The San Jose Sharks are on a roll these days; they’ve won four straight and six of seven. Tuesday night they routed the visiting Edmonton Oilers, 7-2
Erik Karlsson was driver on the offense with three assists; he now has a 14-game assist streak in hand.
“He’s been great,” Sharks forward Joe Pavelski said. “He’s really established his game in our structure. Everybody feels pretty comfortable playing with him because he makes those plays and he makes the outlet pass and he’s got that speed coming out of our end with it. He’s been a big piece to our success lately.”
Evander Kane scored twice for Sharks in win over Oilers – file photo courtesy of Lewis Bleiman
Evander Kane and Joonas Donskoi struck for two goals apiece in the win as the Sharks improved to 25-13-7.
“They were all over us. They made it hard for us. We have to be a lot better in certain areas,” the Oilers’Â Adam Larsson said after the loss.
Aaron Dell made 20 saves to get the victory.
“They were attacking us,” Edmonton coach Ken Hitchcock said. “That’s two games in a row they’ve owned us in front of the net, in the slot, and they knocked us out of the box. That’s a damn good team. They owned us in what I call critical ice; the areas you score in.
“We had our chances and they got sticks on the puck or got deflections. They played better than we did in those critical zones.”
Alex Chiasson and Milan Lucic were the Oilers’ goal scorers; for Lucic, it was his second goal of the season.
“We needed to respond through the bad bounces,” Oilers forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins said. “We’ve had two good games and two bad games on this road trip. We have to find that consistency again. There were not a lot of positives in this one.”
Brent Burns, Marcus Sorensen and Joe Thornton had single markers for the Sharks.
The Oilers dropped to 20-20-3.
[WATCH: All Oilers vs. Sharks highlights]
Cam Talbot got the start but was pulled early in the second period after yielding four goals,
Talbot was abused by the quicker Sharks in the low slot and by his own defense which spent much of the game admiring the Sharks’ attack scheme.
Mikko Koskinen made 16 saves and gave up three goals in relief.
There is a deep-seated problem on this Oilers team and no new coach is going to fix what is wrong unless the locker room is changed.
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