Thursday night in Edmonton will feature the third and final meeting between the Oilers and Vancouver Canucks during the 2024-25 regular season. The winner of this game will take the season series between the two teams.
1. The Canucks swept all four meetings in last year’s season series with the Oilers en route to winning the Pacific Division for the first time in over a decade. The two rivals met in the second round of the playoffs and Edmonton edged out Vancouver with wins in Game 6 and 7.
The Oilers piled up seven goals on Kevin Lankinen in a 7-3 win in November and the Canucks squeaked out a 3-2 win in the second meeting between the two teams last weekend.
Things got heated in the final few seconds of play in the second game. Edmonton captain Connor McDavid and Vancouver defenceman Tyler Myers were given match penalties for cross-checking and were later handed three-game suspensions. Both players will be unavailable on Thursday in the season series finale.
2. The Oilers enter Thursday’s game one point back of the Vegas Golden Knights for the top spot in the Pacific Division while the Canucks are one point behind the Calgary Flames for the eighth playoff spot in the Western Conference.
Vancouver has seen a mighty tumble from pretty good in 2023-24 to mediocre in 2024-25 and the quick decline suggests the Canucks might have been a one-year wonder rather than a serious contender. The team enjoyed a league-high 1.028 PDO last season and that sort of luck doesn’t often translate from one year to the next.
3. After finishing last season sixth in the league with 279 goals for and fifth with 221 against, the Canucks have cratered in both categories. They’re 26th with 130 goals scored despite having a league-average power play and they’re 19th with 145 goals against thanks in part to some goaltending issues.
Thatcher Demko missed the first chunk of the season because of an injury and has a .873 save percentage across 11 games since returning. Arturs Silovs, who filled in for Demko when he was out during the playoffs, struggled to a .847 save percentage in seven appearances with the Canucks. Kevin Lankinen had a hot start with Vancouver after earning a contract on a professional tryout but has cooled off and owns a .903 save percentage in 30 games.
Lankinen, Demko, and Silovs have combined for a .889 save percentage in 2024-25, considerably lower than the .909 save percentage Demko, Casey DeSmith, and Silovs posted in 2023-24.
The Canucks had five players score at least 20 goals last season. Brock Boeser led the way with 40, J.T. Miller was right behind him with 37, and Elias Pettersson was third with 34 goals. Nils Hoglander also added 24 goals and Conor Garland scored 20.
This season, only two of those players are anywhere close to where they were last year. Boeser has 15 goals in 39 games and Garland has 11 in 46. Pettersson, Miller, and Hoglander, who cost the Canucks roughly $20 million against the salary cap, have combined for 22 goals.
4. The Canucks are coming into Thursday’s game in Edmonton expecting to hear a lot of jeers and boos from the crowd after what happened last weekend. Despite all of the narratives around the game, head coach Rick Tocchet believes the drama is overblown and that his team will play a game focused on earning another two points.
“Yeah, he held a guy. Is that wanted posters?” Tocchet questioned. “I understand if he smashed him in the face or got into a fight or did something…it’s a hold. So I don’t really care what they think.”
“It’s not going to deter [Garland] to go into the corners and front of the net. He needs his teammates to be there right behind him. You heard Leon Draisaitl, one of the best players in the league, talking about this big war or something he didn’t understand, [saying] ‘Why is there a war?’ It was about a hold and a couple of things that happened at the end. We need two points. We don’t need vengeance. There’s no vengeance. It’s just two points for us.”
Vancouver hosted the basement-dwelling Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday looking to build on their win over the Oilers. The Canucks carried a 2-1 lead into the third period but couldn’t seal the deal, as the Sabres skated away with a 3-2 victory. The Oilers, meanwhile, fell 3-2 to the league-leading Washington Capitals in the first game of McDavid’s suspension.
