The Oilers fall to 3-5 in the pre-season with a 4-1 loss to Vancouver.
The Oilers fall to 3-5 in the pre-season with a 4-1 loss to Vancouver.
At least the pre-season is over.
That's the best news out of Friday night's loss to the Vancouver Canucks. There were very few positives to come out of the Oilers' final tune-up before the regular season starts on Wednesday.
The Oilers were uninspiring from the get-go, going scoreless on two early powerplays and never progressing much from there. Quinn Hughes got things started for the Canucks, capitalizing off a neutral zone turnover to wire a slapshot past Stuart Skinner for a 1-0 lead. Carson Soucy doubled the Canucks' lead late in the first, finding himself wide open in the high slot to beat Skinner.
Vancouver added to its lead in the second period, when Arshdeep Bains took advantage of a scrambling Oilers penalty kill for his second powerplay goal against Edmonton this pre-season. Evan Bouchard got one back for the Oilers later in the period, but that was all they could muster as they fell to the Canucks 4-1 after an empty netter from Jake DeBrusk.
On the positive side of the ledger for Edmonton was Noah Philp. He capped off an extremely impressive training camp for a player coming off a year-long hiatus with a few great scoring chances on Friday night. He should make this team, and provide a spark in the bottom six.
Of course, this is still the pre-season. It's fair to expect the Oilers, coming off a long playoff run and a short offseason, to let off the throttle a bit for meaningless exhibition games. Once the real games start, though, they'll have to prove they can avoid the dreaded Stanley Cup hangover.
Oilers Players of the Game: Darnell Nurse and Ty Emberson
One bright spot for the Oilers was a very welcome one: the second defence pair. Nurse and Emberson were impressive in their first game together, stifling the Canucks' offence and doing a good job breaking the puck out of their own zone. They were the only Oilers defence pair to not allow a goal against on Friday.
If the pair can keep that up during the regular season, the Oilers will be in great shape. The Nurse-Ceci pairing was a significant drag on the Oilers defensively last season, so if they can turn that into a true shutdown pair they'll become a lot harder to play against.
Oilers Play of the Game
In a listless and messy performance, the one Oilers goal will have to stand as our play of the game. Kudos to winger Viktor Arvidsson for a clean faceoff win on the four-on-four. It looks like he'll be taking faceoffs on the second powerplay unit with fellow wingers Jeff Skinner and Corey Perry.
At long last, the pre-season is over, and the next Oilers game will count in the standings. Hopefully, after a pre-season in which they only garnered one regulation win, the Oilers can turn it on now that there's something on the line.
We'll find out on Wednesday night, when the Winnipeg Jets travel to Edmonton for the season opener.
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