EDMONTON — When you are playing hockey until nearly midnight, typically you either have the cheaper ice time in your beer league or are playing in overtime in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The Vancouver Canucks and Edmonton Oilers were doing neither on Saturday night.
It was merely Game 19 for the Canucks, who at least for a while played playoff-like hockey even though they are the National Hockey League team most likely to be the first one eliminated from playoff contention this season.
The Canucks competed admirably against the Oilers, a legitimate Stanley Cup contender, but surrendered two goals in three minutes early in the third period and lost the late-night game 4-2.
It was a distinctly better effort than the Canucks managed in Thursday’s lifeless 6-2 loss to the Winnipeg Jets. But their opponent was much better, too.
“A lot of, really, positives coming out of it, especially the first two periods, in terms of just the overall effort,” Vancouver coach Manny Malhotra said. “The attention to detail was there and because of that, we were in a situation going into third where we had an opportunity to win.
“Again, it comes down to just those momentary lapses in detail and small missed assignments or a missed puck battle. Those are the things that add up. And eventually, obviously, against a team as high-powered as Edmonton, when you give them those little looks, they're going to make good on them.”
Oiler Jason Dickinson scored on his second rebound chance to break a 1-1 tie 49 seconds into the third period, and Connor McDavid saucered a backdoor pass for Leon Draisaitl to one-time for a power-play goal 3:11 later.
Brock Boeser deflected in Filip Hronek’s shot as the Canucks attacked six-on-five with 2:35 remaining before Draisaitl’s empty-netter clinched the Oilers’ win and sunk Vancouver to 3-15-1. Three years ago, the Sharks passed the 20-game mark at 3-15-2.
The Canucks play Rick Tocchet’s Philadelphia Flyers Monday in Vancouver.
“There was definitely a response,” Canuck winger Jake DeBrusk said, referring to the no-show in Winnipeg. “I think against good teams, momentum's everything and, you know, for three minutes there. . . their top guys got going. (But) that was a pretty good effort, yeah.
“Fifteen out of 16 (losses); obviously, not good. There was a lot of outside noise, but I don't think anyone (on this team) saw this coming. Going through it, it's easy to say it's tough, but we're the ones that have got to figure it out.”
At this point, the dismal game in Winnipeg looks like an outlier, as the Canucks have competed well and been in five of their last six games.
But even at something closer to its best, the rebuilding team has no margin for error. An unlucky bounce, like when the puck came directly back to Dickinson twice after he had been stopped by goalie Leevi Merilainen, or a bad penalty like Arshdeep Bains’ rash hold on Mattias Ekholm that preceded Draisaitl’s power-play goal, can be too much for Vancouver to overcome.
“I mean, it literally hit both our sticks,” defenceman Zeev Buium said after failing to take away Dickinson or his stick on the tie-breaking goal. “Just a tough play. Either I could stay with him or try to get the puck, but it’s a couple of bounces. The play could go either way. But at the end of the day, I've got to find a way to do a better job to not let it go in.”
After starting the game with some smart low-event hockey, generating and surrendering little, the Canucks got confused defensively on a McDavid-led rush halfway through the first period, allowing Ekholm to glide unchecked across the Vancouver zone and one-time a cross-ice pass from McDavid to make it 1-0 at 9:14. It looked like Bains was the Canuck who should have tracked Ekholm.
With the Oilers carrying most of the play, the Canucks’ defensive dam seemed liable to crumble, especially when Edmonton went on the power play for a goalie-interference call against Brendan Gallagher.
But Merilainen made a couple of backside saves against Draisaitl, and also stopped McDavid on a four-on-two and Trent Frederic from the slot.
With shots 11-1 for the Oilers, but the deficit only 1-0, the Canucks finally stacked three strong shifts together near the end of the opening period, discovering that Edmonton also had a goalie, Devon Levi. And with eight seconds remaining in the frame, Max Sasson snatched a tying goal by deflecting Jamie Oleksiak’s point shot past Drew O’Connor’s screen and behind Levi.
Linus Karlsson had two excellent chances to put Vancouver ahead early in the second period, but his shot on a two-on-one was deflected over the Oilers’ net one shift before the Canuck shot into Levi’s glove on a clear breakaway set up by O’Connor and Luke Schenn.
Levi also stopped Elias Pettersson after the Canuck dangled the puck to the net around Draisaitl and Ryan Shea. An even better save was made on the rebound as Oiler defenceman Gord Murphy blocked Jonathan Lekkerimaki’s attempt at a semi-open net.
The Canucks trailed 21-11 on shots through two periods, but five-on-five scoring chances and expected-goals-for were even. Final shots were 30-22.
ICE CHIPS — After taking the optional morning skate, Canuck defenceman Tom Willander missed his third-straight game due to a lower-body injury. With Victor Mancini coming out of the lineup, Schenn returned to the Vancouver blue line for just the second time in six games. Up front, Bains not only returned after being healthy-scratched the last three games, but was deployed by Malhotra on the top line alongside Pettersson and Brock Boeser. Jacob Quillan was scratched to make room for Bains. . . The O’Connor-Sasson-Karlsson line had a strong night at five-on-five, generating expected-goals of 75 per cent.
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