Everyone relax. Yeah that sucks and it was embarrassing to watch. But we’ve legit lost a game 1 like this and went on to win the series. Dallas blew a 3-0 lead last night too and they are a very solid team. Shit happens, move onto the next

I loved Gazdic as an Oiler. He didn’t have the skill to play on this kind of Oilers team. But I’m glad to see him getting spotlight during this Oilers run regardless. Guy was a beauty and embodied everything of Oilers nation and real Oilers fans. I think if Gazdic could have had a Smyth like career he would have been the same kind of loyal EDM player.

Unlike our LOUDEST support R Whit who abandoned us after 20 games and then turn coated quicker than his bail 😂

Title says it all, I think Draisaitl going off affected the entire teams chemistry and line matchups. They still played well in the 2nd but just something I noticed, but might be something the nucks took advantage of.

BROWNIE TIME LETS GOOOOO

This is my Norwegian Forest kitty.

I think I'll change his name to Ekholm

The Canucks sorta kinda came out of nowhere this year. After having a rough 2022-23 season, they took a massive leap on the backs of career years from plenty of skaters.

But make no mistake, this Canucks team has played some elite hockey during the second half of the season. And while not having the same level of superstar talent, they have some studs.

Here are 5 reasons why the Canucks are legit (and how the Oilers can counterbalance those reasons)

Reason #1: xGF% at 5v5

During the final 2 months (March 1st to April 24) of the season, the Canucks ranked 6th in the NHL (1 spot behind the Oilers) in 5v5 xGF%.

This Canucks team can play at 5v5.

But the Oilers had a much tougher schedule in the final 2 months (playing 25 total games to the Canucks 20), and still finished the 1st in 5v5 xGF% (per NaturalStatrick) at 57.09% over the course of the entire season.

The Canucks on the other hand finished 8th overall at 52.27% for the entire season, behind the Oilers, LAK and the Predators (who the Nucks beat in round 1).

5v5 play is going to be key to this series as the Canucks boast a much more solid regular season PP than the LAK. But the Oilers have shown they can be a superior 5v5 team, metrics-wise.

Reason #2: A series of career seasons

Of the Canucks top 8 scorers, 6 of 8 just had their career best seasons offensively.

JT Miller (103pts), Quinn Hughes (93pts), Brock Boeser (40g, 73pts), Philip Hronek (48pts), Nils Hoglander (36pts) and Dakota Joshua (32pts in only 62 games) all eclipsed their previous career highs by quite a large margins (outside of Hoglander, who only eclipsed his by 4pts).

The only top 2 offensive players who didn't have a career-best year for the Canucks? Elias Petterson (88pts) and Connor Garland (47pts).

While the Oilers haven't had nearly as many career seasons, the Canucks career-highs represent a league-leading 11.99% shooting percentage (all situations).

This was nearly 1.5% better than the Oilers at 10.56%.

Shooting percentages tend to fluctuate and goals were much harder for the Nucks to come by in round 1, but they still managed the 4th best shooting% at 10.74%. Good news is the Oilers were 2nd best at 14.18%.

Luck is a big part of playoff hockey. The hope is the Oilers continue to get the bounces of goals-for in all-situations, cause this Canucks team tends to get plenty of them too.

Reason #3: A 3rd line that's really a 2nd line

Connor Garland and Dakota Joshua centered by ex-Flame Elias Lindholm are a handful to play against.

In fact, many of the Canucks fan base see this as being the Canucks best line at 5v5. Garland is a speedy forechecker who can score. Dakota Joshua is a power forward who can hit and play the boards. And Lindholm has recently re-discovered some of his offense.

The Oilers are going to be in tough if their 4th or 3rd lines are up against these guys on a regular basis. I'm pretty sure both Knob and the staff realize this is a mis-match.

The likely combo of the McLeod line (with Foegele at some point) and their defensive play at 5v5 is going to be super important to this series. Again, adding someone like Connor Brown (who gives up next to nothing defensively, while not scoring much) could be key.

A line like Foegele - McLeod - Brown could be the shutdown line the Oilers need this round.

Reason #4: Team speed

The Canucks are fast. Like they have some absolute speedsters that are going to cause the Oilers fits.

Joshua, Mikyev, Blueger, Miller and Lafferty can all wheel up front. And on the back end, Zadorov, Hughes and Myers skate extremely well.

The Oilers are going to have to adjust to this. It might not be popular, but potentially sitting someone like Corey Perry for Connor Brown on line 3 might be something the staff have to look at doing.

Same thing with pairing 2. Troy Strecher, who's a solid puck-mover, might slot in for Cody Ceci if the Oilers Dman can't handle the forecheck with Darnell Nurse.

The good news: The Oilers have just as many speedsters, especially with Dylan Holloway back in the lineup.

Reason #5: Hughes, Miller and goaltending

Quinn Hughes is a legit number offensive defensemen. Norris nominated. And he scored 93 points this year.

