Although the higher seed heading into this matchup, the Vancouver Canucks were seen as the underdogs in this all-Canadian second-round showdown. The Canucks have been able to stand their ground so far against the Edmonton Oilers and have earned themselves a 2-2 split after four games. But where Vancouver has hurt themselves is in the little things; their small lapses in play were a big reason for why they lost game 4 and they will need to fix these if they want to win game 5 and the series.
Canucks Allowed Two Goals in the Final Minutes of a Period
If you give Edmonton an inch, they will take a mile. Vancouver learned that the hard way when the team gave up a two-on-one break with less than a minute left in the second period and the Oilers took advantage of that with a Ryan Nugent-Hopkins snipe that gave Edmonton a 2-0 lead at the second intermission. Noah Juulsen decided to go for a big hit on Mattias Ekholm and connected but the puck went the other way and Juulsen left Tyler Myers to defend on his own. This small play was the catalyst that cost the Canucks this goal. If Vancouver played it safe for the remainder of the period and didn’t try and make a big play, the team would have killed the clock and gone into the third period only down one goal. Giving up a goal that late in a period completely deflates the team that gave up the goal and gives the team that scored the goal a huge boost heading into the intermission.
Then in the third period, with Vancouver down 2-0, the Canucks battled back with a goal by Conor Garland to bring them within one. After a late goal by Dakota Joshua off of a Brock Boeser shot with the net empty to tie the game 2-2 with a little more than a minute left in regulation, Vancouver had all of the momentum and would have been the favourites to win the game in overtime. But the game never got to the extra frame because the Canucks had another moment where they forgot their intention to detail and let the Oilers gain the offensive zone easily. Ultimately, they allowed an open pass to Evan Bouchard and gave him an open shot he scored the game-winning goal on. You would like to get a save there from Arturs Silovs since he was able to get a good view of the shot. Still, the fact Vancouver allowed the Oilers the easy zone entrance and the easy pass to the point is a recipe for disaster especially against a team as offensively gifted as Edmonton. Allowing goals like these two, moving forward, will sink the Canucks in this series as it did in game 4.
Canucks Have Taken Needless Penalties
Anyone with eyes can tell you how lethal the Oilers’ power play is. Their team is currently operating at a 46.7 conversion rate in these playoffs alone, which is unheard of in the salary cap era. Vancouver needs to be conscious of their infractions and not take needless penalties like they did in the first period, which led to the Leon Draisaitl opening goal where he scored from nearly the same place he scored on his Game 3 power-play goal. Vancouver was able to kill off two penalties near the end of the game which helped them stay in and eventually tie the game. With how lethal the Oilers power play is, though, the Canucks will need to be diligent and careful with their stick placements when trying to poke a puck loose or when attempting to stick-lift an opponent.
Related: Canucks Let Golden Opportunity Slip Away vs. Oilers in Game 4
Vancouver still has a great chance of winning this series and taking down the offensive monster known as the Edmonton Oilers. But if they keep making these mistakes — ones that may minimal on paper like bad penalties or goals in the last minute but are actually critical — the Oilers will pounce on them like a predator on prey. If Vancouver cleans up those parts of their game, they could see themselves in the Western Conference Final.
