Nobody is sure when Connor McDavid returns to the Oilers line -up, but it will not be for Edmonton’s thunderstorm thunderstorm game against the San Jose Sharks.
Edmonton’s superstar captain has been out on March 20th on March 20 at a check from Winnipeg Jets defender Josh Morrisse.
McDavid returned to training in a gray non -contact jersey on Tuesday.
“It should be before the regular season ends,” said Edmonton trainer Kris Knoblauch about McDavid’s return. “I think the most important thing is that he is healthy and 100 percent for the playoffs.”
The Oilers (43-26-5, 91 points) were also without their other superstar Leon Draisaitl before winning a 3-2 victory against the Calgary Flames in Calgary Flames on Saturday.
Draisaitl certainly had an influence on his return with two goals and one template. The first goal was his 50th and made him the first NHL player this season that reached this plateau, and the second was the OT winner. On Tuesday, he added number 52 in a 3-2 win against the Vegas Golden Knights and left Draisaitl one shortly before the milestone of 400 goals.
Draisaitl played in eight of the eleven games that McDavid launched this season to score 15 points (eight goals, seven templates). Draisaitl is plus-7 in these competitions and has led Edmonton to a 6-2-0 record without his captain.
Defender Jake Walman achieved his first Oilers goal in the victory against Vegas. He was acquired by the sharks on March 6.
San Jose (20-44-10, 50 points) lost three in a row (0-2-1) and took a 4: 3 shootout against the host Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday.
Hook goalkeeper Alexandar Georgiev achieved 34 parades and impressed his trainer.
“It is probably the best I saw,” said Shark’s coach Ryan Warsofsky about Georgiev.
San Jose scored 3-1 after the first 40 minutes, but defender Marc-Edouard Vlasic scored his first goal of the season and Alexander Wennberg scored 3:14 to put the game into extension.
Georgiev scored five parades to kill a 5-to-3 killed of 1:36 in the middle of the third period before Wenberg bound him with 3-all-all-all-binding times.
“We started to bring it to them and they didn’t want to skate with us,” said William Eklund, who started Wenberg’s equalizer. “I think we were the better team, but unfortunately we couldn’t get the victory.”
The sharks were exceeded by the Ducks 10: 3 and covered 1-0 in the first five minutes of the game.
“We knew that it was not a good start, we knew that they couldn’t give up two breakings in the first five minutes,” said Warsofsky. “It is somehow unexcused. You would have to live under a rock so as not to see what was going on.”
Defender Shakir Mukhamadullin received the other goal in San Jose, but left 35 seconds in the third period after he was pulled down by Anaheim Frank Vatrano, who was rated as a rough penalty. On Wednesday there was no update regarding Mukhamadullin’s status.
-Media on the Level field
