3 Edmonton Oilers Keys To Victory: Game #38 @ Vancouver Canucks

The Edmonton Oilers look to turn their last win against the Calgary Flames into a winning streak tonight against the Vancouver Canucks. The Canucks are currently on a 2 game losing streak following a 2-1 shootout loss to the Florida Panthers and a 3-1 loss to the St. Louis Blues.

The Vancouver Canucks are currently tied with the Edmonton Oilers in the standings, but the Oilers have played 4 less games. The Canucks are a team that has struggled so far this season aside from a little streak when the changed coaches to Bruce Boudreau. Now that bump is gone they have slide back to where I think they belong.

This is another game that on paper the Edmonton Oilers should win. Unfortunately this season those games haven’t always come out as wins. Here are three keys that will help the Oilers come out with a victory.

Kick Them While They’re Down

Not only were the Vancouver Canucks playing subpar hockey, they now have got some COVID issues on the team. They currently have 4 major pieces of their team sidelined. This includes Conor Garland, Bo Horvat and both their NHL goalies, Thatcher Demko and Jaroslav Halak. These players being out is a big blow to this Canucks team.

The fact that the Canucks may be playing an AHL goalie tonight is something that the Edmonton Oilers need to take advantage of. The Oilers themselves have had some goalie problems this season and other teams took advantage of them. It’s time for the Oilers to take advantage of a weak goaltending.

This is a perfect chance for players who are in a bit of a slump to get out of it. This includes a couple players in the top six. McDavid, Yamamoto, Puljujarvi and Foegele are a couple players that need to get back in the goal category. These players haven’t been playing poorly, they just have been finishing plays. This is a game where a couple of them need to find the score sheet.

Keep The Powerplay Rolling

On Saturday against the Calgary Flames the Edmonton Oilers went 2/3 on the powerplay. This is the clip the Oilers powerplay should be running at. During the losing streak the one thing that was an automatic for this team went away and that was the powerplay.

Last game they got goals on their powerplay by Evan Bouchard. Bouchard has an excellent ability to get the puck through to the net while playing the blueline. On both of the goals Puljujarvi was set up in front for a perfect screen.

This tactic is completely different from how this powerplay has scored goals in the past. Most of the goals scored on the powerplay has come from either a cross ice pass or an in tight tap in. Adding another way to score makes this powerplay even scarier to face.

Can Mikko Koskinen Keep Going?

On Saturday night the Edmonton Oilers were on the opposite side of the goaltending coin. Mikko Koskinen played lights out and kept the Oilers in the game. This is a narrative that we have not heard much so far this season.

To date Mikko Koskinen has a 0.898 SV%, which is not good enough for an NHL goaltender. On the opposite of that on Saturday he had a 0.936 SV%. He was a major part of that win as the team let the Flames take 47 shots, and some of them were high quality.

If the Oilers want to get on a winning streak they are going to need good goaltending. With Mike Smith injured, a lot of that will fall onto Koskinen. If Koskinen can continue to play good enough to at least give the team a chance to win every night, this team will be a hard team to beat.

Hopefully the Edmonton Oilers show up to play tonight and get a win. This team is a lot of fun to watch when they are winning. A win in this game will turn a single win into a winning streak and you can only extend winning streaks one game at a time.