The Edmonton Oilers and Vancouver Canucks met on Saturday night for the first of two meetings within five days, and it was a story of two clubs heading in very different directions. But even with the Canucks recent struggles, rivalry games tend to bring out the best in people, and the Oilers needed to bring their A-game if they were planning to extend their winning streak. Unfortunately, we did not get their best. Instead, we got another slow start with the unfortunate difference that they couldn’t climb out of the hole they dug for themselves. Final score: 3-2 Canucks.

What do we think about the Connor McDavid cross check on Conor Garland after the refs refused to call any of the four or five interference penalties they ignored? Our captain is in the crosshairs for a dirty play for the second time in under a week, and I’m thinking we’ll be without him for the next game or two. Given the match penalty with under three seconds left, the rule is that the NHL will be calling with either a fine or suspension. My guess is that he’s getting the latter.

My problem with the whole situation is that none of it would have happened if the referees had done their jobs. Just because there was less than a minute left in the game doesn’t mean they can put the whistles away and forget there are rules. Instead, we got a prison rules finish that turned into chaos because the NHL allows this crap to happen. While there’s no excuse for McDavid to cross check Garland in the head — nor was there for Tyler Myers on Evan Bouchard — but none of that mess happens if the referees weren’t incompetent.

With the 3-1 goal at 4:01 in the second period, Leon Draisaitl extended his point streak to a six-game stretch where he’s registered an incredible 10 points (4G, 6A). The goal itself was a vintage Leon goal where he banked the puck into the net off of Demko’s back from the goal line. Draisaitl added a power play goal just under nine minutes later that was scored from almost the exact same spot, but this time Leon snuck Ryan Nugent-Hopkins’ pass just inside the far post. His ability to score goals from horrible angles never ceases to amaze me.

Even with plenty of downsides from last night’s loss, I want to throw in Leon Draisaitl as a silver lining. The guy is having a monster season, and I will never tire of watching him fill the net. Now with 33 goals on the year, Draisaitl is starting to build a healthy gap between himself and the players chasing him for the Rocket Richard. I still maintain my idea that the Hockey Gords have it written in the stars that he’ll finish as the league’s best goal scorer this year, and last night’s two-goal performance was another great example of why. He scores from areas other players can’t, and I’m betting on it being the difference between him and whoever finishes in second place.

You can make it three games in a row where I’m writing about the Oilers being a hot mess in the opening period of the hockey game. The difference this time was that in took until the back half of the frame before the Canucks were able to pot three in a span of under four minutes. I know the boys were playing the last game of what has been a wild travel schedule over the last two weeks, but to show up so flat as often as they have recently is shocking comebacks or not.

With the mess that was the opening frame, the Oilers have now given up the first goal of the game in five of their last six games. While the boys had gone 4-1 in the five games leading up to Saturday when giving up the first goal, it was only a matter of time before they’d be unable to erase that early damage, and that’s precisely what happened in Vancouver. Even though there’s little doubt that the Oilers improved over the final 40 minutes and managed to pull narrow the gap to a single goal, it was too little too late for the jump in execution.

1. As much as people will talk about the Connor McDavid cross check because he’s the best player in the league, the Tyler Myers cross check on Evan Bouchard was equally vicious. That one was a straight stick to Bouchard’s grill, and he landed the shot with some force behind it.

2. Viktor Arvidsson missed the last seven minutes of Thursday’s game after blocking a shot that left him hobbled on the right leg, and he took another blast to the led early in the third period that looked just as painful. Thankfully, he was able to shake it off and stay in the game, but I don’t know that I’ve seen a guy who’s been a magnet for bad luck quite like him.

3. The NHL boxscore has the Oilers listed with 17 giveaways, but that number might be generous by my eye. There were a lot of cross-ice passes to no one in particular that seemed to get picked off more often than not.

4. Tough night for the Oilers’ PK as the boys gave up two goals on the first two shorthanded situations they faced. At the end of the night, Edmonton finished at 2-for-4 on the PK, but those two goals against ended up being the difference.

5. As sure as the sun will rise in the morning, so too will I tell you about the Oilers winning 42.3% of the faceoffs. You know you like the consistency in your life, even when the information is bad news.

6. Josh Brown was in the lineup, and yet he prevented none of the final-minute shenanigans. Weird.

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