Quinn Hughes took his first non-coincidental minor penalty of the season early on when he reached on Connor McDavid. The Oilers captain clamped his arm down on Hughes’ stick and got the call.
The Oilers’ power play has had issues of its own this season, and while they technically went 0-for-1 on this one, they did score at the tail end of the Hughes penalty. Leon Draisaitl scored after the Oilers’ PP focused on getting the puck into the crease at the end of the power play. 1-0 Oilers.
Nils Aman, woof.
The Canucks were sloppy to start this one. They struggled to break the puck out and control play through the neutral zone. It was a rough opening frame.
One positive that Kevin Bieksa chose to highlight during the first intermission was the play of Elias Pettersson. There have been very few games where Pettersson looked as in control of the play as he did in the opening frame. To open the second, Pettersson turned in a strong shift that was finished off with what was Pettersson’s hardest shot of the year at 93.4 miles per hour. The only problem was that the shot missed the net by a good margin.
Baby steps.
The Oilers scored two goals within 73 seconds of each other to extend their lead to 3-0.
The first one, an unfortunate bounce off the stanchion.
The second one? Quinn Hughes making a phenomenal end-to-end rush and dropping the puck off to JT Miller in the Oilers’ zone. The problem there was that Miller carelessly gave the puck away and allowed the Oilers to break back the other way and score off the rush. We’ll save that one for The Stanchies.
Pettersson was rewarded on the stat sheet for his strong effort, as he deflected home a Jake DeBrusk shot through Stuart Skinner’s legs to make it 3-1.
The Canucks continued their pressure on the Oilers, with the third line capitalizing. Teddy Blueger waited for reinforcements and allowed Filip Hronek to lean into a slap shot that brought the Canucks within one.
Darnell Nurse took a penalty after yet another turnover, giving the Canucks another power play. On this one, Elias Pettersson had the best chance, as he ripped a wrist shot off the cross bar. This slump has been going on for too long to make such proclamations like “Pettersson is back”, but his performance tonight was certainly a step in the right direction.
The Canucks entered the third down by a goal.
Tyler Myers took a penalty right off the hop, and on the ensuing power play, Kevin Lankinen made what might go down as the save of the year with his paddle.
Later on the same penalty, Elias Pettersson made his bid for save of the night.
It didn’t matter in the end, though, because the Oilers absolutely dropped the hammer down on the Canucks in the third.
The Oilers got their third power play of the night after Filip Hronek took a holding penalty, and Connor McDavid wasted little time in burying the puck home to make it 5-2.
Then a puck squeaked through Kevin Lankinen to make it 6-2.
Then a puck squeaked through Kevin Lankinen to make it 7-2.
Then Kevin Lankinen got the yank in favour of Arturs Silovs.
The Canucks made it 7-3 on a late power play when Elias Pettersson swept a no-look pass to Pius Suter.
In the end, the Canucks played their best game of the season on Thursday night against LA, and the Oilers played their best game of the season tonight.
Some takeaways from tonight:
-This game had really good intensity right from puck drop, and it was evident yet again that these two teams don’t like each other.
-I rarely complain about the officiating, but… you know what? You know what I’m going to say.
-The Canucks were a step behind all third period, and the Oilers brought their A-game.
-An especially unspectacular game from JT Miller and Vincent Desharnais. Both players’ subpar efforts led to some crucial goals against.
-I know he got the yank, but Kevin Lankinen was strong again tonight until the third.
What’s your instant reaction tonight?
