The Edmonton Oilers-Vancouver Canucks series featured a little bit of everything heading into Saturday’s Game 6. There was a bonkers comeback, an impromptu goaltender change – this time not by Vancouver – thunderous hits aplenty, a quintet of final scores decided by a one-goal margin, and a contest, the fifth, in which the Canucks thoroughly outplayed the favoured Oilers. One thing had not happened yet. There had not been a match won by Edmonton in which they dominated like many predicted they would. That was Game 6, and here is how it all went down.
Canucks Second-Best All Night
If Game 5 was won by Vancouver by way of showcasing how amazing they can be, Game 6 was the contest Canucks supporters dreaded. Remember Game 4 of the first round, miraculously won by Vancouver despite looking like the second-best team on the ice for about 57 of the contest’s 60 minutes? Saturday was that but minus the heroics and against a team that can score seemingly at will.
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Rick Tocchet likes to use the term “resilient” when describing his group. He’s employed it more than once throughout this impressive playoff run, justifiably so. For his sake, here’s hoping that proves an accurate description of his ensemble because a good dose of resilience will be required to come back from the 5-1 hammering the Canucks suffered. This was, without a shadow of a doubt, the club’s worst performance of the postseason. Outscored 5-1, outshot 27-15, outhit 49-38, 0-for-4 on the man advantage, and a 10-6 deficit in the giveaways column.
Something was evidently amiss as early as 8:18 of the first period. Edmonton’s Dylan Holloway carried the puck out of his team’s zone and dangled his way past Vancouver’s defence en route to fooling Arturs Silovs five-hole. It was like he put on his best Connor McDavid impersonation. Spot on. Worse, Quinn Hughes was one of the defenders who invested lackadaisical effort in trying to halt Holloway’s burst. It didn’t look right, nor did it feel right, and everything snowballed from there. Given how most of the night played out, it’s a wonder the Canucks tied the game a few minutes later through some decent hustling by Elias Pettersson, who fed Nils Hoglander in front of the Oilers’ goal.
Edmonton’s superiority was so emphatic not even referee decisions in Vancouver’s favour turned the tide. In the dying seconds of the opening frame, Evan Bouchard bombed a shot through traffic and into the net. However, the goal was waved off due to “incidental contact” committed by McDavid. It was a decision akin to what transpired Friday night in overtime of Game 6 between the Dallas Stars and Colorado Avalanche. No matter. Evan Bouchard bombed a shot anyway at 11:20 of period two, making it 3-1 for the hosts.
Playoff Inexperience Plagues Canucks
Much ink was used to wax poetic about the Canucks this season. More ink was employed in late April when the postseason commenced about how this current generation of Canucks lacked the experience to pull off a deep run. Whether that is true or not will largely be discovered in Monday’s Game 7, but there have certainly been disconcerting signals. In Game 4, holding a 2-1 series lead and facing journeyman keeper Calvin Pickard, the Canucks put in a meek performance, as if content to return home with a 2-2 series rather than a 3-1 stranglehold.
On Saturday, the Oilers put Stuart Skinner back in net. His save percentage, including last night’s match, is a patently mediocre .881. Yet again, despite blood in the water, the Canucks were timid. To be fair, Edmonton looked as if they had cracked open a few cans of Red Bull before the game. They were at home, facing elimination, and had not put on a dominating performance through five bouts. One supposes they were due.
Even so, the Canucks looked discombobulated all evening. Passes were errant, power plays were spent mostly passing the puck around, and they looked sluggish. Losing a playoff game despite putting in an honourable effort is disappointing but acceptable. Losing the way the Canucks did in Games 4 and 6 is harder to swallow. However talented the Oilers are, and no one disputes that, glorious opportunities beckoned in both matches and each time Vancouver didn’t look remotely interested in pouncing. It would be foolish to argue the team was literally uninterested, but the efforts were worryingly muted. That can be a sign that a club isn’t quite ready to step up in big moments. It’s not that they don’t want to, but they’ve never been here before and don’t know what it’s like.
The Arturs Silovs Experience
There are no two ways about it. Silovs is one of the most interesting stories of these Stanley Cup Playoffs. But for as sensational as he was in Round 1, Round 2 has, through six contests, revealed that he’s good but not a stone-cold number-one netminder.
Nuance is necessary with such a topic. Should the Canucks fall in Game 7 with Silovs in net, the Latvian doesn’t need to be run out of town. After all, he’ll have played a second-round Game 7 despite being a third-stringer. Only so much can be expected of him under the present circumstances. Therein lies the rub: only so much can be expected. He’s given up four, four, three, three, two, and five goals for a total of 21 in six games. That’s a goals-against average of 3.50. His save percentage in the series is .879. However one wants to spin it, those aren’t impressive.
The point here is not to besmirch Silovs. He’s already done plenty to remain on the team and have more play time in the future. But he’s a third-string goalie who has started to resemble just that, playing against an opposition bolstered with a beguiling attack. In the post-game press conference, Tocchet revealed that Vezina Trophy finalist Thatcher Demko will not play on Monday. So be it. However, if Vancouver survives this round and Demko proves spry enough to hit the ice in the Western Conference Final, that would be a sound decision. Silovs has earned his flowers, but the opponents only get tougher from here. That’s assuming the Canucks win the deciding match versus the Oilers.
All the twists, turns, controversies, and emotions have led to Game 7. It’s fitting that two clubs – two Canadian clubs no less – with such different styles have cancelled each other out through six bouts. Will McDavid and company make good on the assumption that the Oilers are simply the more talented team, not to mention the more experienced one? Or are these Canucks not done impressing those who didn’t believe they would even be a playoff team this season? Stay tuned on Monday night.
