Edmonton Oilers vs Vancouver Canucks: Post Game

The Edmonton Oilers overcame a poor start tonight to win the game tonight 5-3. The Oilers started the game being down 3-0 to the Vancouver Canucks. After that the Edmonton Oilers were given life on the powerplay and never looked back.

Tonight had shades of last season. The Edmonton Oilers have a slow start to the game and then they get there game together and eventually win the game. I hope this is just a one game thing because I don’t see the Oilers scoring 5 unanswered goals on a night to night basis.

If we take a look at the second half of the game it was an excellent showing by the Edmonton Oilers. The powerplay went 3/4 tonight, although one of them was the empty net goal. Not to mention the shorthanded right at the end of the second period.

Jack Campbell settled in nicely

This was the first game for the Edmonton Oilers big off season signing and Jack Campbell looked good. After letting in the first 3 goals Campbell was able to shut the door the rest of the game.

The Edmonton Oilers got outshot 36-25 throughout the game so in the goaltender duel he was able to beat potential Vezina winner Thatcher Demko. The when the Oilers need him to shut the door and keep momentum in the Edmonton Oilers favour.

This is something they didn’t get in years past. It didn’t matter if it was Mike Smith or Mikko Koskinen they always seems to get a stop when they really needed to in a comeback scenario. It’s nice to have a goalie with solid shoulder to put his head on.

Edmonton Oilers got the start they wanted in the end

The Edmonton Oilers looking back at this game will see several things they need to improve on from this game. I found that they were making to many soft passes in their own end that lead to solid chances. They also can’t afford to take that many penalties on a regular basis.

Playing short handed in a weird way helped them out. Due to the injuries to Yamamoto and Foegele and the cap problems the Edmonton Oilers only dressed 11 forwards. With all the penalties they took though, they were able to rest most of their players cause there is only a few players that play the penalty kill. Although that’s not really sustainable.

One thing we can’t overlook is the night Connor McDavid had. He scored a hat trick, added an assist and got 4 penalty minutes. Something fun to look at; if he continues at this rate he will end up with 246 goals, 82 assist and 328 penalty minutes haha.

The Edmonton Oilers will look to keep their winning ways going on Saturday night. They will host the Calgary Flames at 8PM. This will be first meeting of the two teams since Connor McDavid overtime winner forced the Flames to rebuild their team after he eliminated them from the playoffs.