Edmonton Oilers vs. Vancouver Canucks Game 7 Prediction

It's been over 30 years since a Canadian team lifted the Stanley Cup. The 1992-93 Montreal Canadiens were the last team to do so. Since then, a Canadian team has reached the Stanley Cup Final only five times.

Edmonton lost to Carolina in 2006. Ottawa lost to Anaheim in 2007. Montreal lost to Tampa Bay in 2021. And the Vancouver Canucks lost in 1994 to the Rangers and in 2011 to Boston. 

Canada started with four teams in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, but Toronto couldn't get through their playoff rivals Boston. And Winnipeg was bounced in five games to Colorado. 

Edmonton defeated the Los Angeles Kings handily in five and Vancouver advanced after winning Game 6 in Nashville to take their first-round series. There will be only one Canadian team left in the playoffs after tonight. Will it be Oil Country parading back in Alberta with an Oilers win? Or will it be the Canucks faithful inside of a deafening Rogers Arena who will be clinging onto hope as Canada's last team in the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs?

We get you set for tonight's intensifying, nerve-wracking, and critical Game 7 between Edmonton and Vancouver with another NHL 24 simulation. Below is a recap of our simulation outcomes from the series.

Game 1
Real life: 5-4 Vancouver
NHL 24: 5-4 Edmonton 

Game 2
Real life: 4-3 (OT) Edmonton
NHL 24: 3-2 (OT) Edmonton

Game 3
Real life: 4-3 Vancouver 
NHL 24: 3-1 Edmonton

Game 4
Real life: 3-2 Edmonton
NHL 24: 7-4 Edmonton

Game 5
Real life: 3-2 Vancouver
NHL 24: 3-2 Vancouver

Game 6
Real life: 5-1 Edmonton
NHL 24: 5-4 (OT) Edmonton

Here are the lines we used for the simulation:

Edmonton's Projected Lines:

Nugent-Hopkins - McDavid - Hyman
Holloway - Draisaitl - Kane
Foegele - McLeod - Ryan
Janmark - Carrick - Brown

Ekholm - Bouchard
Nurse - Desharnais
Kulak - Ceci

Skinner
Pickard

Due to the unfortunate reports that Vancouver's leading goal-scorer Brock Boeser is dealing with blood clots and will miss the remainder of the playoffs, we had to take him out of the Canucks lineup and we adjusted the lines to what we believe they could look like come game time. 

Vancouver's Projected Lines

Suter - Miller - Garland
Hoglander - Lindholm - Pettersson
Joshua - Blueger - Lafferty
Di Giuseppe - Aman - Podkolzin 

Hughes - Hronek
Soucy - Myers
Zadorov - Cole

Silovs
DeSmith

Hockey fans across the world need the theatrics that took place in our simulation of Game 7. Edmonton and Vancouver fans won't want overtime tonight as their heartrates won't be able to take it. But everyone else tuning into the game would love that and that's what we had in our simulation.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins opened the scoring before J.T. Miller answered back late in the first period to tie the game up 1-1.

Evan Bouchard has been sensational in these Stanley Cup Playoffs and he, somehow, had a breakaway early in the second frame where he made no mistake and buried the go-ahead tally for the Oilers.

Both goalies were unreal in the simulation and the shots were 40 apiece by the end of the game. Arturs Silovs and Stuart Skinner each survived a flurry of chances and then a late tripping penalty by Phillip Di Giuseppe put the Canucks down a man with less than three minutes remaining. 

Luckily for Vancouver, Oilers defenceman Darnell Nurse took a tripping penalty 90 seconds later and the game was headed to 4-on-4 in the dying minutes. Who else other than J.T. Miller to score the game's equalizer with 28 seconds left to play and send the simulation to overtime.

Vancouver outshot Edmonton 11-8 in the extra frame and had more quality looks to end the game. Alas, Connor McDavid found Zach Hyman like he has done all playoffs long for the game-winner and ended the simulation with a 3-2 overtime victory for the Edmonton Oilers. 

NHL 24 is telling us that this series needs to end in a thriller. And we all should be expecting it considering how close and entertaining this series has been.

For more NHL 24 playoff simulations, bookmark The Hockey News Gaming Site.