The Edmonton Oilers roll into San Jose tonight to take on the Sharks. This is the first game of a three-game road trip that has them facing all the California teams. The good news they play the worst team first, so hopefully this will help them hit the road running.
The Sharks are the not only the worst team the Edmonton Oilers will face on this road trip but they are the worst team in the whole NHL. This is a definitaly a game the Oilers should win, but I said that last time they played the Sharks and the Oilers lost that game.
This is a different Oilers team than the team that lost 3-2 to the Sharks back on November 9th. They have a new coach and have been playing much better hockey as of late. Even though the last game they played was almost a week ago the Oilers are currently riding a 2 game-winning streak.
If they keep playing the way they were playing the last few games this will be another 2 points for the Oilers. On top of just playing good there are three main areas in which if the Oilers focus on they should win this game
1. Don't Let A Rookie Goalie Beat You
#SJSharks goalie Magnus Chrona will make his first career NHL start tonight against Connor McDavid and Edmonton Oilers.
— Curtis Pashelka (@CurtisPashelka) December 28, 2023
The San Jose Sharks are starting a rookie goalie tonight. Magnus Chrona has only played in one NHL game in his career. He came on in relief on November 4th vs the Pittsburg Penguins. In his 30:30 of playing time, he let in 4 goals.
He has never started a game yet in the NHL, so the Edmonton Oilers need to take advantage of this. In the past, we have seen the Oilers get schooled by rookie and backup goalies. I don't think that is going to be the case tonight though.
Even in the AHL Chrona only has a 0.900SV% so far this year. He has also played a few games in the ECHL where he had a SV% of 0.940. Those numbers aren't against NHL-caliber players, in his 30 mins of NHL play his SV% has been 0.765%. Expect the Oilers not to go easy on him tonight.