First Period recap:
Things were testy to start, with the Oilers looking to avenge the loss of their Captain following Conor Garland’s malicious attack on Connor McDavid’s stick with the side of his face.
The Oilers came out hot early, with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins testing Thatcher Demko with a heater off the blocker inside the opening minute.
Wanting to avoid another repeat of Saturday night’s melee madness, the referees called one of the softest roughing minors in the history of the NHL against Kiefer Sherwood, gifting the McDavid-less Oilers the game’s first power play.
Thanks to the actions of Garland—who drew boos from the Edmonton faithful all night long, mind you—the Canucks traded even in scoring chances on the first special teams play of the game. Nugent-Hopkins generated his second dangerous look of the period, and a clear from Garland gave Phil Di Giuseppe the Canucks’ first scoring chance of the period.
1-0 Oilers.
Six minutes into the frame, the Canucks pairing of Filip Hronek and Carson Soucy took the Oilers not having McDavid in the lineup for granted, parking deep inside the neutral zone without possession. Leon Draisaitl—who is very good, by the way—sent a 117-foot feed to Zach Hyman, who was parked at the Canucks’ blue line waiting for the opening.
Hyman with speed off a brilliant pass and Hronek/Soucy scrambling. You can guess what happened next.
Bada bing.
Bada boom.
1-zip for the home team, thanks to a snappy shot from Hyman that filtered through Demko’s legs.
Midway through the opening frame, Brock Boeser attempted a rebound shot that inspired a modicum of confidence that the game wouldn’t be a complete dud for the remaining 50 minutes.
With 7:50 left in the opening frame, Vincent Desharnais drew the evening’s first instance of the Sportsnet shift clock graphic. Seconds later, the refs dinged Desharnais for cross-checking Corey Perry, giving Edmonton their second power play opportunity of the game.
2-0 Oilers.
The Oilers’ second power play was substantially more dangerous than the first.
The Canucks looked like a peewee club desperately failing to clear the zone, losing race after race to loose rebounds around the crease.
On his third shot of the period, Draisaitl ripped a one-timer over Demko’s left shoulder as the Canucks could do nothing but stand around puck-watching around the crease.
Before I could even finish evaluating the breakdown on the Draisaitl power play goal, the Oilers made it 3-zip following another lost puck battle inside the d-zone, resulting in an easy AHL-like wraparound from behind the goal line from Adam Henrique.
3-0 Oilers.
Usually cool, calm, and collected, Demko angrily swatted the puck out of the net after getting beat thrice in 20 minutes. He had admitted his frustration with his play following the club’s embarrassing 3-2 loss to the Sabres.
Following his candid honesty, I imagine that “three goals allowed against Edmonton” wasn’t exactly the direction he hoped his game would take.
Second Period recap:
Much to Canucks fans’ chagrin, the second period began as scheduled.
Elias Pettersson made tuning back into the game somewhat worthwhile for the fans when he reverse-hit Matthis Ekholm into oblivion inside the opening minute.
It’s the Canucks, though, and the Oilers made it 4-nothing less than two minutes later.
4-0 Oilers.
Under pressure along the d-zone half wall, Teddy Blueger threw a backhand pass up the guts of the ice to Edmonton’s Noah Philp, who relayed a pass up to Hyman for the easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy redirect past Demko.
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Before the Canucks could get their first shot of the second period, Kasperi Kapanen drew a tripping penalty against Desharnais, sending the big man to the box for the second time of the night.
It wasn’t just that the Canucks looked outmatched against the Oilers fastball. They looked like they couldn’t keep up with the Oilers’ eephus pitch.
That they hung on for the Oilers’ third power play was nothing short of spectacular.
That’s how low the bar is these days.
Naturally, upon registering their first shot of the period, the Oilers and Canucks went to war after Garland had the audacity to poke at Calvin Pickard’s pads following his first save in over 35 minutes.
The Oilers mauled Garland, drawing blood.
Corey Perry mauled Quinn Hughes from behind, driving him headfirst into the ice.
Darnell Nurse and Perry went to the penalty box for roughing minors, and Garland somehow took two minors—one for “slashing” Pickard (I’m not joking) and another for roughing.
