Oilers: Three Takeaways From Game One Win Against Canucks

The Edmonton Oilers won their first game of the season last night against the Vancouver Canucks, and now we get to sit back and enjoy the win.

The Edmonton Oilers were led by Connor McDavid, as usual tonight. McDavid put up two assists on the night. Well the other performance we probably should mention off of the top would have to belong to Mike Smith who was absolutely phenomenal in night one.

The Vancouver Canucks outshot the Oilers 38-34, outhit the Oilers 29-21, while the Oilers led in stats like face-off wins (34-19) and penalty minutes (25-11). If you give any team five opportunities on the power play they are going to score eventually, limiting the penalties needs to be a focus moving forward.

Winning the face-off battle tonight was led by Connor McDavid who had eight face-off wins and a percentage of 80 percent in the dot, as well as Derek Ryan who also won eight face-offs with a percentage of 61.5.

Darnell Nurse won the physicality battle tonight putting up eight hits on the night. He also led the team in blocked shots with four. Great night for a lot of individuals on this team. Now let’s talk about a few different reasons for victory with the three takeaways.

1. The Goaltending Was Reliable

I was one of the people writing all offseason about how the Oilers should look to improve their goaltending depth. Personally I still think that could be an emphasis this deadline or offseason, but for now Smith showed what he is capable of tonight during the first win of the season.

He was on fire during the last few minutes of the game and during overtime. He was the reason the team picked up that extra point with some critical saves late, and he was pretty fired up after the win.

Edmonton is going to need Mike Smith to be that good a lot this season. Posting up a .947 save percentage on night one is great. Especially against a team like Vancouver that does have a lot of offensively minded players.

2. The Power Play Showed Some Skill

The Edmonton Oilers only had two opportunities on the power play, and one of those led to a great goal by newcomer Zach Hyman. Hyman did not get a lot os chances tonight with just three shots on goal on the night, but his first goal with the Oilers was a thing of beauty as Draisaitl passed over to McDavid who snuck the puck down low to Hyman for an easy tap in.

Hopefully those three can connect for a lot of tic-tac-toe goals all season long.

3. Goals In Front Of The Net Matter

Edmonton’s two goals on the night both came right in front of the net. The team was great at getting shots in front of the net and increasing traffic. This is a must moving forward during the season.

While the win was not great, as the team did fall towards the end of the third period, the Oilers managed to get the two points which is all that matters at the end of the day. Now on to the next one on Saturday!