SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — The best way for the Edmonton Oilers to shake off a tough loss was to let Connor McDavid take over the game.
One night after his team squandered three separate leads in an overtime defeat at Utah, McDavid delivered the kind of performance Edmonton needed.
He scored three goals for his 15th career hat trick and added two assists in a 5-2 victory over the San Jose Sharks on Wednesday that moved the Oilers into sole possession of first place in the Pacific Division.
“He knows our team needed a win,” coach Kris Knoblauch said. “We’re playing a little short-handed and he’s going to be the guy. Tonight every shift he was really dialed in and played extremely well. I’ve seen him play a lot of good games and that was one of his best.”
McDavid was sharp right from the start, scoring a power-play goal on his third shift. He assisted on a power-play goal by Vasily Podkolzin late in the first period and then added two more goals and an assist on his first seven shifts of the second to put away the game.
When McDavid is playing the way he did against the Sharks, the strategy for his teammates is simple.
“Get him the puck,” Oilers defenseman Evan Bouchard said. “When you see him playing the way he was tonight, and honestly, most of the season, you want to get him the puck. He makes things happen when not many other people can.”
McDavid got the best of his matchup against his Canadian Olympic teammate and fellow Hart Trophy contender Macklin Celebrini, who scored on the power play to give San Jose a 1-0 lead.
McDavid answered that goal less than two minutes later, and the Sharks couldn't slow him down the rest of the night.
“He’s the best player in the league and he’s also the fastest so if you don’t really slow him down or get in his way he’s just going to skate by you,” Celebrini said. “It’s simple as that. You’ve seen it his whole career. I loved watching it when I was a fan but it’s super frustrating when you play against it.”
McDavid's 133 points this season are six more than Tampa Bay's Nikita Kucherov in the race for Art Ross Trophy and the second-most McDavid has had in a season to his 153 in 2022-23.
He needs three goals in the final three games for his second career 50-goal season, although his focus remains on bigger goals. Edmonton is two points ahead of Vegas in the division race, but the Golden Knights have a game in hand.
“We've got to punch our ticket,” McDavid said. “We've got three games left. We've still got to punch our ticket to the playoffs. Those individual things are nice but not at the top of mind.”
After making back-to-back trips to the Stanley Cup Final the past two springs, the Oilers have sputtered their way through much of this season. But Edmonton has gone 6-1-1 over the past eight games to move into first place in the Pacific Division.
With high-scoring teammate Leon Draisaitl possibly returning from injury for the start of the postseason, the Oilers are trying to get back into top form in time to make another deep run.
“It’s been kind of an up-and-down year for us, honestly,” McDavid said. “We still feel like our best hockey is ahead of us. We’re kind of finding it right now, which is a good time to do it.”
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San Jose Sharks goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic (33) reacts after a goal by Edmonton Oilers center Connor McDavid during the second period of an NHL hockey game, Wednesday, April 8, 2026, in San Jose, Calif. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)
Edmonton Oilers center Connor McDavid (97) celebrates with teammates after scoring a goal during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the San Jose Sharks, Wednesday, April 8, 2026, in San Jose, Calif. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)
Edmonton Oilers center Connor McDavid, right, celebrates with defenseman Evan Bouchard (2) after scoring a goal during the second period of an NHL hockey game against the San Jose Sharks, Wednesday, April 8, 2026, in San Jose, Calif. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Semiofficial news agencies in Iran published a chart Thursday suggesting the country’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard put sea mines into the Strait of Hormuz during the war, in a message that may be intended to pressure the U.S. as uncertainty hangs over a days-old two-week ceasefire and further negotiations are expected in Pakistan.
The charts were released by the ISNA news agency, as well as Tasnim, which is believed to be close to the Guard. They showed a large circle marked “danger zone” in Farsi over the Traffic Separation Scheme, which was the route ships take through the strait, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which 20% of all oil and natural gas traded once passed.
The chart suggested ships travel further north through waters closer to Iran’s mainland near Larak Island, a route that some ships were observed taking during the war.
The charts were dated from Feb. 28 until Thursday, April 9, and it was unclear if the Guard had cleared any mining on the route since then.