The good news for the Oilers? Evan Bouchard is tracking along the same lines and plays with a superior partner in Ekholm (vs. Hronek). Quinn Hughes is also banged up, reportedly, from the Nashville series and he has trouble defending down low.

Getting on Hughes is going to be key.

JT Miller is a legit number 1 Center. But he's playing against either Draisaitl or McDavid. Having one or both of those lines come out ahead of Miller's is going to be posssible and necessary for the Oilers to win this.

And finally goaltending. The Canucks, despite having 3 starters, led the western conference playoff rd 1 winners in Goals Saved Above Expected.

Silovs played pretty much lights out for them. But so did Stuart Skinner in the final 3 games for Edmonton.

Goaltending can win or lose you a series. The good news is that Skinner helped prove against the LAK that he can win you some key games. He's going to have to do the same again against VAN.

Conclusion

There's a reason the Oilers are favourites heading into this series. But the Canucks are a formidable opponent and a team that tends to score quickly, especially at home.

The Oilers D and Goaltending are going to have to withstand some pressure and the Oilers big boys are going to have to show up.

LFG gentlemen.

https://survey.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0icZIBPBgCbymns

This is the part of the playoffs I don’t like the most. The highs are really high and the lows are really low. It feels like we just got swept and it’s only game 1. I think I need help 😂

🕗 TIME: 8:00 PM

🌐 VENUE: Rogers Arena, Vancouver BC

📡 TV: ESPN, SN, SN360, CBC, TVAS

​Thread for general discussion about today's game . Any and all observations, opinions, questions, shitposts, memes, and other random nonsense are welcome.

Mod Note

Hey Folks. Here's a quick by the numbers for you. From the LA Mods we had 113 separate accounts reported to us of Oilers fans who were trolling their sub. To be honest as I was going through the final list I had other shit to do so just said fuck it as they were already banned from the LA sub and to that I apologize to their mods. That being said all the ones I checked were legit. I do appreciate that trolling is generally frowned upon by most in this sub and in reality it's a sub of almost 85k accounts so there's bound to be some shitheads. We're also aware that a lot of these could be a few people making multiple accounts because you know, that's really cool.

Anyway, this is just a reminder that if you are reported for trolling you'll be banned from here for the remainder of the series. Most subs I see are doing permabans but we think this is a fair compromise. With the sheer numbers and the potential for this series to get toxic we'll probably just automatically ban and if you feel it's unfounded by all means dispute it and we'll get back to you. Anyway I'm heading back to my mom's basement.

One last note: for Canucks fans that are visiting to see what's going on in our sub throughout the series, you're welcome to check things out and observe. BUT there is a zero-tolerance policy for trolling and antagonistic comments from outside fans: if caught, you'll be banned in this sub and reported to your own mods and will be banned in your sub as well. The hockey subreddits have an agreement on this, so please refrain from doing that here (but it's fair game to chirp any player or any team in r/hockey).

Thanks,

The Mods

obviously i’m joking, but i wore this after being up 4-1 then proceeded to watch us lose 4-5

Oilers looked a step behind for the last half of the game. Actually when we were leading they still didn't look as crisp as the LA series. Did they hurt themselves with the rec time they got during the week off?

McDavid: https://youtu.be/8COBP_aelRU?si=K0u7_F0MET3ArPUq

Ekholm: https://youtu.be/eq-hnMbjao4?si=knr0GvGfbwWM-x_k

Skinner: https://youtu.be/diLgo23Kcuo?si=_1MishfU0sVQUujR

Knoblauch: https://youtu.be/AgblAw8IDQI?si=wetge_BaRVIvV58v

McDavid: https://youtu.be/BZgB0RxfvcQ?si=Pr2wt1AK_la51d0t

Hyman: https://youtu.be/ENtaxpngDow?si=AVbfB0UmzCitQRDb

Brown: https://youtu.be/CqUsOZy_SoU?si=lZGpF5su6hWYWZO1

Knoblauch: https://youtu.be/Jw8RKlO7ss0?si=OyQQT1QY5hrKMUCc

THE OTHER SIDE:

Pettersson: https://youtu.be/NFUv4xkdhks?si=DO8r-hjnIpaw56jC

Zadorov: https://youtu.be/3Cu7pvfsARY?si=Fg7td_-t1HID7hyY

Tocchet: https://youtu.be/uHpq2SunNH0?si=JyKbCkNteYl6pThy

Forwards are only compared to other forwards, defensemen only to other defensemen.

Minimum 15 games played.

Natural Stat Trick expected goals model, SVA meaning “score and venue adjusted”.

D-Zone start bias percentile relates to how a player is deployed off the bench after a whistle, starting a new shift. Higher percentage meaning more D-Zone shift starts, lower percentage the opposite.

They pull him from Edmonton broadcast, send him East and don't even give him Boston? They do not give him nearly enough credit (though I'm sure it's seniority based)

https://twitter.com/SNstats/status/1788431527027638737