Saturday’s game between the Edmonton Oilers and Vancouver Canucks had massive stakes. After the Canucks had a massive lead in the Pacific Division standings, boosted by three convincing wins over the Oilers in the early stages of the season, Edmonton had slowly chipped away to the point that the winner of Saturday’s game would have the inside track to win the division. The game also marked the first time the two rivals had played each other since the hiring of Kris Knoblauch. The Oilers started Stuart Skinner, while Casey DeSmith returned to the net for Rick Tocchet with Thatcher Demko still sidelined and Arthur Silovs getting roughed up in his last start against Arizona. Additionally, despite being apparently healthy enough to play if it were a playoff game, Connor McDavid was not suiting up in the third consecutive game for the Oilers.
The Canucks score first
The Canucks break into the zone with a partial three-on-two with two back checkers helping cut off some pass lanes. Darnell Nurse backs in inside the dots and lets Sam Laffety walk in to the middle. Just as Lafferty loads to shoot, Nurse stops and reaches out with his stick which actually tips the shot on the way to the net. Skinner is maybe a bit off angle, but at that spot on the ice, the difference doesn’t matter a whole lot. However, to me, it’s clear that he doesn’t pick up the puck well after the tip sends the shot higher than the release would’ve indicated.
Suter scores for Vancouver
The Oilers have numbers back against the rush, with Mattias Ekholm forcing Tyler Myers to the boards. Evan Bouchard has Pius Suter covered in the middle lane, but takes a scan of the ice at an inopportune time just as the pass is coming. This allows Suter to get his stick inside Bouchard’s leverage for the tip into the far side. Skinner makes a bad read here, tracking the puck like it was a missed shot rather than the shot pass, which results in him not sliding over to the new angle until after the puck was already tipped.
Kane scores for Edmonton
The Oilers forwards cycle the puck down low before going back up to Nurse, who sends a centre cut floater on net. Kane is able to take the centre cut shot and deflect it down and towards the blocker, in what is one of the more difficult plays a goaltender can see because of the four ways the puck can go off the tip. DeSmith had reached across his body with his glove to make the first save, which takes away his eyes to read the tip and results in a blocker that’s not activated to react on that side of the net.
Summary
DeSmith was good on Saturday night, but the Oilers’ lack of goals was largely to their attack lacking quality chances. Many of their shots were from distance, with the Canucks’ defensive shell keeping them out of the middle and preventing any kind of dynamic chances. Skinner was also good in the game, facing slightly less volume but coming up big against some of the quality looks from Vancouver’s shooter. The two times he was beat came off of tips on the rush, where better gap control could likely eliminate those chances.
Photo by Curtis Comeau/Icon Sportswire
