Connor McDavid wins it for Edmonton on a breakaway in overtime
Wednesday in Edmonton, a much better Vancouver Canucks line-up offered up a much better performance than the group of youngsters that got blitzed 10-0 in Calgary on Sunday. So consider the game a step forward for the Canucks. However, the team is still looking for its first victory of the National Hockey League preseason after falling 2-1 in overtime to the Oilers at Rogers Place.
Connor McDavid hopped over the boards, and in full flight, took a pass from Evan Bouchard, got a step on Quinn Hughes and then beat Casey DeSmith with a backhand deke on a breakaway to end the game just 55 seconds into OT.
Some thoughts on the Canucks second game of the preseason:
*Teddy Blueger showed exactly why the Canucks targeted him as a free agent on July 1st. In his first outing in Canuck colours, Blueger was a penalty killing beast logging 3:27 of short-handed time helping Vancouver kill off all four Edmonton power plays. Blueger took all six defensive zone face-offs in the game while the Canucks were down a man winning half of them. On the night, he won six of the 11 draws he took in the hockey game. He had a solid short-handed scoring chance on fresh ice early in the third period and had another chance as that same penalty came to an end. Blueger even saw a shift in overtime, although he was on the ice when McDavid ended the game. Overall, it was a very strong showing for Teddy Blueger who centred a line with Nils Aman and Jack Studnicka.
*Elias Pettersson had a relatively quiet night everywhere but in the face-off circle where he won 12 of the 15 draws he took. That's 80%. That's also worth noting for a player that has a career face-off win percentage of 43.3%. Pettersson mowed through the Oilers regular men in the middle -- McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Derek Ryan. And for good measure, he also won two of three draws against former teammate Brandon Sutter. Face-offs have been one of the few areas of weakness in Pettersson's time in the NHL, but perhaps this is an indication of him figuring things out in the circle. As he continues to get Selke shine, it's an area of the game voters will look at. It's certainly something to monitor as the preseason continues to see if Wednesday was a one-off or if Pettersson has found a way to turn a weakness in his game into a strength.
*Quinn Hughes scored the Canucks lone goal in his first game wearing the captain's C. To no one's surprise, he led the hockey club in ice time at 24:10 although he probably wishes his ice time total was a few seconds less. He started overtime and while the team's two forwards changed, Hughes was unable to get off the ice and at the end of a shift was no match for McDavid. Still, it was a good night for Hughes who scored on one of his three shots on goal. Overall, he had nine attempts on the night. The Canucks were the lowest scoring team in the NHL last season in terms of goals from defensemen. Hughes has so much talent, it seems impossible to think he won't reach double-digits in goals this season. Part of that includes shooting more. He doesn't have a cannon from the point, but he doesn't need to blow pucks past goalies. He scored on a wrist shot through traffic on the power play Wednesday and it feels like more pucks to the net will result in a few more goals for Hughes this season.
*Dakota Joshua looked like Rick Tocchet's post-practice message on Tuesday was received. The big winger was far more involved in Wednedsay's game than he was in Sunday's stinker at the Saddledome. He opened the game with a huge hit on Mattias Janmark along the side boards. It was one of three hits he registered on the night. Joshua drew a Darnell Nurse interference penalty in the second period and was part of the Canucks perfect penalty kill on the night logging 1:50 of short-handed ice time forming a duo with Jack Studnicka.
*Casey DeSmith looked sharp in his Vancouver Canucks debut. He stopped 27 of the 29 shots he faced and was particularly solid in the first period when the Oilers outshot the Canucks 10-3. Edmonton was lethal on the power play last season, but DeSmith stopped all six shots the Oilers generated with the man-advantage. The Canucks will need the type of goaltending DeSmith provided to spell of Thatcher Demko throughout the season. The back-up job seems to be his as long as he doesn't slip up and on Wednesday against a potent Oiler attack, DeSmith served notice to the other goalies in camp that he has the inside track to be the number two guy on the depth chart.
*The underlying numbers were not kind to the defensive pair of Carson Soucy and Guillaume Brisebois. According to Natural Stat Trick, the duo carried a 31.03% Corsi while the expected goals were even more one-sided. With Soucy on the ice at even strength, the Canucks generated 21.6% of the expected goals and with Brisebois it was 29.4%. They were on the ice for Ryan Nugent-Hopkins' 1-1 goal midway through the second period with Soucy and Aatu Raty both a little slow to cover the Oiler forward in the slot. To their credit, however, both Soucy and Brisebois were strong on the penalty kill with Soucy leading all Canucks in short-handed ice time at 4:47 and Brisebois not far behind at 4:26.
The Canucks are back in action on Thursday in Seattle. It's likely -- but not yet confirmed -- that Thatcher Demko, JT Miller, Brock Boeser, Ian Cole and Filip Hronek will see their first game action of the preseason.