After a pair of disappointing losses at the hands of the Devils and Golden Knights, the Edmonton Oilers are hitting the road for a Hockey Night in Canada matchup versus the Vancouver Canucks.
Does anyone else feel like the Hockey Gords are challenging our strength through the first 14 games of the 2024-25 NHL season? After making it to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final only a few short months ago, many Oilers fans expected the team to pick right back up where they left off. Even though the result obviously didn’t go the way we wanted, the expectation was that the boys would find a way to get right back there. So far, what we’re watching hasn’t given people much confidence that it will happen.
Yet, even though the first 14 games have been mostly mediocre from an Oilers perspective, I’ve been reminding myself that they’re further ahead than they were a year ago. Coincidentally, today marks the one-year anniversary of that horrific loss to the San Jose Sharks that all but ensured Jay Woodcroft and Dave Manson would be gassed, which they were only a few days later. As much as some of the recent results have been painful, it’s somehow reassuring to know that we’ve been through worse. We’ve seen lower lows with this team than where we’re at right now, and that gives me hope for brighter days ahead.
That said, I also doubt that we’re in line for another 16-game win streak once the calendar flips, and that means the Oilers have to start picking up wins now. Yeah, we can point to their strong underlying numbers — the 56.63 CF% and 55.28 xGF% combined with a 30th-ranked 5.82 shooting percentage suggest that the tides will turn eventually — but we’re past the point of accepting silver linings. These aren’t the Dallas Eakins days anymore where being competitive in a game and still losing is acceptable — the Oilers need to put the pedal to the floor and get going.
If ever there was a time to throw the hard hats on and get to work, it’s against a Vancouver Canucks team that will surely be fired up to play this first of three games of the year. Just like we heard from the Dallas Stars ahead of that head-to-head a few weeks back, it’s not hard to get motivated to play the team that bumped you out of the playoffs, and that’s a challenge Edmonton must be ready to handle. The Canucks are going to throw everything they can Edmonton’s way, and the Oilers will need to come up with a whole lot more than we’ve seen over the last two losses if they’re going to avoid tacking on a third.
Let’s see what the numbers say.

THE NUMBERS

OILERS
CANUCKS
RECORD
6-7-1
7-2-3
WIN/LOSS STREAK
L2
W3
LAST 10 GAMES
5-4-1
7-2-1
GOALS FOR
33
39
GOALS AGAINST
45
36
POWER PLAY%
14.3
18.0
PENALTY KILL%
59.5
84.2
AVG. SHOTS/FOR
33.1
28.4
AVG. SHOTS/AGAINST
26.4
26.9
TEAM SAVE%
.914
.908
CORSI FOR%
56.63
53.33
PDO
0.972
1.014
TEAM SHOOTING%
5.82
10.62
EXPECTED GOALS FOR%
55.28
56.64
Numbers courtesy of Natural Stat Trick (Sv%, CF%, PDO, Shooting%, xGF% all at 5×5)
  • Saturday’s meeting marks the first of three between the Oilers and Canucks this season, with the next coming up on January 18th in Vancouver before wrapping up the series on January 23rd back home at Rogers Place. After declaring themselves as regular season champs with a sweep in last year’s regular season series, the Oilers knocked off the Canucks in Game 7 of the second round of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs. But if you ask a Canucks fan, they’ll probably claim the outcome was rigged or something.
  • Corey Perry leads all active Oilers in career games played against Vancouver (67), while Connor McDavid leads all active Oilers in career points (64) produced versus the Canucks. McDavid has recorded at least a point in 17 of his last 18 regular season games (15G, 22A) against Vancouver and 28 of his last 30 regular season games (20G, 34A) overall. The 64 career points (23G, 41A) he has against the Canucks are his most against any single opponent. Meanwhile, Leon Draisaitl has at least a point in 21 of his last 22 regular season games (16G, 18A) against Vancouver and 25 of his last 27 regular season games (18G, 23A) overall.
  • Ty Emberson has only scored a single NHL goal to this point in his career, and it came against Vancouver back on November 25th of last season while he was still with the Sharks.
  • Vasily Podkolzin will play his former team for the first time after being traded to the Oilers on August 18th in exchange for a 2025 4th round pick. Podkolzin was originally drafted 10th overall by the Canucks at the 2019 NHL Entry Draft and played in 137 games with Vancouver, producing 18 goals and 17 assists for 35 points.

LINEUPS…

Oilers

Skinner – McDavid – Hyman
Podkolzin – Draisaitl– Arvidsson
Henrique – Nugent-Hopkins – Brown
Janmark – Ryan – Perry
Ekholm – Bouchard
Nurse – Stecher
Kulak – Emberson
Skinner
Despite the loss against Vegas on Wednesday, Kris Knoblauch will be running back the same line combos for Saturday’s game against the Canucks. Whether or not the combos stay the way they are remains to be seen, but Knoblauch clearly liked something he saw against the Golden Knights in order to keep everything the same. Then again, maybe a little consistency is what the Oilers need right now? As of this writing, the boys are 31st overall in goals scored, and that’s a stat that repeatedly blows my mind any time I think about it. Will these combos work this time? Will the Oilers finally be able to score? Gord knows, but I’m hopeful.

Canucks

Suter – Miller – Garland
Höglander – Pettersson – DeBrusk
Heinen – Blueger – Sherwood
Åman – Räty – Bains
Hughes – Hronek
Soucy – Myers
Brännström – Desharnais
Lankinen
The Canucks will be without Brock Boeser who was diagnosed with a concussion after a blind side hit by Tanner Jeannot a few nights ago against the Kings. In his place, Pius Suter will be elevated to the top line with J.T. Miller and Conor Garland, while Nils Hoglander moves up to play alongside Elias Pettersson and Jake DeBrusk. After a slow start to the season, DeBrusk now has goals in three consecutive games, and has really started to settle in on a line with Elias Pettersson.

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING…

David Quadrelli from Canucksarmy.com:
There is one Canucks star who has been rock solid all season long, and that’s Quinn Hughes.
Somehow, Hughes is playing even better hockey than he was last year when he was named the NHL’s best defenceman and took home the first Norris Trophy in Canucks franchise history. And no, I’m not kidding. He’s legitimately somehow playing better hockey even though the Canucks as a whole have been a bit of a mess defensively when he’s not on the ice.
Now, the non-Hughes minutes have been a real problem for this team so far this season, so if you’re an Oilers fan, that’s something to watch for. The Carson Soucy-Tyler Myers pairing that the Canucks used to hard match Connor McDavid’s line in the playoffs has been inefficient at best this season, and a lot of the blame seems to lie with Soucy, who was clearly the Canucks’ third-best defenceman last year behind Hughes and Filip Hronek. He’s struggled this season and has yet to find his game.

TONIGHT…

Edmonton Oilers Evan Bouchard and Mattias Ekholm Photoshop
Photoshop: Tom Kostiuk from Handmade by Tom
Game Day Prediction: In addition to playing well, the Oilers find a way to score a few goals in the process, defeating the Canucks by a 6-1 score.
Obvious Game Day Prediction: Canucks fans will do everything possible to be annoying tonight, as the Oilers live rent free in their minds after losing to us in the playoffs. But.. but..  but… they won all four regular season games, though. *single tear streams down face*
Not-So-Obvious Game Day Prediction: The Oilers’ PK won’t give up any goals today. You read it here first.

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