Since the Edmonton Oilers and the Vancouver Canucks met in the postseason last spring, they have been heading in the opposite direction.
The Oilers eliminated the Canucks in the second round of the 2024 playoffs before coming within a whisker of claiming the Stanley Cup title. On Saturday night in Vancouver, the Pacific Division rivals clash in Vancouver, with Edmonton seeking its fifth straight win.
The Oilers look as if they are ready to take care of unfinished business with a roster chock full of title-hungry veterans led by Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Stuart Skinner.
Edmonton stormed back from a three-goal deficit to beat the host Colorado Avalanche 4-3 on Thursday night, securing their eighth win in nine games.
“Everyone’s just getting opportunities, playing confident,” said Oilers defenseman Brett Kulak, who scored during the comeback. “Little things like that have made a big difference.”
On Thursday, Vancouver dropped its second straight and sixth of its past seven (1-4-2), slumping to a 5-1 loss against the visiting Los Angeles Kings.
Vancouver’s Rick Tocchet was the league’s coach of the year in 2023-24. Now he is desperately searching for a way to get more offense from his team, describing the loss to the Kings.
“You get punched in mouth, you get back up,” he said. “You can’t quit on yourself or your teammates.”
The Canucks have been outscored 11-2 in their past two games as big guns Brock Boeser and J.T. Miller have vanished from the scoresheet. Miller, who finished with 103 points last season, has just two goals in 17 games since coming back from a leave of absence.
“Seems like every time (Miller) is on the ice, something bad happens,” Tocchet said Thursday.
Boeser isn’t fairing much better, with just one goal in eight games this month.
This is the first of two games in six nights between the Pacific Division rivals. They meet again on Thursday in Edmonton.
The Canucks’ unraveling comes as other teams have started to figured out that the key to beating Vancouver is shutting down reigning Norris Trophy winner Quinn Hughes.
It seems no team understands this better than the Oilers. They beat Vancouver in seven games in the Western Conference semifinals before eventually losing to the Florida Panthers in seven games in the 2024 Stanley Cup Final.
Edmonton also beat host Vancouver 7-3 on Nov. 9 in the teams’ first meeting this season.
In the Oilers’ comeback victory at Colorado on Thursday, Evan Bouchard got the eventual winner on a blast from the right circle at 13:05 of the third period.
Bouchard also had an assist, McDavid had a goal and an assist and Viktor Arvidsson scored a goal. Draisaitl chipped in two assists, and Skinner made 22 saves.
“It was an exciting game. We’re down 3-0, but I didn’t think that we were that bad. It was just we didn’t put our chances in,” Edmonton coach Kris Knoblauch said. “‘Stu’ made some really big saves, so we were able to capitalize later in the game.”
Meanwhile, the Canucks are trying to limit the damage on several fronts. Their goaltending isn’t as solid as it was last season, their scoring has slipped dramatically and mistakes are leading to pucks in their own net.
“We got a game in two days, so we got to figure it out,” Vancouver forward Phillip Di Giuseppe said Thursday. “We are at the point where we are sick of it.”
–Field Level Media
