EDMONTON — The Vancouver Canucks established themselves in Game 3 right out of the gate.
On the very first shift of Game 3, squaring off against Connor McDavid and an Edmonton Oilers five-man unit that tore them apart two nights earlier in Game 2, the Elias Lindholm line forechecked Edmonton’s top pair aggressively. First Lindholm landed a massive hit on Mattias Ekholm. Then Dakota Joshua followed up, landing a heavy hit that fell on Ekholm a second time.
In the corner, meanwhile, Conor Garland battled McDavid, making sure to take just the right amount of liberties to set the tone, without being sent to the box.
When the sequence was over, a raucous Rogers Place crowd was 25 percent quieter than they had been 30 seconds earlier. And Vancouver was on their way to a smash-and-grab performance that has them squarely back in the driver’s seat in this second-round series.
It was, in truth, a team of destiny performance. The Oilers dented both posts and the crossbar on four occasions. They throttled the Canucks territorially for most of the evening. Their power play was exceptional, and the officiating was substandard, in a way that favoured the Canucks.
That first shift though, was a sign of intent. An intent the Canucks were able to deliver on.
They were opportunistic. They were excellent defensively, particularly against Edmonton’s top line. They made Edmonton pay on the power play, and in key moments, including two massive third-period kills, were able to frustrate Edmonton’s best-in-NHL-history power play, winning the special teams battle outright.
Vancouver showed us again on Sunday night what they’ve demonstrated all season. Whether they’re the underdog or not, this is a team that knows how to win hockey games. And they’ve won two of three against the Oilers, to begin this second-round series.
Here are 5 takeaways from another remarkable playoff hockey night in Western Canada.
Brock Boeser was a first-period dynamo for the Canucks.
The 27-year-old has been on a tear all season, and has elevated his game all playoff long. As good as he was in the Nashville series, however, this was the finest moment.
In the middle of what was a perfect road first period for Vancouver, Boeser was the man making it all happen.
Boeser got it started on the power play, taking a smart shot from the point that Elias Lindholm deflected past Stuart Skinner to even up the score 1-1. Because Lindholm’s deft deflection was relatively subtle, the goal was originally credited to Boeser and announced in-arena as Boeser’s goal — even though Lindholm led the fist bump line past the Vancouver bench.
Then at five-on-five, playing head-to-head against the McDavid line, Boeser got lost off of the cycle as J.T. Miller drew two Oilers defenders. Miller found his partner all alone just below the line, with time and space to make a hard, accurate wrist shot count. The goal gave Vancouver a lead they’d never relinquish.
Then off of a giveaway, Boeser appeared to have his third of a period. A natural hat trick, if you hadn’t realized that the first goal was Lindholm’s. Which many traveling Canucks fans in the building on Sunday night didn’t.
It was Boeser’s second goal of the game, but the hats still hit the ice to celebrate what was, whether it was a hat trick or not, a dream period for Boeser and the Canucks.
Hat trick or not, Brock Boeser was unstoppable in the first period. 🤩 #StanleyCup
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🇨🇦: @Sportsnet or stream on Sportsnet+ ➡️ https://t.co/sEijvXhbA1 https://t.co/S5VkxUxjau pic.twitter.com/JHp9VMmuI5— NHL (@NHL) May 13, 2024
The second-period siege
Leading throughout the second period, the Oilers put the Canucks under significant duress in the second period.
It wasn’t just the McDavid line either. As the second period unfolded, Edmonton’s depth lines began to generate more zone time and more scoring chances than they did in Game 2, when Edmonton took over the latter 25 minutes of the contest.
For most of the second, all the Canucks were able to do it seemed was dump the puck out of their own zone for some momentary relief. And often they didn’t even manage that.
Credit to Arturs Silovs, who was calm and composed and effective yet again, making several key saves, including stoning Draisaitl off of a breakaway opportunity. Vancouver’s starter also got some help from his goal posts.
Between good fortune, good goaltending and solid work in their own end — a sharp contrast with the absolute mess that was Edmonton’s defensive zone coverage in the first period — Game 3 took on that odd environment you get sometimes in hockey where it seems like one team has to work twice as hard to score as their opponent. And that’s a series script that gives Vancouver more than a puncher’s chance to advance to the Western Conference Final, should it continue.
The Oilers have a goaltending issue
Go through the goals the Canucks scored on Skinner and there wasn’t a downright stinker in the bunch. One came after a whopper of a turnover by Warren Foegele. They scored twice on the power play, the first of which was tipped.
Still, there’s just no getting around it: Skinner needed to find a way to save one or two of four he allowed to prevent the Oilers from entering the third period down a pair. That’s what separates an excellent, Stanley Cup-winning goaltender from merely a good-to-average keeper who gets knocked out in the second round.
Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch pulled Skinner through two periods in favour of Calvin Pickard after he surrendered four goals on 15 shots. Skinner has now given up 12 goals on 58 shots in the series — an awful .793 save percentage.
That’s simply not going to cut it. Skinner just can’t continue to be outplayed by a third-string goaltender at the other end of the ice.
The Oilers have little chance of beating the Canucks — let alone claiming the Cup — with this type of netminding.
Should Draisaitl be moved to centre?
Leon Draisaitl was absolutely flying in Game 3.
He had two excellent chances off the rush in the second period, first beating Boeser and then Quinn Hughes. One try hit the post and the other was stopped by Silovs. He scored a power-play goal with a one-timer from his typical sharp-angle spot for good measure.
Draisaitl was the Oilers’ most dangerous player on their most dangerous line.
However, that trio with McDavid and Hyman failed to score at five-on-five and neither did anyone else. Sure, the other lines drove more play than in Game 2 and created some chances — Evander Kane, Derek Ryan and Connor Brown all hit posts — but there wasn’t any finish.
Knoblauch hinted after the morning skate that he might be willing to try Draisaitl at centre. That didn’t happen. He might have to spread the offensive wealth a little more in Game 4 to kick-start a more balanced attack.
Based on Draisaitl’s performance on Sunday, it sure seems like he’d be capable of fulfilling a more taxing role if asked.
Checking McDavid
As much as the Canucks were put under significant siege in the second frame, the difference between how effective Vancouver was at containing the McDavid and Draisaitl line — and the five-man unit that the Oilers deploy at the top of their lineup, featuring Zach Hyman and their top pair — in Game 3 and Game 2 was incredible. And ultimately decisive.
The Canucks didn’t so much adjust their game plan or deployment patterns, as they did adjust their execution. At five-on-five, the Miller line was able to play with the puck in the offensive zone, including generating the crucial 2-1 goal that spotted the Canucks their first lead of the game. Perhaps most importantly, the Miller line was able to hold their own down low, ending those extended McDavid, Draisaitl heavy shifts with far more regularity, and on a far more normal timeline than we saw in a Game 2 that was relatively lopsided despite the final score.
With 15 minutes to play in the third period and the Oilers trailing by two, Edmonton took over as you’d expect given the phenomenon of score effects. To that point in the game, however, the Canucks had outshot the Oilers 4-3 and outscored them 1-0 in head-to-head minutes pitting Miller against McDavid at even strength.
The importance of the Miller line winning their minutes against the explosive top-end of the Edmonton lineup in Game 3 can’t be understated. Vancouver wouldn’t lead the series 2-1 if they hadn’t.
(Photo: Andy Devlin / NHLI via Getty Images)
