Dave Tippett tore the Oilers a new one after Wednesday’s opening night loss. He lit into them for playing a complacent game, giving up on plays, and donating scads of open ice to Canuck forwards. He may or may not have used a few o’ them fancy cuss words that Nicholas Cage is talking about over on the Netflix. When he was done, he stomped out of the dressing room. The rest is ridiculous.
How Connor McDavid doesn’t score 100 goals a year boggles the mind. This guy’s skillset is ridiculous. Photo cribbed from the Oilers website.
Long story short, Connor McDavid and the rest of the Oilers big guns were having none of the Canucks bullshit in game two. McDavid lit the lamp once, twice, thrice, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored a brace, and Leon Draisaitl put up four assists. It was a track meet, okay? But who are we kidding, it’s the Chosen One we need to discuss here.
The Canucks had a decent start, at least. Thatcher Demko made a couple of spectacular saves, the top line had a couple of power play looks, and the good guys were down just 1-0 with 2.5 seconds left in the first. Then, well, this happened.
Okay, we knew the Canucks wouldn’t keep McDavid goalless all season. After the intermission, they came out buzzing, Nate Schmidt lasered his first as a Canuck, whooping into the empty stands like Ric Flair gone wild… and thensomebody queued up Sweet Georgia Brown.
Ain’t nobody stopping that.
After that, it was a track meet. And when you run against the fastest guy on the planet, you lose.
You can’t blame Demko tonight. He made 41 saves against one of the most potent offenses in the league. The guy at the other end of the ice, though, Mikko Koskinen, made 38 saves on 40 tries. Count ’em up, and McDavid scored one more than the entire Canucks team.
The Canadian Division has pundits and advertisers in this country licking their chops. it’s socially distanced, masked, and sanitized, of course, but make no mistake: thar be choplickin’ in them thar office towers. Thanks to COVID-19, the Great White North is guaranteed a team in the Stanley Cup semi-finals. Not many people have the Canucks making hay this year — of course, Sportsnet is positively salivating at the possibility of their beloved Leafs in the final four — but on opening night, at least, they made a pretty good case for themselves.
Vancouver and Edmonton have some of the most dynamic young players in the league. They both had lethal power plays last year, but with JT Miller on the sidelines with a possible Covid exposure, you had to give the edge to the dirty rotten stinkin’ Oilers coming into the game. In many ways, this felt like a pre-season game. There were jelly legs, there were gaffes, and there were lapses at both ends.
Bo Horvat scored the first Canucks goal of the season. Photo ruthlessly swiped from the interweb.
But there was also Tanner Pearson finding Bo Horvat to open the scoring. Adam Larsson missed his assignment and gave the captain so much room he was able to open a Covid screening clinic between the face off dots before going blocker on Mikko Koskinen. Hey Dave Tippett, do you even defense, bro?
There was Adam Gaudette causing a stink and chipping in with some secondary scoring when the top line was still finding their stride. It is always satisfying to see the Oilers go from swagger to slump in a couple of minutes’ time.
There was also Brayden Holtby, keeping Connor McDavid and his ridiculous hands off the score sheet. This is a guy who has averaged two points a game in season openers since he came into the NHL, and he went bagel against the Canucks this night. I don’t need Holtby in the Vezina conversation to enjoy this season — and frankly with the way the Oilers burned him high glove twice tonight that likely isn’t in the cards anyway — but damnation was it fun to see 97 dipsy doodle through three or four players but not rack up a half dozen points in the process.
Brayden Holtby looked good in his orca blue debut. Photo cribbed from Canucks Twitter feed.
And there was Quinn Hughes, too, looking positively mortal for 40 minutes, then laying two spectacular plays upon us — both resulting in wicked Brock Boeser wristers in the back of the net. After a little shake and bake along the blue line, Hughes got dumped on his ass and pinned by Kailer Yamamoto. After a few players overskated the puck, Hughes, seated and facing in the opposite direction, backhanded a blind pass to Boeser, who was quarantining in the Oiler slot. Like, seriously, Edmonton, twice in this game you left white shirts embarrassingly alone with your goaltender.
Quinn Hughes used Jedi mind tricks to force four different players to miss the puck before backhanding a pass to Brock Boeser all alone in the slot. From a seated position while facing his own net. Pixelated screen shot grabbed from an overly expensive game stream.
Oh, there was Nils Höglander busting his butt all night long and getting rewarded with his first NHL goal. If this kid plays half this well half the time, methinks Horvat has finally got a decent winger. The Sportsnet panel was so excited about him after the game I’m pretty sure they think he’s a Leaf.
Thankfully, there was not a defensive scramble every five minutes. Nate Schmidt, Tyler Myers, Alex Edler, and Travis Hamonic all provided solid defending. Olli Juolevi took a few shots for the giveaway that got the Oil on the board, but in all the kid put in some good minutes and didn’t look out of place in the rotation. #23 screened Holtby on at least one of the Edmonton goals, but Edler gonna Edler, you know?
