This might be the most important game in the Connor McDavid/Leon Draisaitl era of the Edmonton Oilers.
Pushed to the brink after the Vancouver Canucks won game five, the Oilers stormed back at home to tied the series and force a game seven.
The Oilers have not won a single game past round two in this era of the team, and they’ll need to get past a critical game seven to try and change that narrative. For a team with so much promise, so much talent, this situation is already not ideal, but that can be completely erased with a win tonight.
Here’s all the information, news, and notes heading into game seven.
Edmonton’s lineup
The Oilers will ice the exact same lineup in game seven as game six. With this group earning a decisive 5-1 victory two nights ago, there are no surprises that Kris Knoblauch isn’t making any changes.
The forward lines look like this:
Nugent-Hopkins-McDavid-Hyman
Kane-Draisaitl-Holloway
Foegele-McLeod-Ryan
Janmark-Carrick-Brown
Connor Carrick was inserted into the lineup for Corey Perry in game six, and was very effective in a fourth line role. McDavid and Draisaitl are split up which gives the Oilers a lethal top-six, but a little left to be desired in the bottom-six. But, in a best-of-one, you can ride those top two lines all night long if you have to.
On defense, we have the elite top pairing, a punishing second pair, and an okay third pair.
Ekholm-Bouchard
Nurse-Desharnais
Kulak-Ceci
At least Brett Kulak is coming through on the back end this playoffs, insulating Cody Ceci a bit better than Darnell Nurse. Kulak’s strong play has been great, but that came at the cost of playing Vincent Desharnais in the top-four which isn’t ideal. Again though, it’s just one game, and they should be able to hold their own.
Stuart Skinner is back in the crease after a big win in game six. He saved 1.9 goals above expected, was perfect from medium and low danger, and only allowed the one goal that came off a high danger chance.
Skinner rebounded in a huge way, and he earned the game seven start. However, it’s nice to know that if he does falter, Calvin Pickard is battle tested and can be relied on. This is a clear advantage to the Oilers, as the Canucks have used the same goalie for the whole series.
Vancouver’s lineup
The big news out of Vancouver is that top forward Brock Boeser is out with a blood clotting issue. He won’t play in game seven, and that’s a huge blow to the Canucks. They’ll line up like this up front:
Suter-Miller-Mikheyev
Joshua-Lindholm-Garland
Hoglander-Pettersson-Lafferty
Di Giuseppe-Blueger-Aman
Without Boeser the Cancuks are projected to spread the wealth across their top-nine. J.T. Miller centers the top line, Elias Lindholm the second, and Elias Pettersson the third. These three lines will be given the matchups they want, but will probably all play a fairly even amount.
Nils Hoglander was great when he got back into the lineup, and it will be critical for Pettersson to separate himself from the pack tonight. He’s a big key for the Canucks and will need to be better if they’re going to win.
The fourth line has been tremendous in the series so far, and it’s no surprise they’re expected to stay together.
On defense, it’s exactly what we’ve seen so far:
Hughes-Hronek
Soucy-Myers
Zadorov-Cole
The Canucks have a big, heavy defense corps but that has left them susceptible to the Oilers’ speed, a matchup that will be on display tonight. Whoever comes out ahead will win the series.
In goal it is once again Arturs Silovs. Thatcher Demko was potentially going to be an option in game seven, but that is not the case. The Canucks will be without their number one goalie once again, and will be relying on their third stringer in their most important game of the year.
This and that
This has been a very tight series so far. Total goals are 21-18, 5v5 goals are 14-12, high danger goals are 9-7, both penalty kills are at 79%.
The Oilers appear to have the momentum after a dominant game six where the Canucks couldn’t do much of anything at all, but game seven is a whole other animal.
Officials tonight are Chris Rooney and Jean Hebert, working for the first time together this playoffs.
From Scouting the Refs: “The Canucks are 10-0-1 over the past three regular seasons and 1-0 this postseason under referee Chris Rooney.”
The betting lines tonight favour the Oilers, currently at -160 on the money line (win the game outright) and the Canucks at +135.
The Oilers should have the edge, and with this being the most important game of this era of the franchise, they better play at their absolute best.
There is nothing greater than game seven.
