The puck isn’t exactly bouncing the Sharks’ way this season.

The Sharks are a veteran group that played into mid-June last spring. Joe Thornton, Joe Pavelski, Brent Burns and Logan Couture all had their summers cut even shorter by the 2016 World Cup of Hockey. The team logged the second-most travel miles in the NHL this season and their top two centers, Thornton and Couture, both suffered significant injuries less than three weeks before the playoffs started.

All the extra miles and the wear and tear appeared to catch up with the Sharks in overtime of Game 5 as the Edmonton Oilers outshot them 14-2 while taking a 3-2 series lead. As the series moves back to SAP Center for Game 6 on Saturday, the oldest team in the NHL will need to muster the jump and energy to keep up with an Oilers squad whose average age is almost three years younger.

“We’ve dealt with a lot of stuff,” head coach Pete DeBoer said. “But you can make all the excuses in the world, everybody’s got that stuff to deal with and we have to find a way.”

Every team faces adversity, but the hand the Sharks are playing right now is particularly challenging considering that the roster features eight players older than 30. A lot has been made about the experience gap, but the Oilers should benefit from having younger, fresher legs as the series progresses.

Although the Oilers logged the most miles this season, they were on the golf course by April 10 last spring and 86.7 percent of their roster is younger than 30. The team’s top three scorers in the regular season, Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Jordan Eberle, are 20, 21 and 26 respectively.

The Sharks, on the other hand, are dependent on a handful of players who are north of 30, including Thornton (37), Patrick Marleau (37), Paul Martin (36), Pavelski (32) and Burns (32).

In overtime Thursday, the Oilers won the races to loose pucks, they swarmed the Sharks in all three zones, forcing five giveaways, and they created scoring chances by using their speed in transition. As the Oilers attacked in waves, the Sharks looked gassed.

Oilers have all the energy through the first 6 minutes of overtime. — Curtis Pashelka (@CurtisPashelka) April 21, 2017

Thornton and Marleau logged 22:08 and 22:42 of ice time and produced identical shots attempts percentages (Corsi) of 36:36 in overtime.

Pavelski received 26:06 of ice time and recorded a Corsi rating of 33.33 in overtime.

The heavy workload really seemed to impact the normally airtight defensive pairing of Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Justin Braun in overtime. Braun played the most minutes (34.30) and registered a 12.5 percent Corsi rating during the extra session while Vlasic skated for 33:49, producing an uncharacteristic shot attempts percentage of 10 percent in overtime.

As the playoffs progress, the accumulated effect of playing every other night, competing with a heightened intensity and logging extra minutes in overtime sessions will only exponentiate.

But DeBoer isn’t convinced that age, mileage and fatigue played a role in the Sharks’ overtime collapse Thursday. Instead, he views the wild swing in momentum as a product of mindset: the Sharks were caught on their heels after spending the third period trying to protect a lead.

“It’s human nature. You’re defending, you’re defending and you’re not thinking about offense or being on your toes or scoring a goal,” he said. “To flip that switch and get that attack mindset back is hard to do. On the other side, the other team is in that attack mindset for the entire time they’re trailing.”

“If you look around the league, it happens all the time. We did it in Game 1 when we were down 2-0 to them. It’s hard to get that momentum back.”

Either way, the Sharks should have a lot of jump in their legs facing elimination in Game 6 on home ice Saturday. Desperation will be on their side, a variable that can be hard to manufacture.

“We know if we lose, we’re done, so that always brings out your best game, especially with our group,” DeBoer said. “We’ve been a team that’s been able to bounce back after tough losses all year and get wins, so I’m confident we’ll be ready to play.”