The Edmonton Oilers haven’t lost three consecutive games since the first three games of the season. They will try to avoid a second three-game losing streak tonight when they face the Vancouver Canucks. They lost 3-2 in Vancouver on Saturday and 3-2 to Washington on Tuesday. They played quite well against Washington, but it is difficult to win in the NHL when you only score two goals. Only two of the Oilers’ 29 wins this season came when they scored two goals or fewer.

Last season only 8.7 percent (171) of the 1,312 games in the NHL had the winning team score two goals or less. This season, through 759 games, we’ve seen 10.5 percent of games (80) won by the team with two or fewer goals scored. The Oilers created some quality chances against Washington, but they didn’t finish and rarely did they generate any second or third rebound situations. They need more guys around the net tonight.

The Oilers haven’t played poorly their last two games, but they want to finish their chances, and limit the glaring errors that cost them two goals v. Washington.

Vancouver simply wants to play better than it did Tuesday night v. Buffalo. The Canucks lost for the 16th time in 24 home starts and blew a third-period lead in the process. Head coach Rick Tocchet used the classic parenting line “I’m disappointed” yesterday when discussing the loss. Kids know they messed up when their parents tell them calmly they are disappointed, rather than yelling and screaming. For some reason the calm approach always hits home harder for kids, and for players.

In his post-practice press conference yesterday Tocchet said he was disappointed three different times. “I’m obviously very disappointed of last night’s game. Going in today, I thought it was a really good practice. I know people laugh. Yeah, practice, practice, but I didn’t like the practice before the Buffalo game but I did like practice [today]. Hopefully it correlates.”

The Canucks are in a dogfight for the second wildcard spot with Calgary, St. Louis and Utah, yet they blew a third-period lead to the Buffalo Sabres who are the worst team in the Eastern Conference and 30th in the NHL. Buffalo was 2-17 when trailing after two periods before defeating the Canucks. Some losses sting worse than others, and the Oilers have to be ready for a Canucks team that wants to impress their disappointed head coach.

The Oilers shouldn’t be lacking in motivation either. They lost to Vancouver on Saturday and lost their captain to a three-game suspension. Conor Garland didn’t do anything egregious. He simply held McDavid, likely because he knows the NHL only cracks down on about 30 percent of infractions. It was a smart play by Garland. Grab onto one of the NHL’s most dangerous players in the final 20 seconds of the game and hope you don’t get called for a penalty. It worked.

While Garland did nothing egregious, the Oilers should channel their inner Michael Jordan and use his actions as motivation to play hard tonight.

— Garland did nothing to deserve any retribution, however, wouldn’t it be awesome to fuel the rivalry if fellow welterweights, Garland and Troy Stecher, dropped the gloves in a spirited tilt? The crowd would love it. Both benches would love it. NHL hockey is best when emotions are heightened, and I’d love to see these teams ratchet up the intensity tonight. The Oilers and Canucks have a decent rivalry, but why not amplify it a bit?

— The NHL seems very intensity-adverse and that’s why I guaranteed neither McDavid or Tyler Myers would be eligible to play tonight. I thought they’d get two games, but they got three. Imagine if each guy only got one game and both were in the lineup tonight. The buildup and anticipation for the game would be fierce. Fans on both sides would be talking about it all day. Fans outside the markets would tune in. I find the NHL has yet to grasp how much the hype-factor matters in sports today. The likelihood of any real fireworks happening are low even if Myers and McDavid played, but the hype train would have been rolling.

— Is there a bigger disappointment in the NHL this season than the Vancouver Canucks? They have too much internal drama that never seems to go away, and they’ve underachieved on the ice. They have a much more talented roster than Calgary, St. Louis or Utah, yet they trail Calgary by one point, are tied with the Blues and have the same number of victories as Utah. The organization, mainly off the ice, needs to mature before it will be considered a legitimate Cup contender.

— Calvin Pickard starts tonight. Based on the Oilers’ goalie rotation all season, this looks like his scheduled start. Stuart Skinner hasn’t started more than three consecutive games all season, regardless of opponent or rest. They have a set schedule it seems and have yet to deviate from it. The Jets play Connor Hellebuyck more than most teams, and looking at the other teams in the Western Conference, not many have their starters starting more than three in a row very often.

Consecutive starts of more than three games:

Hellebuyck five times. 5GP (1x), 4GP (4x).

Gustavsson three times. 5GP (1x), 4GP (2x).

Blackwood twice. 4GP (2x).

Oettinger once (6GP).

Kuemper once (4GP).

Wolf once (4GP).

Hill none.

Demko none. Lankinen did a few times, but that was due to injury issues.

I wouldn’t read more into Skinner not starting tonight, other than this is the organization’s plan in terms of rest and games played.

— Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is on pace for the least productive 5×5 season of his career. He is currently averaging 0.98 points/60. His previous low was 1.12 in 2013. He is on pace for 18 points at 5×5. He had 30 and 39 the past two seasons. He has played 62% of his 613 minutes with McDavid (349 minutes) or Draisaitl (30). Points aren’t the only tool to evaluate players, but they need more output from him at 5×5. He’s never been highly productive at 5×5, but being on pace for the worst season offensive season of his career 5×5 is disappointing when you factor in he has eight points with McDavid, but only two points in 262 minutes away from him.

— The one benefit of McDavid missing games is he spent more time on the ice this morning with John Klingberg. Those two, along with Alec Regula, remained on the ice well after this morning’s optional skate ended. They worked on numerous drills, including Klingberg and McDavid in many shooting and passing drills on Stuart Skinner. McDavid will be eligible to return to the lineup Monday v. Seattle, and you might see Klingberg make his debut the same night. If not Monday, I could see him playing a week tonight against Detroit. It is only practice, and not heavy contact drills, but Klingberg has looked very smooth and mobile in practice. I’m very curious to see how he looks in games.

— The Oilers are 2-2 without McDavid in the lineup this season. Leon Draisaitl has 4-4-8 in those four games.

— Zach Hyman was bordering on giddy this morning as he won’t have to wear the bubble mask tonight. He got the green light to go back to his normal visor.

Podkolzin – Draisaitl – Arvidsson
Perry – Henrique – Hyman
Janmark – RNH – Brown
J. Skinner – Philp – Kapanen

Ekholm – Bouchard
Nurse – Stecher
Kulak – EmbersonPickard

These lines are based on what we saw at practice yesterday. Corey Perry and Jeff Skinner swapped spots from Tuesday’s lineup. Perry scored his 437th career goal Tuesday which tied him for 76th all time with Pavel Bure and Rick Nash. His next goal will tie him with Gary Roberts for 75th.

DeBrusk – Pettersson – Boeser
Suter  – Miller – Garland
Heinen  – Blueger – Sherwood
Hoglander – Sasson – Di Guiseppe

Hughes – Freidman
Soucy – Hronek
Forbort – Desharnais

Demko

The Myers suspension has led to the Canucks splitting up the Quinn Hughes/Filip Hronek pair. They only played six minutes together v. Buffalo and they will start them on separate pairs tonight. Hughes has been great for Vancouver all season, but Tocchet felt he tried to do too much on Tuesday. He and Hughes speak often after games and he reminded his star D-man he just needs to play his game. It is rare Hughes has a “meh” game, and I expect he will be very good tonight.