The Vancouver Canucks embarrassed the Edmonton Oilers on Wednesday night in their home opener.
It wasn’t just the 8-1 score, though that certainly played a starring role in the Oilers' shame. Connor McDavid took specific issue with some of the things the Canucks did in the third period.
“They made a few decisions in the third period that I thought were interesting,” said McDavid after the game. “Throwing the backup goalie in with ten minutes left — I have not seen that. It’s not like [Casey] DeSmith is an EBUG or anything like that. I thought that was interesting. And yeah, they roll out the first power play unit, not ideal. Not a situation we want to be in and, obviously, we don’t like that.”
It doesn’t matter that the Canucks were perfectly justified to make those “interesting” decisions. Sure, DeSmith only came into the game because Thatcher Demko was battling the flu and literally threw up in his mask. And yes, the Canucks only kept putting out the first power play unit to run up the score because the Oilers kept taking cheapshots to go to the penalty box. That didn’t matter for McDavid, who was looking for a way to take it personally like Michael Jordan.
There was no doubt that the Oilers were going to look for revenge in the rematch in their own home opener on Saturday night. So, it wasn’t surprising when the Oilers utterly dominated the very first shift of the game, sending seven shot attempts towards the Canucks net and opening the scoring 42 seconds in.
Really, they dominated the vast majority of the game, out-shooting the Canucks 41-to-16, including an 18-to-6 second period.
But a funny thing happened: the Canucks didn’t back down. They also stood their ground, wouldn’t be turned around, and kept this world from draggin’ them down. It seemed like they understood there was no easy way out.
One moment late in the third period felt like a metaphor. After some pushing and shoving in front of the net, Oilers defenceman Evan Bouchard tried to intimidate the Canucks’ Dakota Joshua with a fake tough-guy move. Joshua didn’t flinch at all, completely no-selling Bouchard.
That was the Canucks: they didn’t flinch.
Sure, it was messy sometimes. The Canucks collapsed around their crease for a series of goalmouth scrambles, gave up seven power plays including a lengthy 5-on-3, and allowed Connor McDavid to get eight shots on goal.
But they survived.
More than survived — they won. And in so doing, they not only kicked off the season with two-straight wins against the presumptive favourite to win the Pacific Division but also proved they can win two different ways.
In their first game, they showed they have the horses to run away with a game, led by their star players; on Saturday night, they showed they have the grit to will their way to a win when they’re being outplayed, with depth scoring from their bottom-six. A good team needs to be able to do both.
The Canucks bothed it when I watched this game.
- Like Shaggy in the opening scene of Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, let’s be blunt: the first shift of the game was a hot mess. J.T. Miller was chasing all over the ice, Tyler Myers was handling the puck as if he had never used a hockey stick before, and nobody was boxing out anybody around the net. Leon Draisaitl’s opening goal seemed inevitable, as he finally poked the poke into the net in a wild scramble.
- It’s not easy resetting after that kind of start, but the Canucks managed it. They might not have, however, if Casey DeSmith hadn’t made a massive save on a Leon Draisaitl one-timer on an Oilers power play. It wasn’t a perfect read by DeSmith, as he was a little late coming across, but it thankfully wasn’t a perfect one-timer by Draisaitl, as he had to adjust to Myers getting a piece of McDavid’s cross-seam pass.
- “I thought Casey DeSmith was outstanding,” said head coach Rick Tocchet. “He battled his ass off.”
- DeSmith, like the Canucks as a whole, was a little messy but he got the job done, which is impressive considering he had no ass by the end of the game. He made 38 saves on 41 shots, including some highlight-reel stops on a 5-on-3 Oilers power play in the third period.
- The Canucks power play is getting coached by committee this season, which is unusual, but when that committee includes Daniel and Henrik Sedin, maybe it can work. I suspect some Sedin influence on the set play they used midway through the first period: a drop pass by Quinn Hughes into an intentional icing bank pass by Brock Boeser that led to a great chance for Elias Pettersson.
