This was essentially a must win for the Edmonton Oilers. According to the NHL, historically, teams trailing 3–1 in a series have won only 9.5% of the time. The Oilers lines saw a top to bottom renovation with the biggest change coming in net. Stuart Skinner occupied the bench in favour of Calvin Pickard, sending a message to both Skinner and the team that they need to be better than in Game 3. The Oilers answered with a 3–2 win over the Canucks, narrowly avoiding overtime.
The line shake ups
Adam Henrique did not play last night, resulting in a return to the pre-trade deadline Oilers roster. The first line returned to the dominant Ryan Nugent-Hopkins-Connor McDavid-Zach Hyman line, while Dylan Holloway was moved to the second line with Leon Draisaitl and Evander Kane. Warren Foegele-Ryan McLeod-Corey Perry and Mattias Janmark-Derek Ryan-Connor Brown filled out the rest of the offence.
The defence also saw a shift as Vincent Desharnais was promoted to the second pairing with Darnell Nurse, while Cody Ceci was sent down to play with Brett Kulak. Ceci and Nurse have been criticized for not being effective, accident-prone, and Desharnais has been playing well so this makes sense; it is admittedly surprising a change of some sort didn’t come sooner.
The Pickard experiment
Pickard having started last night is one of the biggest stories from this game. This may come as a surprise to a lot of people, and if two months ago someone told us that Pickard would be starting in the playoffs then we would probably have assumed disaster. The situation isn’t that bad considering the Oilers were only down 2–1 and had already made the second round. Whatever the Oilers outcomes as a team though, Skinner hasn’t been dominating in the crease, only posting a .877 SV% and a 3.22 GAA this postseason. While it may seem that those numbers necessitate a change in goaltending, the problem is that Pickard has been a question mark for most of his career but more importantly, has never played a postseason game before last night.
Pickard has not been given much of a chance in the NHL though, having played only 116 games over the nine seasons before coming to the Oilers. How can you know how a goalie will perform in the playoffs if you never give him a chance? Considering Pickard’s above average stats from this regular season, he deserved this chance.
Pickard made good on the opportunity he was given, winning his first career NHL playoff game. He carried a shutout into the third period which would have been truly inspiring if he could finish it off, but it wasn’t to be. Pickard only faced 21 shots last night but he made some great saves and held the Oilers lead for most of the game, even when faced with a four minute power play. Both goals he did let in appeared to be tipped in amongst a heavy screen. Instead of the disaster we might have expected just months ago, the Oilers are tied with one of the best regular season teams in the second round.
How the scoring went
The Oilers opened the scoring with a power play goal and just saying that it was a power play goal is probably enough for you to know exactly how it went down. After some brief cycling, McDavid cut sharply into the high slot, immediately drawing three defenders to him and leaving Draisaitl in his office lonelier than a snowman south of San Antonio. McDavid found him cross ice and Draisaitl made no mistake.
TAKE A HIT, MAKE A PLAY!!! The second goal of the night also belonged to the Oilers. Mattias Ekholm, one of the most consistent players for the Oilers all year along, took the puck and carried it only a short time before getting hit hard by Noah Juulsen. The hit itself was nice, but he completely abandoned his defensive partner and didn’t stop Ekholm from keeping the puck moving forward. Nugent-Hopkins picked up the free puck and took it in on a two-on-one with McDavid, he chose not to shoot and fired it post and in on Arturs Silovs.
What looked like it may become a dominant win by the Oilers was quickly made into a close game by Connor Garland and the Canucks. Vancouver was suffocating the Oilers in their own end when Garland shot through a heavy screen and beat Pickard high glove, ruining his chances for a shutout.
The second goal for the Canucks tied it up. More sustained pressure from the Canucks led to Brock Boeser shooting for a tip from the left circle dot. The shot ricochets off of Dakota Joshua’s heel and slides by Pickard.
The Oilers first of the period gave them back the lead with only 38.1 seconds to go in the game! After the Canucks goal only one minute before, it seemed certain that the game was going to overtime. Galvanized by giving up their lead, the Kane-Draisaitl-Holloway line flipped the script on the Canucks and hemmed them in their own end, culminating in Draisaitl feeding Bouchard from behind the net. Evan Bouchard fired a beauty that dodged two Canuck skaters and one goalie on its way to the back of the net.
Were the Oilers able to dominant the whole game?
The Oiler’s first period was excellent, highlighted by killing off one regular two minute power play as well as a four minute double minor. The four minute kill was especially impressive, not just for the extended length, but also as it was incredibly aggressive, not giving the Canucks time to set up whatsoever and successfully dumping the puck time after time for the first three minutes. The last minute was controlled by the Canucks but in the end they only had one shot on the power play. The first frame also saw a power play goal for the Oilers and several hard-working defensive plays, including two huge back checks from Hyman and Draisaitl.
The first ten minutes of the second belonged to the Oilers and last ten to the Canucks, excepting the late goal by Nugent-Hopkins. There was a point where the Oilers held the puck in the offensive zone for a full minute and a half in the first ten minutes, and not long after that the Canucks did the same to the Oilers for full a minute. It would be hard to call the period a bad one for the Oilers considering the Nugent-Hopkins goal, but it was decidedly worse than the first.
The third frame turned out worse still for the Oilers, redeemed only by the late goal by Bouchard that won the game for them. Large chunks of the period were controlled by the Canucks although both teams finished the game with the same number of third period shots. The Oilers were scored on twice and nearly threw away all their good work from the first two periods.
All said and done, this is a huge win for the Oilers in essentially a must win game. In a way, Coach Kris Knoblauch starting Pickard in this game was a wake up call to the Oilers and they were able to respond with a win.
How to improve going forward
Two places where the Oilers need to improve are, firstly, consistency; they badly need to put in a full sixty minutes. The Bouchard goal felt like a gift from heaven and a late goal like that to take the lead back is not common in the NHL. As such, the Oilers cannot rely on that ever again and need to play the whole game like they did the first period.
Secondly, depth. The Oilers are still not getting any depth scoring whatsoever. The bottom six didn’t have a terrible game but they need to get on the score board. When the playoffs started the Canucks line of Garland-Lindholm-Joshua was considered the third line, but last night as the game started they were listed first on the Sports Net broadcast. If the Oilers could get the same production from their third line they would be dominant.
Some positives from the game were the play of Pickard and the first period. Pickard was not tested so heavily, only seeing 21 shots this game, but he made some huge, timely saves. If the game had been tied going into the third there’s no way the Oilers would have survived the night. The only goals to actually get past him were some pretty tough tips in front and I don’t think you could fault him for either of those as in both cases the shooter was given too much room. The first period from the Oilers was terrific, though they only left the period up by one, it proves that they are capable of that level of play, and if they play that way all game long, this series will be over in six.
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