Music: {allcanada} OILERS (7-19-6) at SHARKS (17-11-4)

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

{allcanada} OILERS (7-19-6) at SHARKS (17-11-4)

White Christmas - Martina McBride

Thursday, December 18, 2014

10:30 PM ET

OILERS (7-19-6) at SHARKS (17-11-4)

TV: SN360, CSN-CA

Season series: The Edmonton Oilers and San Jose Sharks have split the first two of this five-game set. Joe Pavelski scored twice in San Jose's 5-2 win against Edmonton at SAP Center on Dec. 9.

Oilers team scope: Interim coaches Craig MacTavish and Todd Nelson ran their first full day of practice Wednesday, one day after Edmonton dropped a 2-1 overtime decision at the Arizona Coyotes. The Oilers, who allowed 27 shots on goal in the second period, haven't scored more than two goals in a game since Nov. 28, a span of eight games. "It's one of the things we want to get better at, obviously," Nelson said of generating offense. "Everybody talks about throwing pucks to the net and [creating] more traffic, and we're trying to do that. We're trying to funnel pucks to the net, have a good net-front presence. Our power play plays a part of that as well. I thought our power play was pretty good [Tuesday] night. The only thing wrong with it was we didn't score. We had some good chances, we had some good looks. We've just got to find a way to bury the puck, so those things we've got to continue to work on and just get to a point where the guys feel good shooting the puck and hitting their mark." Center Boyd Gordon (back) hopes to play against the Sharks and will be re-evaluated Thursday morning. Defenseman Oscar Klefbom (foot) "might be a bit further away," Nelson said.

Sharks team scope: Thursday marks the fourth of a five-game homestand for San Jose, which is 3-0-0 thus far and has allowed three goals. The Sharks earned a 2-0 win against the Nashville Predators on Saturday behind a 29-save performance from Antti Niemi. After a sluggish start, the Sharks have won seven of their past eight games. "Normally, at the beginning of the season I think it takes 15-20 games for all the teams to get all their players and all their systems down," defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic told the San Jose Mercury News. "And now you're starting to see that from us. Maybe it took 30 games, maybe 25." San Jose forwards Matt Nieto (ankle), Tyler Kennedy (arm) and Mike Brown (lower body) are on injured reserve.

Team Stats