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Vancouver Canucks power play makes the difference to beat surging Oilers

December 17, 2018, 3:22 PM ET [345 Comments]
Carol Schram
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Sunday December 16 - Vancouver Canucks 4 - Edmonton Oilers 2

Meet the new Oilers. Same as the old Oilers.

For the third straight meeting, the Vancouver Canucks got the better of their division rivals from Edmonton when they pulled out a 4-2 win on Sunday to cap off a perfect weekend at Rogers Arena. Here are your highlights:



The Oilers' last win in Vancouver came in the final game of the Willie Desjardins era on April 8, 2017, when Edmonton put 44 shots on Richard Bachman on their way to a 5-2 win. Jordan Eberle had the hat trick for the Oilers, while Nikolay Goldobin and Nikita Tryamkin scored on Vancouver's 17 shots on Laurent Broissoit.

That already seems like a long time ago, doesn't it?

Despite playing their second game in two nights—and their third in four, including travel back from Nashville—the Vancouver Canucks looked like the more energized team as they leaned on a 3-for-5 performance from their power play to get the better of one of the hottest teams in the league. The Oilers were also on a 3-in-4 but didn't play Saturday so they should have been a bit fresher after an overtime loss in Winnipeg on Thursday and an easy win of their own over the Flyers in Edmonton on Friday.

Ask coach Ken Hitchcock, and he'll tell ya the win was predicated on the Canucks' old-school obstruction of Connor McDavid.




Bo Horvat's line with Antoine Roussel and Loui Eriksson did a heckuva job of neutralizing McDavid's line. Leon Draisaitl and McDavid both spent some time playing centre—Horvat went 3-for-8 against Draisaitl in the circle and 3-for-5 against McDavid, who didn't take any defensive-zone draws.

Draisaitl managed just two shot attempts all night, which both missed the net, while McDavid had two missed shots of his own to go along with three that were blocked and just one that got through to Jacob Markstrom, on the same shift that eventually led to Alex Chiasson's 3-2 goal with 4:48 left in the third period.

Meanwhile, Horvat led the Canucks with six shots on goal as well as two other attempts, and scored his 16th of the year into the empty net with the much bigger Draisaitl draped all over his back to put the game away with 1:42 left on the clock.



I was surprised to see Jacob Markstrom take the back-to-back assignments but he was solid again on Sunday and like most of his teammates, seems to be brimming with confidence.

I'm also impressed at how Travis Green is getting the most out of his players—and has got the special teams working well again. Sunday's game was the first time all year that the power play has connected for three goals, and was also the sixth-straight game where the penalty kill has been perfect. League-wide, the Canucks now sit in 19th place at 19.1 percent with the man advantage and have climbed to 22nd on the P.K. with a 77.4 percent kill rate. And yes, the penalty-killing improvement corresponds almost exactly with Jay Beagle's return to the lineup.

I saw Beagle and his frequent P.K. partner Markus Granlund deep in conversation during a stoppage in play on Sunday, with Beagle pointing and explaining and Granlund nodding enthusiastically. I feel like some of those 'intangibles' Beagle was supposed to bring to the table have shown themselves through this recent hot stretch.

I don't think it's a coincidence that annoying Antoine Roussel was part of the line that seemed to irritate Ken Hitchcock and Connor McDavid so much, eiither. As much as anything, I think Hitch was trying to turn a negative into a positive for his team by shining a light on the officials in an effort to buy his captain a little more room on the ice going forward. That's the kind of veteran gamesmanship that a guy like Hitch can bring to the table.

No longer a forgotten man, even Loui Eriksson has been showing confidence and making contributions lately. After seeing less than 10 minutes of ice time in Vancouver's first two games of the year against Calgary, Eriksson's role has increased of late. He scored on Saturday and had three shots on Sunday in 18:05 of ice time. At this point, Even after a slow start, Eriksson's on track to hit 14-21-35 this season, which doesn't look like a $6 million stat line but would still be a nice improvement over 11-13-24 and 10-13-23 in his first two seasons in Vancouver.

And hey, 6-9-15 so far this season still looks way better than 1-6-7. The Canucks dodged a bullet when Milan Lucic chose Edmonton over Vancouver during the summer of 2016.

The other thing that struck me on Sunday—a serious sense of hustle up and down the Canucks lineup. Winning is energizing, for sure. The fact that they survived their dark patch may be making this current streak even a little sweeter. Brock Boeser's back on track with six goals and nine points in his last five games and Elias Pettersson picked up his fifth game-winning goal of the year with his pinpoint shot over Mikko Koskinen's glove early in the third period.




The Canucks now have their own dangerous young gamebreakers who are pulling fans to the edge of their seats in critical moments.

Travis Green has given the team the day off on Monday ahead of another huge challenge on Tuesday. The Tampa Bay Lightning have only lost seven games all year and haven't dropped a game in regulation in three weeks. After picking up a 4-1 win at Amalie Arena back in October, could the Canucks be so audacious as to sweep the season series?
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