The Edmonton Oilers were playing the second half of a back-to-back in San Jose on Wednesday night, coming off a deflating 6-5 overtime loss in Utah the night before, down two of their best forwards in Leon Draisaitl and Zach Hyman. The Sharks, meanwhile, were rested, desperate for points in a tight Western Conference wild-card race, and playing at home. On paper, the conditions were ideal for an upset.
Connor McDavid had other ideas.
The Oilers captain scored a hat trick and added two assists, factoring on all five Edmonton goals in a 5-2 win at SAP Center. It was his 15th career hat trick, not his first of the season, and it lifted the Oilers (40-29-10) two points clear of the Vegas Golden Knights in the Pacific Division.
"He knows that our team needed to win, and also we're playing a little shorthanded," said head coach Kris Knoblauch. "Who needs to pick us up? You know he's going to be the guy. Every shift, he was really dialled in. Played extremely well. I've seen him play a lot of good games, and that was one of his best."
At this point in his career, McDavid's talent is almost unremarkable. He leads the NHL with 133 points. Wednesday's performance was his 14th five-point game, tying Paul Coffey and Gilbert Perreault for 10th in NHL history. His third 130-point season ties him with Marcel Dionne for fourth all-time behind Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, and Phil Esposito. The company speaks for itself.
And yet. He still hasn't won a Stanley Cup. That's the asterisk that follows him everywhere. None is more aware of this than he.
"No one wants to win the Stanley Cup more than I do," he's said before, and coming from a man who is demonstrably bland and robotic in nearly every other public utterance, it reads as the most honest thing he's ever put into the world. Somehow, the ring still isn't there.
San Jose drew first blood when Macklin Celebrini put the Sharks up 1-0 on a power play goal in the first period, going far side from the left circle. The 19-year-old has 107 points this season, and he's the entire reason San Jose is sniffing the playoff picture.
Edmonton didn't blink. Vasily Podkolzin tied it on the power play, then Jack Roslovic pushed it to 3-1 on another man advantage in the second, courtesy of a McDavid pass from his own goal line to the Sharks' blue line that sent Roslovic in alone. Kiefer Sherwood made it 3-2, and then McDavid made it 4-2 almost immediately, driving to the net, avoiding a poke check and tapping into an open net. He added an empty-netter to close it out. Three power play goals on three attempts. Fourteen shots against all night.
"Just get him the puck," added Bouchard on his thoughts on McDavid.
It was Bouchard who also had a historic night. Two assists pushed him to 91 points on the season, making him the second defenseman in Oilers history to reach 90 in a year, the first since Paul Coffey did it for the fourth straight season in 1985-86.
His 70 assists on the year are a number that would be the story on most other teams, but remain only a footnote in Edmonton.
McDavid was measured about the win, as he tends to be. He was quick to spread the credit.
"Finding a way to get three on the power play should win a lot of nights," he said. "But everyone defended. We checked hard. They've got some special players over there, one in particular. So I thought we did a good job defending."
The one in particular is Celebrini, who Edmonton held off the scoresheet the rest of the night after his opening goal. If the Sharks are going to make the playoffs, he's going to have to drag them there. He's certainly trying.
But Wednesday belonged to McDavid. It almost always does, on back-to-backs especially.
One man's will outscored a desperate team 3-2, and his linemates cleaned up the rest. The Oilers snapped a two-game skid, climbed back to the top of the Pacific, and were reminded, not that they needed it, of exactly who they're built around.
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