Oil rose again to above $97 a barrel and Asian stocks were trading lower Thursday on skepticism over the ceasefire. Brent crude, the international standard, was up 2.9% to $97.46 per barrel. It had fallen briefly to below $92 following the temporary ceasefire announcement. Benchmark U.S. crude was 3.7% higher Thursday at $97.94 per barrel.
Ship-tracking data from Kpler showed only four vessels with their Automatic Identification System trackers on passed through the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, the first day of the ceasefire. However, that does not include so-called “dark fleet” vessels, which travel with their AIS trackers turned off. Many of those “dark fleet” ships carry sanctioned Iranian crude oil out to the open market.
U.S. President Donald Trump posted a statement insisting that his surge of warships and troops will remain around Iran “until such time as the REAL AGREEMENT reached is fully complied with.”
Trump’s comments on his Truth Social platform appeared to be a way to pressure Iran.
“If for any reason it is not, which is highly unlikely, then the ‘Shootin’ Starts,’ bigger, and better, and stronger than anyone has ever seen before,” Trump wrote.
He also insisted Iran would not be able to build nuclear weapons and “the Strait of Hormuz WILL BE OPEN & SAFE.”
The U.S. and Iran both claimed victory after reaching the ceasefire agreement, and world leaders expressed relief. But more drones and missiles hit Iran and Gulf Arab countries after the deal was announced.
Israel also intensified its attacks on the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon on Wednesday, hitting commercial and residential areas in Beirut. At least 182 people were killed in the deadliest day of fighting there.
The violence threatened to scuttle what U.S. Vice President JD Vance called a “fragile” deal.
Iran's parliament speaker said Wednesday that planned talks were “unreasonable” because Washington had broken three of Tehran’s 10 conditions for an end to the fighting. In a social media post, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf objected to Israeli attacks on Hezbollah, an alleged drone incursion into Iranian airspace after the ceasefire took effect and U.S. refusal to accept any Iranian enrichment capabilities in a final agreement.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi insisted that an end to the war in Lebanon was part of the ceasefire deal, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Trump said the truce did not cover Lebanon. When the deal was announced, the prime minister of Pakistan, which served as a mediator, said in a social media post that it applied to “everywhere including Lebanon and elsewhere.”
A New York-based think tank warned the ceasefire “hovers on the verge of collapse.”
The Soufan Center said Israel's strikes on Lebanon on Wednesday added to the risk the deal would fall apart.
“Even if Lebanon was formally outside the deal, the scale of Israel’s strikes was likely to be viewed as escalatory, nonetheless,” it wrote in an analysis published Thursday. “Israel’s strikes can be understood both as an effort to drive a wedge between Iran and its proxies and as a response to being allegedly sidelined in the original ceasefire discussions.”
Iran’s negotiating team for talks with the United States are to arrive in Islamabad on Thursday night, the Iranian ambassador there said.
Reza Amiri Moghadam wrote on X that the “Iranian delegation arrives tonight in Islamabad for serious talks based on 10 points proposed by Iran,” without identifying who was on the Iranian team.
Those points include Iran enriching uranium, maintaining its control of the Strait of Hormuz and other issues that have been nonstarters in the past for Trump. The White House has repeatedly described the 10 points issued by Iran as false.
Moghadam wrote that the Iranians would come to Islamabad despite “skepticism of Iranian public opinion due to repeated ceasefire violations by Israeli regime to sabotage the diplomatic initiative,” likely referring to Israel’s strikes on Lebanon, which Israel and the U.S. have said wasn’t included in the shaky ceasefire.
Becatoros reported from Athens, Greece. Chan Ho-him in Hong Kong and Zeke Miller in Washington contributed to this report.
A rescue worker extinguishes burning cars at the site of an Israeli airstrike in central Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
Smoke rises following several Israeli airstrikes in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Ali, 4, holds a toy horse next to the tent his family uses as a shelter after fleeing Israeli bombardment in southern Lebanon, in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Government supporters gather ahead of the funeral procession for Maj. Gen. Majid Khademi, head of intelligence for Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
FILE - Two police officers walk in front of an anti-U.S. billboard depicting American aircraft being caught by Iranian armed forces in a fishing net beneath the words in Farsi, "The Strait of Hormuz will remain closed, The entire Persian Gulf is our hunting ground," in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, April 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File)