Garland was penalized for a play that happens 900 times a night in every NHL game. What a time to be alive.
Desharnais continued his brilliant night, taking his third penalty of the night after throwing an elbow up on Jeff Skinner inside the neutral zone that warranted an “interference” assessment.
Given how the refs had called the game to that point, I don’t know what Desharnais expected throwing his elbow up on a guy with two steps on him.
5-0 Oilers.
Brock Boeser scored on the Canucks second shot of the period, breathing some life into the club.
5-1 Oilers.
5-2 Oilers.
Riding high on the memories of their 2023-24 PDO bender, Filip Hronek stepped into a one-timer following an offensive-zone faceoff win that cut the deficit to three.
Hronek’s goal gave the Canucks two goals on four shots in the middle frame for a perfectly sustainable 50% shooting clip.
The Canucks would finish the period that way, adding zero additional shots to their ledger.
Adding insult to injury, Kiefer Sherwood left midway through the second period and did not return for the third.
Third Period recap:
Three minutes into the final frame, the Canucks appeared on their way to their first power play opportunity of the game. Unfortunately, Teddy Blueger fell victim to one of the classic blunders when Corey Perry baited him into dropping the gloves for a post-whistle fight.
Perry stood idle as Blueger swung on him, negating the Canucks’ power play opportunity.
It was the most transparently obvious outcome to pretty much everyone watching the game except for Blueger. I love Blueger’s willingness to drop the gloves at that moment, but given the score, that outcome was way too predictable.
Like the preceding forty minutes, the third period was an exercise in questionable attempts at referee-directed game management.
Mark Friedman took a misconduct for a shove against Perry following an offensive-zone faceoff.
Prayers to Perry as he recovers from this malicious attack.
Then, Carson Soucy drew an offsetting roughing minor against Mattias Janmark after the two exchanged shoves following an icing.
6-2 Oilers.
Demko’s questionable rebound control reared its ugly head midway through the final frame. It’s hard to fault a guy when the team in front of him is so checked out that Kasperi Kapanen is generating uncontested breakaway opportunities. However, Demko’s rate of uncontrolled rebounds per 60 minutes of ice time was alarming in this game. I don’t think Clear Sight Analytics, or the goalie guild by extension, can create a stat that passes the buck on Demko’s poor play since returning to the lineup.
If the refs got anything right, it was the five minutes of whistle-less hockey as the Canucks and Oilers combined for zero shots on goal.
The Canucks lost the game and lost the season series by a combined score of 15 to eight, losing both games in the series by four goals.
Seems bad!
6-2 Oilers, final score.
Takeaways from tonight:
-Zero shots on goal from Conor Garland or Elias Pettersson. Pettersson did appear to get hard matched against the Draisaitl line at 5-on-5. Still, zero shots is zero shots.
-Vinny Desharnais finishes his return to Edmonton with three minor penalties taken, zero shots on goal, two blocked shots, one hit, and nearly 19 minutes of ice time. Mark Friedman finished with a baffling 10-minute misconduct and under 10 minutes of ice time. Even factoring in the misconduct, how is it justifiable to keep giving a player shifts when he is clearly struggling on every shift?
-Thatcher Demko has allowed three or more goals in eight of his twelve starts. I didn’t like his rebound control tonight against Edmonton, and I bet he didn’t, either.
-Where is the pushback on this team? Quinn Hughes gets thrown to the ice by a 46-year-old fourth-liner, and the best they can muster is Pettersson putting a horsecollar in him during the scrum and Teddy Blueger’s futile attempt to fight him. It’s bordering pathetic at this point to watch a team as checked out and indifferent to the treatment of their best players on a night-to-night basis. Regardless of motivations, the Oilers came up huge in defence of their suspended comrade Connor McDavid. The Canucks have yet to come up huge for anyone on this team. Not Dakota Joshua returning from a cancer scare. Not Brock Boeser returning from a concussion. Not JT Miller returning from a mysterious leave of absence. Not Thatcher Demko returning from a possible career-altering injury. Nothing has raised the Canucks give-a-bleep meter above zero this season, and I’m wondering if anything will after Thursday’s embarrassing loss.
What’s your instant reaction to tonight’s game?
