Posted by 
Locked in a 0-0 stalemate, Vancouver Canucks and Nashville Predators seemed destined for overtime before the game suddenly turned Vancouver’s way. Pius Suter scored in the game’s 59th minute, then rookie netminder Arturs Silovs and a desperate band of penalty killers staved off a 6-on-4 powerplay that produced several great chances in the dying seconds of regulation. For the Preds, the dying seconds of their season.
With the 1-0 win in Music City, the Canucks closed out a 6-game series, earning the right to play the Edmonton Oilers in Round 2. Early indications suggest it will start on Tuesday night in Vancouver though that has yet to be confirmed.
It was an exciting finish to what had been less than a thrilling series between the most distant of Western Conference rivals, in which the 2 clubs averaged just 45 shots per game and the home team won just once (Vancouver in Game 1). Indeed, the Canucks mustered just 121 shots through the entire 6 games, barely 20 per game. But that matters not, they did enough to win the series in their first postseason appearance since the bubble in Edmonton back in 2020. Congratulations to the Canucks and their fans.
Enough with the niceties.
A bit of a mixed result for fans of the Oilers, most of whom were surely hoping for at least a seventh game and/or several overtime periods, but so it is. A Nashville triumph would have meant home ice advantage but long flights, whereas Vancouver’s success means the Oil will start in enemy territory, but with shorter trips and revenge in their hearts.
Edmonton and Vancouver have been divisional rivals for the past 42 seasons, but this will be just the third time they’ll meet up in the playoffs, and the first in 32 years. The Oilers prevailed 3 games to 0 back in 1986 and 4 games to 2 in 1992. Joe Murphy is Edmonton’s all-time leading playoff scorer against the Canucks with 5 goals and 11 points, all recorded in ’92 when the Oilers wrapped up the last of their 8 Smythe Division crowns, all in a 10-year span.
More recent history tells us it’s the third straight year the Oilers will start the second round on the road against the Pacific Division regular season champs, after first dispatching the LA Kings in the 2v3 series each time. Previously Calgary Flames in 2022 (Edmonton in 5) and Vegas Golden Knights in 2023 (Vegas in 6). Now it’s Vancouver Canucks in 2024, outcome to be determined.
Van City finished 5 points ahead of Edmonton during the regular season, entirely thanks to their 8 points to 0 domination of the season series. Timing was everything, as the teams met 3 times within the opening month of play, then not til the final Saturday of the campaign. In that opening month the Canucks were hot, the Oilers were not, and it showed on the scoreboard with margins of 8-1, 4-3, 6-2. Then on that final weekend, the Oilers minus Connor McDavid came up just short, 3-1 with an empty net goal.
Make it a combined 21 goals to 7 in a one-sided season series which as of this moment officially means diddly squat. I’m very confident Vancouver is not 3x as good as Edmonton. Are they better, period? That’s what the next couple of weeks are going to be all about.
The underlying stats of those 4 games certainly confirm the teams were a lot closer than those scores indicated; indeed it was the Oilers who had the better of play everywhere but on the scoreboard. The Oil produced 56% of the shots on goal and a similar percentage of expected goals, but just 25% of the actual goals. Edmonton had 60% of the high danger shots but just 14% of the goals scored on such shots with 2 high danger goals for, 12 against. This because Vancouver did a far better job of converting their shots into goals, with a shooting percentage approaching 19% to Edmonton’s measly 5% over the 4 games. The PDO monsters of the regular season absolutely owned that category in the season series, posting a ridiculous 1.140 to .860.
#1 netminder Thatcher Demko backstopped the 2 lopsided victories on the left coast, backup Casey DeSmith the pair of tight wins in Edmonton. But the Oilers may well start out by facing the #3 man, Silovs. The Latvian delivered in the clutch against Nashville after both Demko and DeSmith got hurt, allowing just 5 goals in the final 3 games and none at all in the finale.
A sixth round draft pick of the Canucks back in 2019, the 23-year-old Silovs spent most of the season with their AHL affiliate in Abbotsford (16-11-6, 2.74, .907) but got the call to back up DeSmith after Demko got hurt in March. Then came the back-to-back injuries in Games 1 and 3 of the playoffs that thrust him into the spotlight.
Demko, recently named a Vezina Trophy finalist, is traveling with the team but is considered week-to-week with a knee injury. DeSmith is closer to ready but don’t be surprised if coach Rick Tocchet decides to stick with the hot hand.
The rest of the Canucks are better known to fans in these parts. All-purpose forward J.T. Miller had another terrific season with 103 points to lead the team. Mobile rearguard Quinn Hughes piled in 92 points with a club-high +38 in being named a Norris Trophy finalist, likely the favourite. Elias Pettersson and Brock Boeser joined Miller in the 30-goal club, Nils Hoglander and Conor Garland both reached 20, while 5 others surpassed 10 goals. That’s without including mid-season acquisition Elias Lindholm who potted 9 goals for Calgary, then 6 more for Vancouver. No fewer than a dozen Vancouverites were +10 or higher.
A deep club that will nonetheless be in deep against an Oilers squad that barely resembles the one that stumbled out of the gate last October. We have yet to see a game between the two featuring both clubs at their best. That is surely about to change.
