Player grades: Unsung Oilers lead the way in team’s best game of the year, Edmonton 3, San Jose 1

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The Edmonton Oilers played their best game of the year, with role players such as Trent Frederic, Alex Formenton, Owen Michaels, Ike Howard and Josh Samanski leading the way. Each of them played their best game of the year as well.

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Edmonton put up a defensive wall in front of Tristan Jarry, limiting San Jose to mainly high slot shots.

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The Grade A shots in the game were 17-to-7 for Edmonton, with the subset of most dangerous five-alarm shots 12-to-1 for the Oilers. Here is the running count.

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Vasily Podkolzin, 8. Another great game from Podzilla. Hustled hard and helped create all kinds of o-zone time in the first two periods, but little in the way of Grade A shots. He out-battled Darnell Nurse at the side of the net to pound a five-alarm rebound shot on net early in the third, then set up a Kapanen slotter. He ripped a harpoon into the back of the great white net off of a McD drop pass to make it 2-0. He got nailed for a super iffy stick-check penalty in the third.

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Connor McDavid, 8. He came alive in the third period, chipping in on two goals. He was in on 11 Grade A shots in total. His line did some good work on the forecheck in the first two periods. He drove in fast, then dropped the puck back to Podkolzin for Edmonton’s 2-0 goal. He popped the puck to help kick off the 3-0 goal rush. He went hard to the net and almost scored on a late third PP. He must have hit a patch of Kryptonite in the third when he missed an open look on an empty net.

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Leon Draisaitl, 7. Relatively quiet game for Drai but still in on eight Grade A shots. He took a sneaky late hit from Sherwood early in the third to draw a penalty. Punched a rebound slotter on net in the subsequent PP goal mouth scramble. Got a PP backhander on net later in the third.

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Jason Dickinson, 5. Quiet game, but kept out of trouble.

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Kasperi Kapanen, 6. Good on the PP. He helped win a PP faceoff early in the third, leading to multiple Grade A shots, one of them his own. He put McD’s pass off the post in a late third period PP.

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Filip Hallander, 5. I liked what I saw: big, fast and tough. Good backcheck to break up a Celebrini line rush, then bulled the puck into the o-zone.