IN DEPTH
Each and every Sunday during the season we dig deeper into Oilers storylines with our long-form features. This week's feature is on the Oilers hockey sticks and their many configurations.
It seems the Edmonton Oilers are finally hitting their stride.
Ryan Strome had a pair of goals as the Oilers won their second game in a row with a 5-3 victory over the San Jose Sharks on Monday.
Edmonton defeats San Jose 5-3, Strome scores twice. 1:44
Mark Letestu, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Patrick Maroon also scored for the Oilers (15-17-2), who have won back-to-back games for just the third time this season but have victories in four of their past six.
"We have gotten the ship slowly going in the right direction the last eight or nine games," Strome said. "We have to keep it going. Obviously, the divisional games are very important. We have a lot of those in the second half and this is a good start."
Joe Pavelski, Timo Meier and Marcus Sorensen replied as the Sharks (17-11-4) lost back-to-back games.
The 10,000th @EdmontonOilers goal couldn't have been drawn up any better.
Tic-tac-toe. All @strome18 - @Drat_29 - @jujhar94. pic.twitter.com/YRlJBUa9Y4 —@NHL
"We're not as tight defensively as we have been, we've also got some guys out of the lineup who weren't out earlier in the year, too," said Sharks head coach Peter Deboer. "I think we did a good job on [Connor] McDavid tonight. I thought the difference in the game was the depth, they got some more depth scoring than we did."
San Jose started the scoring on the power play six minutes into the first period as Pavelski swooped in to put a rebound past Oilers goalie Cam Talbot, scoring his seventh goal of the season.
Letestu beat Sharks goalie Martin Jones with a one-timer shortly after an Oilers power play expired to tie the game with five minutes left in the first.
Leon Draisaitl made a perfect pass across to Strome to give him a wide-open net to deposit the puck into and give Edmonton a 2-1 lead with 1:09 left in the first. It was the 10,000th goal in Oilers' franchise history.
Edmonton added to their lead 6:30 into the second period when a Nugent-Hopkins pass hit Pavelski's stick and got past Jones.
THE NUGE? STILL HUGE. #LetsGoOilers pic.twitter.com/r1tQlzqnRf —@EdmontonOilers
San Jose got that goal right back, however, as a Tomas Hertl shot deflected off teammate Meier and in.
Maroon's ninth of the season restored the Oilers' two-goal edge eight minutes into the third.
San Jose kept coming and made it 4-3 with eight minutes left as Sorensen made a nice deke to record his second goal.
Strome put the game away with an empty-netter.
There was a comical moment in the game as Maroon playfully tugged on Sharks defenceman Brent Burns beard a few times after the pair had gotten tangled on the ice behind the San Jose net.
"It was just in my face and I decided to pull it," Maroon said. "I thought he would be mad at first, but he just asked me if I liked it and I said yeah, it's a pretty nice beard."
Just making sure it's real. 🧔🏻 #LetsGoOilers pic.twitter.com/3VPS1P6OgB —@EdmontonOilers
Both teams are off until Thursday, when the Sharks return home to host the Canucks and the Oilers play the second game of a three-game homestand against St. Louis.
The Edmonton Oilers have activated defenceman Adam Larsson from injured reserve.
Larsson is expected to play tonight when the Oilers face the San Jose Sharks at Rogers Place.
The defenceman has missed the past eight games with upper-body injury. He last played on Nov. 28 in a 3-2 overtime win against the Arizona Coyotes.
The Oilers posted a 4-4 record with Larsson out of the lineup.
The 25-year-old has been a mainstay on the Oilers defence for the past two seasons.
Larsson likely to make return to #Oilers lineup as they battle Sharks for first time since eliminating them from playoff contention in April. https://t.co/YKq8pPHyTD — @EdmontonOilers
The trade that brought him to Edmonton in June 2016, which sent former No. 1 draft pick Taylor Hall to the New Jersey Devils, has been much-discussed and, in some quarters, much criticized.
Critics accuse general manger Peter Chiarelli of trading away a goal-scoring left winger for a stay-at-home defenceman.
But others credit the trade with solidifying the Oilers defence.
Larsson, the No. 4 pick in the 2011 draft, has played in 25 games with the Oilers this season, and has three goals and one assist.
He has played 378 career NHL games and has 16 goals and 76 assists.
On Monday, the Oilers also assigned forward Anton Slepyshev to the Bakersfield Condors of the American Hockey League.
