It wasn’t pretty, and that was the point.
The Edmonton Oilers ground out another low-event win Saturday afternoon, taking a 3-1 decision over the San Jose Sharks in a game that barely got out of first gear. Edmonton managed just five shots on goal through 34 minutes, but the result pushed them to 4-0-1 and gave them their best start in five years.
For a team trying to reshape its identity, that kind of ugly can look awfully useful.
“It’s tough to play against,” said winger Vasily Podkolzin, who scored his fifth of the season in the win. “The teams who won the Cups the last years played like that. That’s the way to go.
“It’s boring sometimes, and it’s feeling weird sometimes, but it works.”
The first 40 minutes were all about patience and pressure without much space to work with. Edmonton led 1-0 after two periods, and the shot count barely budged: the Oilers had eight, San Jose had 12.
No power plays. Not much open ice.
Not much of anything, really, except two teams acting like one goal might decide the whole thing.
“There wasn’t a lot of room out there, you didn’t generate anything off the rush tonight,” said Babcock. “I thought we had to do it the hard way.
“For this time of year I thought that was a pretty good defensive hockey game for both teams.”
That style made life much easier for Tristan Jarry. After being left exposed and then taking the blame for Edmonton’s 6-5 overtime loss in the season opener, Jarry got the kind of night a goalie wants when his team is buying in around him. He stopped 19 of 20 shots, and none of them came on breakaways or two-on-ones.
“I thought Jars played great,” said Babcock. “He gave us a chance on the road and that’s all you can ask. There wasn’t a lot of rubber on the net either way but it was a good night for him.”
It mattered, too. With Devon Levi having started well in his last two outings, Jarry needed a clean performance to settle himself back into the Oilers crease and calm the noise from that opening-night defeat.
“Just being on the road, with nobody on him, he just got to play and relax and be himself,” said Babcock. “He’s a good goalie.
He’s an important piece for us. We just have to play the right way in front of our goalies and they’ll be better.”
Edmonton’s early-season arc is hard to miss. After giving up 13 goals in its first two games, the group has now allowed only four over its last three victories, all of them 3-1, 5-2 and 3-1. The details are starting to look more familiar, and the players seem more comfortable grinding through the kind of third period that used to make them uneasy.
“We played a simple game,” said Jarry. “When things weren’t going our way or they were clogging up the middle, we weren’t getting frustrated with it, we were sticking to our game plan and doing what we needed to. It showed a lot of character tonight.
“When we play the way that we need to, the way that Mike is teaching us, it makes it very predictable for the goalies. The guys have done an unbelievable job with it, just buying in and doing what they need to. It’s really shown in our games.”
The scoring came from Mattias Ekholm, Podkolzin and Alex Formenton, a spread that fit the kind of balanced effort Babcock wants. Edmonton was never truly threatened, which says plenty for a team that had just eight shots through two periods.
The only real late danger came with 2:47 left, when San Jose got a power play and briefly had a six-on-four against Edmonton’s 26th-ranked penalty kill. The Sharks still couldn’t crack through.
The game also gave Edmonton its first look at longtime defenceman Darnell Nurse since his offseason trade, and he was immediately a problem. Nurse played 21:56, led San Jose with five shots and finished minus one.
“He’s a big boy, tough to play against,” said Podkolzin. “I love the guy, love his family.
He was a great teammate for me. We had a great relationship.
It was kind of sad to see him on the other side but that’s hockey life.”
Podkolzin’s finish was part of a strong start to his season. He now has five goals in five games, building on a playoff run in which he scored three times in six games.
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