On Saturday evening, the Edmonton Oilers played their penultimate road game ahead of the Olympic break, smashing the Vancouver Canucks 6-0 to move their record to 24-17-8. Let’s take a look at what happened in this one.

In the first period, it looked like it was going to be a battle of the netminders for the second consecutive game. Then, the second period happened. Just over three minutes into the middle frame, the Oilers got on the board thanks to a good zone entry, a little bit of goalie interference, and Jack Roslovic’s 13th of the season. The Canucks challenged the goal, but it was deemed that the defender pushed Lazar into their netminder.

While the Oilers didn’t score on the delay of game power play after the failed challenge, they did get on the board thanks to a power play goal after Roslovic drew a high-sticking penalty. It was Zach Hyman’s 17th goal of the season and he, of course, scored from in front of the net seven minutes into the second period.

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4:20 AM · Jan 18, 2026

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From that point onward, the game came completely off the rails for the Canucks. With eight minutes left in the second, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins sprung the speedy Kasperi Kapanen for a breakaway, with the Finn going post and in to make it 3-0 for the good guys.

Nearly three minutes later, the Oilers got on the board again, as the third line finally got a goal. On a breakout, Matthew Savoie found Ike Howard on the opposite side of the ice. The rookie carried the puck in and found a streaking Roslovic on a semi-breakaway for a tap-in.

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4:31 AM · Jan 18, 2026

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Not to be out done, Kapanen scored his second of the game 37 seconds later. Nugent-Hopkins came out of the corner and made a beautiful back-handed pass to Kapanen in the slot. It was a good finish by Kapanen, but an even better cut to the centre of the ice to get open.

The Oilers scored their sixth goal of the period about a minute and half following the second Kapanen goal. Connor McDavid brought the puck in, had the puck swiped off his stick, but it was cleared to a trailing Vasily Podkolzin. The former Canuck ripped it past the netminder for his 11th goal of the season.

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Takeaways…

The Oilers got a big boost thanks to scoring from those who don’t get on the scoreboard all that often. Kasperi Kapanen has been great since his return, but he had just one goal entering this season. Playing alongside Trent Frederic and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, he was able to score twice, giving him three goals for the season.

With Leon Draisaitl out of the lineup, Podkolzin was elevated to the top line alongside Connor McDavid and Zach Hyman. He was able to score his 11th goal of the season to make it a 6-0 game for the Oilers at that point. Podkolzin is now on pace for 18 goals and 35 points, which would be career highs in both categories.

Jack Roslovic also had a strong game, scoring his 13th and 14th goals of the season. His first goal came thanks to a nice drop pass by Curtis Lazar, set up by Mattias Janmark with the Gretzky assist. Roslovic’s second goal was assisted by Ike Howard and Matthew Savoie, the first time that trio has gotten on the board.

Frederic was held pointless in this game, but he played well alongside Kapanen and Nugent-Hopkins, as the trio was on the ice for two goals. Andrew Mangiapane received a couple of hard hits in the first period and was briefly missing from the bench to begin the second period, but he returned shortly into the middle frame.

The third line may have scored their first goal as a unit, but much like last Saturday, it wasn’t a great game for their unit when looking at their under-the-hood numbers. They outshot opposition eight to seven during five on five action, but had just 27.70 percent of the expected goal share, and gave up seven high-danger chances, while generating just three of their own. Their second and third period was rough in particular.

With the addition of Andrew Mangiapane on the fourth-line, it had 42.77 percent of the expected goal share. But the Oilers’ top two lines had a strong game. The second line of Frederic, Nugent-Hopkins, and Kapanen owned 90.77 percent of the expected goal share with three high-danger scoring opportunities, while not allowing one of their own. Expect this line to get another look on Sunday.

The Connor McDavid line with the addition of Podkolzin were okay, as they had 57.76 percent of the expected goal share in the 10:25 of ice time during five on five action. All these stats come courtesy of Natural Stat Trick.

Three defencemen had a point in this game, as Evan Bouchard, Ty Emberson, and Jake Walman all had assists. Nurse was a +3 and Mattias Ekholm was a +4 in this game. Strong stuff from the Oilers’ back-end in this game.

This was easily Jarry’s best game as an Oiler. Aside from stopping 12 of 13 shots in the game he was injured in, Jarry hadn’t finished with a save percentage above .900. That changed in this game, as he stopped all 31 shots he faced for his second shutout of the season. It’s not like he wasn’t challenged either, as the Canucks had 2.43 expected goals.

Up next for the Oilers is an eight-game home stand that carries into early February. They’ll host the St. Louis Blues on Sunday at 6:00 PM MT.

Ryley Delaney is a Nation Network writer for Oilersnation, FlamesNation, and Blue Jays Nation. Follow her on Twitter @Ryley__Delaney.