Connor McDavid leads the Stanley Cup Playoffs in scoring. He put up 12 points for the Edmonton Oilers in their five-game series against the Los Angeles Kings, including a five-assist performance in Game 1.
So, for the Vancouver Canucks to limit McDavid to a single secondary assist and zero shots on goal in over 24 minutes of ice time is legitimately impressive.
“Shutting down” McDavid is always going to be a relative term. After all, he still improved his point total to 13 in the playoffs, but his assist came on a goal that he had little to do with — he passed the puck back to Evan Bouchard in the defensive zone, he passed it to Zach Hyman, and Hyman did all the rest, getting a lucky deflection off Tyler Myers’ stick to beat Arturs Silovs.
The more impressive part was keeping McDavid from getting a single shot for the first time in his career in the playoffs. During the regular season, McDavid averaged 3.46 shots per game and a dozen games with 6+ shots. He was held without a shot just twice and in one of those two games he had four assists.
It wasn’t just that McDavid had zero shots on goal; he had just one shot attempt — a bad angle shot off the rush that missed the net.
So, how were the Canucks so effective against McDavid in Game 1? And can they repeat that performance for the rest of the series?
“It was a team effort.”
The main match-up line that faced McDavid was J.T. Miller’s line with Pius Suter and Brock Boeser, with all three forwards spending more than 12 minutes up against McDavid at even-strength. The primary defence pairing matched up against McDavid was Tyler Myers and Carson Soucy, followed closely by Quinn Hughes and Filip Hronek.
That said, every Canucks skater played at least one shift against McDavid.
“I thought that it was a team effort,” said Quinn Hughes about shutting down the McDavid line. “We had six defencemen that did a really good job, I thought Arty made the saves when he had to, and twelve forwards that played hard, played within our structure, didn’t give them much, and helped the defence.”
That can be seen on this rush chance for McDavid where he got his only shot attempt. A steal by McDavid created a 3-on-2, but Elias Lindholm’s hustle on the backcheck took Mattias Janmark away as a passing option, allowing Ian Cole to play an aggressive gap on McDavid to force him to the outside and a low-percentage shot.
If Lindholm had been slower on the backcheck or had tried to chase the puck instead of taking away a passing option, it might have led to a more dangerous chance for McDavid.
“We just did a good job as a five-man unit and everyone knew what they were doing. No one was off-script,” said Hughes. “When everyone is on the same page, it makes it easier to defend a special player like that.”
We can see similar backpressure from Pius Suter on this third-period rush, as he disrupted a 3-on-2 just as McDavid got the puck in the high slot.
Of course, what the Canucks really wanted to do was to prevent McDavid from getting chances off the rush at all.
Staying above McDavid
“He’s fast out there, so it’s just staying above and not giving him too much space,” said Lindholm.
The Canucks were cautious with McDavid when he was looking to gain speed through the neutral zone, but they also didn’t sit back. That’s an easy mistake to make and one that hurt the Kings in round one, as they sat back in their 1-3-1 trap. If you allow McDavid to build up speed, he can hurt you.
Instead, the Canucks shadowed McDavid, staying above him — in between him and the Canucks’ net — but not backing off into the neutral zone. The Miller line was particularly good at this, such as on this shift, as Boeser shadowed McDavid in the Oilers' zone, then stayed above him the whole way up the ice, even as he wasn't directly checking him the whole way.
Because Boeser stayed above McDavid, he was on hand to pick up the puck even after McDavid picked off a pass from Quinn Hughes, with help from Suter disrupting the play.
"I think our forwards all night just did a good job of kind of being in front of them while they're trying to wind up their speed," said Soucy. "And then in the D-zone, I think we did a good job of closing when we could, giving them their space, just kind of limit that extra breakdown."
Of course, sometimes desperation is the only defence against an elite talent like McDavid, such as this moment where Elias Pettersson had to dive out to get the puck off McDavid’s stick at 4-on-4.
Even that play was only possible because Pettersson stayed above McDavid as he wheeled out of the defensive zone.
Size and mobility on the back end
While the forwards played a major role in limiting McDavid’s opportunities, the defencemen shouldn’t be given short shrift.
Much has been made about the Canucks’ size and reach on the backend but one of the most important aspects of their defence corps is how mobile they are. That’s vital against an exceptional skater like McDavid, as illustrated by Hronek “surfing” the Oilers captain in order to keep pace with him and poke the puck off his stick.
Hronek and Hughes spent the second-most time against the McDavid line behind Myers and Soucy and their mobility and hockey IQ within the defensive zone were vital to limiting McDavid’s opportunities.
On this first-period shift, Hughes stuck with McDavid around the zone and kept his head on a swivel even as he moved to cover the front of the net. That awareness allowed him to read the pass to McDavid below the goal line and pick it off.
Of course, size doesn’t hurt. There’s a reason why Myers and Soucy, with their long reach and physicality to go with their mobility, played the most against McDavid.
McDavid had to absorb five hits in Game 1, with three of them coming from Soucy and Myers, such as this open-ice hit Soucy delivered off the opening faceoff of the second period.
That combination of mobility and physicality made life difficult for McDavid in Game 1 and will be key to defending him for the rest of the series.
Forcing McDavid to play McDefence
The best way to shut down a player like McDavid is to force him to defend in his own zone. Every minute McDavid spends defending in his own zone is a minute where he can’t be creating offence. The Canucks did very well at forcing McDavid to defend in Game 1, particularly the Miller line.
For instance, McDavid’s final shift of the first period was spent entirely in the defensive zone, as the Miller line hemmed the Oilers’ top line in for over a minute. Similarly, at the end of the second period, both Pettersson’s line and Miller’s line got quick exits from the defensive zone against McDavid, limiting the amount of time they spent defending and pushing the puck into the offensive zone.
Lindholm’s vital goal near the end of the second period came against the McDavid line, as his line with Dakota Joshua and Conor Garland crashed in on the forecheck and pinned the puck deep before Lindholm got a fortunate bounce off Skinner’s stick.
Likewise, Miller’s brilliant tip-in goal in the third period came against McDavid at 4-on-4.
A big part of forcing McDavid to defend was preventing him from having the puck in the first place. McDavid went 5-for-18 in the faceoff circle in Game 1, with Lindholm going a perfect 4-for-4 against him, Pettersson a solid 3-for-4, and Miller 6-for-10.
With McDavid starting so few of his shifts with the puck, that made it a lot easier for the Canucks to put him on his heels.
Can the Canucks shut McDavid down all series?
Let’s face facts: McDavid is too good to be kept at bay for an entire series. He’s an elite, game-breaking talent — the best hockey player in the world. The best the Canucks can hope for is to limit the amount of damage he can do.
Still, the Canucks demonstrated that they can do just that in Game 1. Their defending as a five-man group, both in-zone and with backpressure against chances in transition, was excellent against McDavid. Their defence used their mobility to keep pace with him and force turnovers. And they kept the puck off his stick as much as possible by winning faceoffs and possessing the puck in the offensive zone.
Most importantly, the Canucks stayed out of the penalty box.
The Canucks gave the Oilers just one power play — a too-many-men penalty in the opening minute — and were disciplined the rest of the way. The Oilers scored on that power play, even if McDavid didn’t figure into the goal.
It’s too much to ask that the Canucks only give the Oilers one power play per game but if they can limit the amount of time they spend in the box, that will go a long way toward keeping McDavid off the scoresheet.
After all, 9 of McDavid’s playoff-leading 13 points have come on the power play.