- That’s the thing about aging wizards: they make great mentors.
- That play didn’t directly result in a goal but the zone entry eventually did. After a few passes around the zone, Quinn Hughes got to the middle of the ice and flung a puck toward the net that Andrei Kuzmenko neatly tipped in to tie the game.
- Nils Höglander gave the Canucks the lead late in the first period. An excellent chip-and-chase by Sam Lafferty gave the Canucks the offensive zone, then he and Höglander made like The World Taekwondo Demonstration Team and did some strong work on the boards. Lafferty then changed for Boeser, who picked up a pass from Höglander at the point and blasted it on net, where Höglander tipped it in.
- This was a rough game for Noah Juulsen, who had a brutal turnover on the penalty kill leading to the Oilers’ second goal. With time and space to send the puck the length of the ice, he decided to try a risky pass to Elias Pettersson. Instead, the puck landed right on the stick of Draisaitl, which is, like shadows on a cave wall, less than ideal. In the ensuing scramble, McDavid pulled the puck out of the pile and liberated it into a higher plain.
- The Canucks responded less than a minute later. Both Darnell Nurse and Cody Ceci jumped up in an Oilers rush and when Warren Foegele’s shot missed the net and ricocheted out of the zone, Pettersson and Jack Studnicka found themselves on a 2-on-0. Of the two, you’d think Pettersson would take the shot, but he instead passed the puck off to Studnicka, then placed himself in the way of the backchecking Nurse. Studnicka paid off the confidence Pettersson placed in him with a confident finish.
- Nurse evidently never took the Hippocratic Oath, because in response to Pettersson taking up his skating lane, Nurse tried to do some harm, using his stick to push Pettersson’s right skate out from under him. It was, like Rick Nielsen, Robin Zander, Tom Petersson, and Bun E. Carlos, a cheap trick.
- The Canucks just couldn’t stay out of the penalty box, primarily because the referees kept putting them there. It’s not like they were going into the penalty box voluntarily. The Oilers got another power play goal to tie the game when Filip Hronek failed to take away any of Ryan Nugent-Hopkins’ shooting lane and he picked his spot on DeSmith to make it 3-3.
- The shots on goal were 19-to-6 for the Oilers in the second period; shot attempts were 43-to-11. The Oilers were pouring on the pressure like Khal Drogo pouring molten gold on Viserys Targaryen. Evidently, the Canucks are the dragon, because fire could not kill them.
- The Canucks definitely had a much tougher time getting the matchup they wanted away from Rogers Arena. Pius Suter ended up playing against Connor McDavid at 5-on-5 more than J.T. Miller did and McDavid ate him alive. Shot attempts were 16-to-0 for the Oilers when Suter was up against McDavid at 5-on-5, although the Suter line still somehow managed to keep the Oilers from scoring in those minutes.
- Höglander and Lafferty combined again on the game-winning goal. Höglander picked off a pass in the defensive zone and sprung Lafferty down the right wing with speed. Lafferty drove hard to the net and, with the help of a Mattias Ekholm slewfoot, sent his entire body on net. Skinner managed to stop Lafferty’s body but not the puck, which Lafferty flung just inside the far post.
- “It was a clean breakout. Höggy made a really nice play on the wall and gave it to me in stride,” said Lafferty. “I saw some daylight and just took it there.”
- The Canucks penalty kill gave up two goals on seven opportunities but it still felt like a massive success, partly because the Oilers had the best power play percentage in the history of the NHL last season. The Oilers even had a lengthy 5-on-3 — full credit to DeSmith, Miller, Myers, and Cole for combining to kill off that two-man advantage.
- It certainly helped the Canucks in this one that Skinner gave up four goals on just 16 shots. It’s not that the Canucks didn’t earn their goals — they definitely did — but they can’t count on that happening every night.
