Oilers’ Campbell finding rhythm, confidence during California road trip

SAN JOSE — It was Connor McDavid’s birthday, but it was also Friday the 13^th. So there was a chance it was going to be a good night for some guy wearing a goalie mask.

As it unfolded, both were true.

McDavid scored twice — his first two birthday goals in the NHL or junior — and added an assist, while Jack Campbell came within 4:58 of his first Oilers shutout in a dominant 7-1 win at San Jose.

Edmonton rolled through Anaheim with a 6-2 win and walked over San Jose, winning by six. They decisively won six periods in a row after opening the trip with a 6-3 loss at Los Angeles, grabbing four points you simply have to have — because everyone else out West beats the Ducks and Sharks too.

“We had a great start in Anaheim and followed that up with another great start in a tough building,” said Campbell, who saw just 26 shots. “They always push hard the first five or 10 minutes and I thought we did a good job.”

Edmonton’s game is settling, even if that’s not always easy to judge in four- and six-goal victories. In nine games since Christmas the Oilers have surrendered two goals or less six times.

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“It’s just confidence,” said McDavid, who played just 4:32 in the third period and 18:18 on the night — well below his average of 22:39. “Confidence in each other, confidence in our system and putting that belief back in our group. That goes a long way.”

The record since Christmas is just 5-3-1, but if you can continue to roll out this kind of game defensively, the record is sure to follow. Against the Ducks and Sharks — yes, two Pacific bottom feeders — Campbell faced just 49 shots in total and only a handful of dangerous, second-chance opportunities or odd-man rushes.

The game he’s been searching for since October has finally arrived. Or, at least, it feels like it.

“It sure does,” beamed Campbell. “I’m just trying to keep building on it. It’s definitely more of what I expect from myself and the team is playing great in front of me.”

If the foundation of a goalie’s game is being sharp positionally, stopping the pucks he is expected to stop, and not giving up the rebounds that feed the opponent’s offensive confidence, then we would say Campbell is finally building a game here in Edmonton.

He was a quiet, consistent backstop, giving up nothing Friday in a start that didn’t require many highlight reel saves. But when Marc-Edouard Vlasic found himself alone on the doorstep with a wide-open net, Campbell threw out a glove and robbed him for the fun of it, the kind of save that is the difference between nearly perfect and just pretty good.

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“Beautiful save. We’ve seen him make a few of those,” said McDavid, who has a 15-game points streak versus the Sharks (10-14-24).

Oskar Lindblom ruined the shutout on a deflection that squeaked through the wickets late, a legit but unfortunate goal against an Oilers team that still awaits its first shutout of the season.

“Disappointed to give one up on him,” the Oilers captain said. “He really fought hard and deserved a shutout. That’s definitely our fault there.”

Is it finding a rhythm, with three consecutive appearances on this trip? Or is it confidence that has Campbell playing his best hockey of the season.

“Definitely both,” he said. “I have the confidence going and getting more games and less time off is definitely helping.”

He’ll almost certainly start on Saturday in Vegas, with Stuart Skinner at home with wife Chloe, who is expecting their first child. That game will be the difference between an OK, .500 road trip, and something more than that if the Oilers can grab a point or two from the Golden Knights.

“Sometimes coming off the back to back can help us,” said Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, who banged home a shorty for his 21^st and had a three-point night. “We seem to play a little simpler early and just rely on our work. And I think that’s kind of going to be our mindset tomorrow.”

As for the Shark, well…

“We just stunk,” said head coach David Quinn. “We stunk on the power play, we stunk on the penalty kill, we stunk five-on-five. Our forwards stunk, our defensemen stunk. The only guy that didn’t stink was our goalie. (A game like) that hasn’t happened all year, and over 82 games, something like this is going to happen, and we move past it pretty quickly.”

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Jesse Puljujarvi (4th) and Ryan McLeod (5th) scored goals 32 seconds apart in the third period to put the Oilers ahead by a converted touchdown. But it’s the “1” on the scoreboard that head coach Jay Woodcroft really liked, as they boarded the charter for Vegas and a date on Hockey Night in Canada with the Golden Knights.

“Even the game in L.A. (a 6-3 loss) we gave up one five-on-five goal against,” Woodcroft said. “I think we’ve eliminated a lot of the big errors where we might have been in a game here or there but we made a big error at an inopportune time and it ended up in the back of our net.

“I think those have been tidied up.”

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