The last time the Canucks and Oilers faced off (almost 2 months ago), Vancouver pulled off a 3 goal comeback that finished with Tanev scoring his first NHL goal in overtime. Kassian was medically cleared to participate. this game, and took part in the pregame skate, but he did not play.
Previous to this game, the Canucks had scored the first goal 9 times in a row. Oh, spoiler alert. 16 seconds in, Edmonton struck. With Hamhuis pinching, Eberle cleared the puck, and found Hall down the wing. Hall's shot went top corner, just over the glove of Schneider. Daniel had the perfect chance to tie it seconds later, but was denied 1 on 1, after failing to recover from his spin-o-rama. 2 minutes later, a defensive miscue led to the Oilers second of the game. Petry's cross point pass found a wide open Smid, whose shot beat Schneider down low. That would do it for poor Cory, who let in 2 goals on 2 shots. But even a goalie change couldn't save these poor playing Canucks. 38 seconds after the Smid goal, RNH found Hall on the rush, and Hall buried it top corner, again. 3 shots, 3 goals for the Oil. Not so fun fact: That is the fastest 3 goals in Oilers history. In other words, this period was so bad it made the history books.
Vancouver managed to calm down a little after that, and were even gifted a powerplay. Of course, the puck went everywhere but the net, and nothing came of it. Just seconds later, the Oilers took their turn at the powerplay roulette. After being given the entire top of the zone to move the puck, the Oilers gave it to Hall at the side of the net, who tucked it 5 hole on Luongo. 4-0, just 8 minutes in. With that, Hall broke Gretzky's record for fastest Oilers hat trick. 4 minutes later, Higgins stole the puck and almost put the Canucks on the board, but Dubnyk got his blocker on it. Hemsky had a chance to make it 5-0, but bobbled it and Luongo was able to get his stick on it. Bieksa tormented Hall for the rest of the period, checking his every chance he got. Shots 11-10 Oilers at the end of 20.
Less than a minute it, Paajarvi's shot beat Luongo on the rush, but hit the crossbar. Despite that bobble, the Canucks picked up play, and were once again gifted a powerplay. They managed a few more shots on this one, and managed to maintain zone pressure, but no result. Luongo was forced to make some nice saves midway through the period, as the Canucks defense continued to let the Oilers drive wide. 2nd period ended with the Oilers still up 4-0, shots 18-14 Canucks.
Only notable thing about the third was that Luongo stood on his head a couple times, denying Hall twice while coming cross crease. Other than that, nothing notable.
Tidbits:
- PP: 3/3. Why do I even do this. no change in how the PP has played since the beginning of the season. Occasionally moves the puck a little better, but really no change.
- PK: 1/4. Always leaving that point man open. Sometimes pays off, sometimes not. Didn't in this game.
So what happened? The Canucks went from a 6 game win streak to this? They had it coming. Vancouver's roster has been incredibly injured the last 10 games (Kesler, Booth, Kassian, Ballard, Weise, Malhotra etc), and it's kind of amazing they were able to put together 6 straight with that many missing. And if you've watched the last 10, their play really hasn't been all that, well, impressive. It was only a matter of time before a monumental collapse such as this.
Next game is Monday at 7:30 in San Jose.
No comments:
Post a Comment