AP file photo: Edmonton Oilers head coach Todd McLellan looks on as his team takes on the Minnesota Wild during the first period of an NHL preseason hockey game Saturday, Sept. 26, 2015, in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. (Liam Richards/The Canadian Press via AP)

by Len Shapiro

SAN JOSE–The NHL scheduling went right down the wire on Sunday night with the league awaiting the results from the Anaheim-Calgary game. The schedules came out at 10:00PM PDT that’s late back east. Anaheim won that game in over time to lock up the top position for their fifth straight division title. The Sharks are making their plans to head out to Edmonton to face their former coach Todd McClellan and the Oilers for the first game of the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs at Rogers Center on Wednesday night for game one and Friday night for game two. Then they’ll come down to play game three in San Jose Sunday 16th and game four Tuesday 18th  at SAP Center. Then it’s back to Edmonton Thursday 20th for game five, game six in San Jose Sat 22, and game seven at Edmonton on Mon 24th.

The Oilers won their last two games against the Sharks on San Jose ice one of the two of those loses came last Thursday back in third period with the Oilers Milan Lucic who started off the game in the first period with a huge fight and a game misconduct in battling the Sharks Michael Healy. No doubt these two will exchange pleasantries in this first round of the upcoming playoffs. Lucic was a one man band he ended up scoring a hat trick in the third period to help the Oilers come back from 2-1 to win it 4-2.

Len Shapiro is the former Sr Media Relations Director for the former California Golden Seals the Bay Area’s first NHL team and does  the Sharks podcast each week at http://www.sportsradioservice.com