Last but not least, there was Harnarayan Singh making his English-language debut on the national broadcast after serving as the Punjabi announcer since 2008. Growing up in Alberta, this guy knows his hockey, even if he was much more excited for the three Oiler goals than the five put up by Vancouver. Even still, there were no Boninoboninobonino calls this night. Give him time. I’m sure he’ll give us some gold before he’s done.
After 13 years and hundreds of games as the voice of Hockey Night in Punjabi, Harnarayan Singh made his English-language debut in the national play-by-play chair on Wednesday night. The Alberta native did just fine, thank you very much, and gives the country some much-needed visible diversity in its hockey coverage. Photo larceny occurred on the HNIC Punjabi website.
In all, a mildly entertaining opener that resembled a pre-season game as much as anything else. But in a 56-game season, two points is bigger than ever. And unlike the evil plottin’ schemin’ Maple Leafs, the Canucks didn’t give a division rival a Bettman loser point to get them.
Note: I know I’m a few games behind. So what. It’s fun to look at all the scorin’ and goalin’ and such.
Kevin Bieksa admitted it right there in Saturday’s post-game interview with Cassie Campbell-Pascall: the Canucks pretty much played a single period of decent hockey against the Edmonton Oilers. They stunk the place out in the first period, played below expectations in the second, but were the better team in the final 20 minutes. It was enough to win the game.
Past editions of the Canucks could play keepaway for 55 minutes and change, generate chance after chance down low, and give up a late snack goal before losing in a shootout. So far this year, they’re managing games more effectively and finding ways to win.
Taylor Hall got an apple, but couldn’t keep the loss away. Ryan Miller still has a perfect record against the Oilers. Photo stolen from canucks.com, then squashed to fit this box.
Canucks 0, Oilers 1. Jordan Eberle from Taylor Hall and Martin Marincin, 12:39 of the first period.
Taylor Hall loses a stride in the neutral zone, and that half-second hesitation is enough to freeze — wait for it — Luca Sbisa. #5 moves slightly into the middle, opening up a lane for Jordan Eberle cruising in on the right boards, and he flips a cutesy little backhand over Ryan Miller’s pad. Yannick Weber did the right thing, taking Nugent-Hopkins on the far side, so he has none of the blame on this one.
Canucks 1, Oilers 1: Luca Sbisa from Chris Higgins and Nick Bonino, 19:13 of the first period.
Thank heavens for the Oilers d-zone coverage. Remember all the running around the Canucks did in their own end last year? If not, just watch the boys in blue on this replay. The Oilers act as if the ’76 Habs are swarming their net, but this isn’t Lafleur, Shutt and Lemaire with Big Bird Robinson on the point — instead, the dreaded Sbisa-Higgins-Bonino connect to send it into the dressing room tied at one.
Canucks 2, Oilers 1: Linden Vey from Derek Dorsett and Tom Sestito, 16:37 of the second period.
If that last scoring combo wasn’t embarrassing enough, the Oilers manage to let Derek Dorsett and Tom Sestito collect apples on the same goal. Want a trifecta? Alex Edler gets a mark in the plus column on this one as well. Ben Scrivens delivers a gift-wrapped rebound to ol’ Dorsett and follows it up with a massive five hole for him to shoot at.
Canucks 2, Oilers 2: David Perron from Leon Draisaitl and Andrew Ference, 17:41 of the third period.
Ah, the short-lived lead. That’s the Canuck hockey we’ve grown to groan at over the past couple of seasons. Also in the not unexpected category: Alex Edler with a minus. Give the goat horns to Chris Tanev, who bobbles the puck behind his own net to create the open ice. Should Ryan Miller have this one? Probably, but give Perron credit, it’s a hell of a wrist shot.
Canucks 3, Oilers 2 (SH): Derek Dorsett from Ben Scrivens, 4:05 of the third period.
Give credit to ol’ Double D on this one, he hustled in on a shorthanded forecheck, and took full advantage of the worst goalie mistake since Marc-Andre Fleury was a junior. Like the Canucks second goal, Scrivens screws up twice on the same play: here he’s so flustered by his giveaway that he forgets to square himself to the shooter. Dorsett should never have the short side to shoot at on that play.
Here’s Fleury’s gold-medal losing gaffe from 2004, in case you’ve forgotten:
Look closely and you’ll see Justin Schultz’s November 10 winning puck frozen top shelf behind Danny Taylor, as Ryan Nugent-Hopkins looks on through his full face shield. For those of you who don’t know about these sorts of things, that’s some pretty fancy photographin’ right there. (Schultz may have done well on his end, as well…) Photo by Kenkoy for Pucked in the Head.
Coming into Saturday’s game, the Oklahoma City Barons hadn’t scored in nearly seven periods of hockey. The streak went back to a game last weekend against the Houston Aeros, and the Abbotsford Heat contributed another five and a half periods of frustration for the visitors from OC.
In between were a massive Aeros comeback to win that game, and consecutive shutout losses to the San Antonio Rampage and this very same Heat squad. As overheard in the media room before puck drop, “Will the young stars show up tonight? Probably, seeing as they’re going to be on TV.”
(Want more pictures, video highlights and warblings from yours truly? You got it. But first, buy this book. Or don’t. Your call.)
