Connor McDavid returned to action to score a goal and record his 100th assist of the season in the Edmonton Oilers’ 9-2 rout of the visiting San Jose Sharks on Monday.
McDavid missed Edmonton’s previous three games with a lower-body injury, but he quickly marked his return by scoring just 53 seconds after the opening whistle on Monday. McDavid later tallied his milestone assist at 15:35 of the second period, setting up Zach Hyman’s 54th goal of the season.
NHL legends Bobby Orr, Mario Lemieux and Wayne Gretzky (on 11 occasions) are the only other players in league history to record at least 100 assists in a season.
If the Oilers (49-25-6, 104 points) win their last two games and the Canucks lose their final two games in regulation, Edmonton will squeak past Vancouver for the Pacific Division title.
Nine different players had multi-point performances in the Oilers’ highest-scoring game of the season.
Adam Henrique and Dylan Holloway each had a goal and two assists for Edmonton, and Darnell Nurse had three assists. Warren Foegele scored two goals, Leon Draisaitl had two assists and Hyman, Corey Perry and Evan Bouchard each collected a goal and an assist. Cody Ceci scored Edmonton’s other goal.
Stuart Skinner stopped 19 of 21 shots for his 36th win of the season.
Danil Gushchin and Fabian Zetterlund scored for the Sharks (19-53-9, 47 points), who are already assured of finishing with the worst record in the NHL.
Sharks goaltender Devin Cooley allowed eight goals on 22 shots before being replaced by Georgi Romanov during the second period. Romanov stopped 16 of 17 shots in his NHL debut.
After McDavid’s early strike, Henrique, Foegele, and Holloway all scored in the first period to build Edmonton’s 4-0 lead at the first intermission.
Gushchin’s first goal of the season put San Jose on the board 1:58 into the second period, but the Oilers kept pouring it on with five more goals in the middle frame.
Zetterlund tallied the third period’s only goal at the 15:29 mark. Mikael Granlund earned an assist, giving him 14 points (two goals, 12 assists) during a 12-game point streak.
