Who will take a 3-2 series lead going into Saturday's Game 6? Simulating Edmonton vs. Vancouver Game 5 in NHL 24
Continuing on with our NHL playoff simulations in NHL 24. On deck, we have Game 5 between the Edmonton Oilers versus the Vancouver Canucks. Which team will put the others on the brink of elimination for Game 6 on Saturday?
In the last simulation we ran for this series, NHL 24 correctly predicted an Oilers win.
The Oilers are going back to Calvin Pickard for Game 4, but outside of that, their projected lineup remains the same.
Edmonton's Projected Lines:
Nugent-Hopkins - McDavid - Hyman
Holloway - Draisaitl - Kane
Foegele - McLeod - Perry
Janmark - Ryan - Brown
Ekholm - Bouchard
Nurse - Desharnais
Kulak - Ceci
Pickard
Skinner
The lines have been thrown into the blender for Vancouver Head Coach Rick Tocchet. In an attempt to get Elias Pettersson going, he has moved him to a line with a couple of fellow Swedes Nils Hoglander and Elias Lindholm.
Ilya Mikheyev and Sam Lafferty will also be coming out of the lineup tonight for the Canucks.
The Canucks are also getting defenceman Carson Soucy back after serving his one-game suspension for cross-checking Connor McDavid at the end of Game 3.
Vancouver's Projected Lines:
Suter - Miller - Boeser
Hoglander - Lindholm - Pettersson
Joshua - Blueger - Garland
Di Giuseppe - Aman - Podkolzin
Hughes - Hronek
Soucy - Myers
Zadorov - Cole
Silovs
DeSmith
Despite outshooting the Canucks 33-24, Edmonton ended up losing the simulation by a tight score of 3-2.
Zach "Shaq" Hyman scored the opening goal of the hockey game but then the AI malfunctioned on Calvin Pickard as he threw the puck out to Nils Aman after making the initial save, gifting Vancouver their first tally of the game.
Dakota Joshua scored in the second, and then J.T. Miller stripped Connor McDavid of the puck in the corner, walked out untouched to the front of the net, and went short-side on Pickard.
Dylan Holloway scored with 3:15 left to make it a one-goal game. Alas, the comeback could not be completed and Vancouver hung on to win.
Arturs Silovs won the goaltending dual making 31 saves on 33 shots while Calvin Pickard allowed three goals on 24 shots.
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