GDB -1.0 Wrap Up: Oilers fall to the Canucks 3-2 in their final pre-season game

6 years ago

Oilers lose to the Canucks and nobody cares because the real games start on Wednesday. Final Score: 3-2 Canucks

At last, the pre-season is finally over! Even though it’s only been two weeks, this round of the warm-up league has felt like an eternity. Personally, I was already looking ahead to Wednesday night’s season opener against the Flames a few days ago and didn’t really care much about who won tonight. Actually, that’s not really true. I did truly care about everyone making it through these last 60 pointless minutes against Vancouver in good health and ready to launch for real.

As much as I didn’t really care about the final score in tonight’s hockey game, it’s always preferable to see the Vancouver Canucks get stomped into the dirt. They’re a bad team and should be treated as such and that fact that the Oilers couldn’t beat them was irritating even though it’s only the pre-season. I hate Vancouver with a burning fire in my soul and I’ll get over tonight’s misstep by remembering that the Canucks are going to be bad again this year and that’s almost enough to bring a tear to my eye. Do I care about a pre-season loss when the Oilers probably should have won? No. Let Jacob Markstrom steal you a pre-season win—it’s the best time for that.

In the end, the Oilers were beaten by a team that they’ll be stomping for the next decade and finish up the pre-season with a 6-2-0 record and that’s not bad. Even though the games don’t really matter, it would have been nice to finish with a near perfect record but that’s not how the cookie crumbled this time around. The Oilers needed to be better in net and in the defensive zone and they’ll have until Wednesday to clean up those details. Now, bring on the season-opener.

For the last time this pre-season, we wrap.

THE BRIGHT SIDE

Leon Draisaitl finished off a beautiful give-and-go play between himself and Connor McDavid. All three forwards got in on the slick piece of puck work that tied the game and left Jacob Markstrom swimming all over the ice. Wonderful play followed by a perfect finish. Draisaitl scored his second goal in the middle frame on the power play when he ripped a well-placed snapshot past Markstrom.
If there’s one good thing about the pre-season it’s that it gives us bonus chances to watch Connor McDavid play hockey. It will always be fun to watch him do the little plays that only he can do and I will never get tired of it.
I like the look of Nugent-Hopkins and Yamamoto on the second power play unit. They both can pass and shoot the puck and it adds a different scoring angle from either side of the ice.
Kris Russell and Matt Benning had a good night on the backend and were able to move the puck up the ice effectively.
The Oilers had tonnes of great movement on the power play but couldn’t get more than the one goal despite the chances. If they can find ways to maintain possession like this did tonight on a consistent basis then they power play could be a nice weapon. They finished the night 1/5 but probably deserved more.
Oilers finished at 52% in the faceoff circle and also did will in the fancies with a 55.96 CF% (Courtesy of Corsica)

THE FACE PALMERS

The Oilers completely whiffed on their defensive zone coverage on the first Vancouver goal. Virtanen was left wide open in front of the net and he made no mistake when the puck landed on his stick in the slot.
The Oilers gave up and a shorthanded breakaway and Granlund made no mistake and he beat Talbot through the legs on a chance that never should have happened in the first place.
Loui Eriksson put the Canucks up 3-2 on the power play after the Oilers took their fourth power play in the first two periods. The Eriksson goal came only 61 seconds after Granlund tied the game up with the shorthanded breakaway.
Edmonton game up way too many power play chances and it allowed the Canucks to stay in the game when they shouldn’t have been able to. If the refs are going call the rulebook as tightly as they are then the players are going to have to adjust to make sure that they’re not spending 10 minutes shorthanded every night.
Wasn’t Cam Talbot’s finest night but the goals he allowed also seemed to come off of some grade A chances that were gifted to the Canucks. Regardless, he’ll be looking to move past this one and get himself dialled in for Wednesday. Talbot finished the night with 14 saves and a .824 save%.
We thought we were going to see Anton Slepyshev out on the ice for his first pre-season action of the year, but that didn’t end up happening due to a reported illness. His ankle injury has kept him out until this point and he’ll have to catch up quickly before someone swoops in and steals his job.
Seeing Gagner in a Canucks jersey was nauseating. Poor guy.
Not that it really matters because I wasn’t doing anything anyway, but it annoyed me that the last pre-season game was at 8pm. Canucks fans don’t even care about the Canucks so it really didn’t matter what time this thing started. Start it at noon. Chances are most of the fairweather followers in the 6-0-4 wouldn’t have noticed anyway.

SCORING SUMMARY

1ST PERIOD

TIME	TEAM	DETAILS	SCORE
12:53	VAN	Jake Virtanen (4) ASST: Alexander Burmistrov (3), Patrick Wiercioch (1)	0-1
19:58	EDM	Leon Draisaitl (2) ASST: Connor McDavid (6), Patrick Maroon (3)	1-1

2ND PERIOD

TIME	TEAM	DETAILS	SCORE
07:46	EDM	PPG – Leon Draisaitl (3) ASST: Connor McDavid (7), Mark Letestu (3)	2-1
08:09	VAN	SHG – Markus Granlund (3)	2-2
12:41	VAN	PPG – Loui Eriksson (2) ASST: Markus Granlund (2), Troy Stecher (3)	2-3

3RD PERIOD

TIME	TEAM	DETAILS	SCORE
No Scoring

#GOODCONTENT

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THE SEASON LAUNCH PARTY

Tickets are on sale now for $30 and will remain on sale straight through until the date of the party, or until they sell out — whichever happens first. Your ticket will also enter you into all of the draws for NationGear prizes and the jersey giveaways that will happen throughout the night.

Where: The Pint Downtown
When: Saturday, October 7th starting at 6pm
Why: Because we’ve got a hankerin’ for some partyin’
How Much: Tickets are $30 with net proceeds going to Little Warriors
How: Tickets are available here

For each ticket you buy, you’ll get one of the exclusive season opener t-shirts (shown above), a $10 Denizen Hall GC, a card for FREE perogies and tacos for a year at the Pint, $10 Oodle Noodle GC, a Nation sticker package, and, most importantly, a chance to kick off the season with your Nation brothers and sisters.

Source: NHL.com, Official Game Page, 09/30/2017, 10:51pm MST

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