Sharks.

“I think we’re starting to come together and we’re feeling good about where our game is right now,” Kane said. “Obviously, we want to continue to build.”

San Jose improved to 33-16-7.

“Kevin (Lebanc) is a kid that has worked on his game since I got here,” Sharks coach Peter DeBoer said. “He’s learned from the Joe Thorntons and the Joe Pavelskis and the Brent Burns of the world to put in extra time, take care of your body. He’s changed everything about his habits and is getting rewarded from that.”

[WATCH: All Sharks vs. Oilers highlights]

Cam Talbot made 26 saves in the loss.

“What makes a good playoff team is the consistency. Right now, we don’t have it at all. We can play a good game against a potential playoff team like Minnesota (4-1 win Thursday) — they are smart and strong — then we come out here and have a bad start and play a bad game,” the Oilers’ Oscar Klefbom said after the loss.