I’m writing this a bit earlier as I’m heading to Prague to catch the Hockey World Championship this weekend. Which also means tomorrow’s post-game blog might be a little… hungover.
The Canucks lead the Oilers 3-2 heading into tonight’s tilt: a chance to close out the Oilers at home. The Canucks faced the same situation last series and were able to bear down. The team that was heralded as green and inexperienced to start these playoffs have grown a lot the past few weeks, and we’ll certainly see their mettle tested as the Oilers are going to come out with everything.
It was a fantastic game by the Canucks last game: they brought their A-game after some line-juggling and media-dragging by Tocchet. He knows this team, knows how to push their buttons, knows how to lead them into this battle. And the team knows how to respond. They were able to shut down McDavid, shut down the Oiler’s vaunted power play, and tilt the ice heavily in their favor through their forecheck and breakout. Here are some numbers via Sportlogiq that illustrate how well the team played last game:
• Slot Shots on Net: 17-10 Vancouver.
• High Danger Chances: 16-9 Vancouver.
• Scoring Chances off the Cycle: 17-8 Vancouver.
It was a revamped line with Pettersson and Hoglanger flanking Lindholm that was a large part of the Canucks’ offensive pressure last game. Petey had that spring in his step, looked much more engaged, and was sarcastic with the media after the game – something we’re used to seeing when he’s got his confidence.
@RobTheHockeyGuy
Pettersson asked by @passittobulis if he got an explanation from the refs on his penalty. With a smile (!) he says: “no.”
@passittobulis
Pettersson said, “That was good, eh?” with a grin as he walked by me out of the room.
The Canucks are going to need the same kind of effort from top-to-bottom to put away the Oilers on home ice. You know McDavid and Draisaitl will be on their game. As per Tocc, it’s going to be the toughest game they’ve played so far and they have to be prepared to close it out:
“There's different approaches,” Tocchet said of preparing for another elimination game. “For me, team meeting tonight. Do you have a team meal? There's a lot of different things. But I think the message is: It's going to be really hard. And that's all you should be thinking about. Whatever it takes to get it done, you do. I've said it a bunch of times. . . we've really got to get back to Earth. It's going to be our toughest game.
“You can't trick your brain, like. . . let your foot off the gas or 'we've got two chances to get this done.' You can't think that way. You have to be mentally like a rock. And I think you rely on your teammates today to make sure that you can keep that mentality that this is our biggest game of the year, right here.”
Keys to the game today:
1. Keep up the structure: one key to the Canucks’ win was they tweaked parts of their structure. They hounded the Oilers a little more, pressed on the PK, and were quicker to their outlets. It worked as the Canucks were the faster team, breaking out more easily against the Oilers forecheck.
2. Stay on McDavid: it’s not really a big key, as it’s the ket every game when you’re playing McDavid, but if they want to win shutting that guy down is the most sure answer they have. The Canucks were tighter to him, keeping above him on his breakouts, and not letting him attack with speed as he normally does. They were a bit soft on him up to this point, but they switched it up to positive results.
“Without being disrespectful, the last couple games me, Brock and (Suter) have been giving Connor a little too much respect,” said Miller. “We (were) playing not to get scored on a little bit and when you do that he just gets more time with the puck. I thought we went back to playing our game and being more aggressive and whenever there is a situation to be above him, we’ll worry about it when it happens.”
3. Wear them down: the Oilers have been riding McDavid and Draistail hard. The cracks started to show in the last game. If the Canucks can keep them defending, keep them from having too much possession, keep hitting and nagging them, it might be enough of an advantage as the game rolls on to give a decisive edge to the Canucks.
Puck drop today is at 5:00 PST.
And the comments:
(Quotes from Kuzma, MacIntyre)
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