Post-Game Talk: Oilers def. Canucks in season opener, 5-3 (Pettersson, Miller, Kuzmenko)

[TruGr1t]

Hmm, alot like the 80's, the Nucks could dominate for 40 minutes, create hope for the fans then the Oilers would decide to play and poof, another loss.

This is universal and speaks more to the gap between the two teams than anything else. When the Canucks were actually good, they'd regularly show-up for 20 minutes against inferior competition and still win. Then we'd whine about "effort level" and "playing down to your competition". That's just a team that regularly makes the playoffs versus a team that rarely makes the playoffs.

 

[pitseleh]

It was obvious by my other two posts but I found this very interesting. How do you access this all year? Does he have a patreon? Will it be an Athletic thing? There's nothing in his bio or on the website that indicates as such.

Not sure - guessing we will find out closer to the end of the month. From the post he is likely going to gauge traffic before setting a price.

 

[credulous]

It was obvious by my other two posts but I found this very interesting. How do you access this all year? Does he have a patreon? Will it be an Athletic thing? There's nothing in his bio or on the website that indicates as such.

he mentioned elsewhere he hasn't figure that out yet. probably patreon though. i think he's emulating corey sznajder's work. the game reports look very similar

 

[Vector]

he mentioned elsewhere he hasn't figure that out yet. probably patreon though. i think he's emulating corey sznajder's work. the game reports look very similar

I don't know who this man is but I hate every single aspect of his name.

This is a joke purely for the people who know me. I will not be taking any more questions at this time.

 

[Three On Zero]

I said the special teams was concerning and fundamentally broke. Got chewed out on the mains for saying such, yet where we are losing games based on special teams.

 

[Deeds26]

Hockey is a team game, unless your name is Connor McDavid.

Lots to like about how we played, lots to dislike.

Game #1 is over and one with, onto the next. Work on the special teams and focus on the positives.

 

[Svencouver]

Joshua disappointed me most of all, and it's not even close. You have a clearly defined role, an eminent opportunity to perform it, and you're in a position where you ought to make a statement about why you deserve to be on the team. And you just... Don't? Extremely strange.

 

[Petey O]

Joshua disappointed me most of all, and it's not even close. You have a clearly defined role, an eminent opportunity to perform it, and you're in a position where you ought to make a statement about why you deserve to be on the team. And you just... Don't? Extremely strange.

Like I said earlier, I think the lack of pushback is why Bruce benched him. I seem to remember Bruce making statements about liking the aggressive element of Joshua's game and that he brings a factor to the ice that the team needs... only for him to refuse to assert himself when the team needs him to the most. Definitely strange, yes.

 

[Nucker101]

Joshua disappointed me most of all, and it's not even close. You have a clearly defined role, an eminent opportunity to perform it, and you're in a position where you ought to make a statement about why you deserve to be on the team. And you just... Don't? Extremely strange.

Yeah, I'd like to see him more engaged physically. Doesn't have to drop the gloves or start scrums but line a guy up on the forecheck.

Was hilarious seeing him get wrecked by Campbell

 

[Cogburn]

After rewatching the game, screw the refs and screw Kane.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

Hmm, alot like the 80's, the Nucks could dominate for 40 minutes, create hope for the fans then the Oilers would decide to play and poof, another loss.

This is universal and speaks more to the gap between the two teams than anything else. When the Canucks were actually good, they'd regularly show-up for 20 minutes against inferior competition and still win. Then we'd whine about "effort level" and "playing down to your competition". That's just a team that regularly makes the playoffs versus a team that rarely makes the playoffs.

sigh the 2010/2011 days, when we'd sleepwalk through the first 45 minutes of an oilers game, then stage a wild comeback from a 2-0 deficit in the third to take the game in regulation.

 

[1440]

Hughes was our worst defensman last night.

This just isn't true at all. He had a bad night in the sense that he got unlucky, but beyond getting high sticked and being out of the play on the first goal, he spent another lengthy shift in his own zone with no stick because he got slashed earlier in the shift and it exploded on a routine clearance. 7 minutes into the first if you want to re-watch.

Sure he was on the ice for 4 goals against, but none were his fault. The first he was bleeding on the ice. The second was a 3 on 1 on the PP (no backcheck), third was the result of Pearson blowing his coverage and the 4th was an empty netter.

 

[DL44]

Loved the first half.. great team positioning, great team defense. A lot rush opportunities earned throughout.
Promising signs.

Grossed out by the special teams. The PP seemed confused after the initial set plays. Passed up too many shots, and then lazy passes/turnovers. Really annoyed the late PP's opted to settle to force the Petty one timer.

After blowing the lead, it still felt like the Canucks were gonna score on the PP, felt due... then the Boeser penatly to take em off..
Wasn't happy with Boeser's game.... This has been the constant fear... that's useless when he's not scoring... and it's painful to watch when he's returning from injury.

Forgot Horvat was playing till they said his name in the 2nd. Picked it up in the third.

Did NOT like Hughes reaction to the high stick... I understand he's hurt... but that bothered me.
Hoglander may be a problem. Does not appear good enough... Still does not have a NHL shot.

Liked my first look at Stillman. Didn't mind the 4th line. Demko was ok, no concerns... Oilers scored some nice goals getting him to move laterally.

Petty and Miller off to the starts we wanted.... PP has some work to do... (but thats a familair story with all the games so far... except for the Avs n Oil).

Promising!

 

[archangel2]

After rewatching the game, screw the refs and screw Kane.

8 powerplays not enough for you?

 

[Cogburn]

8 powerplays not enough for you?

Hughes got messed up really well by Kane going into Edmonton's first goal. At least one more double minor was called for.

 

[Nucker101]

Aman should get a look on the PK. He has good natural defensive instincts, he can fly, and he's a natural puck hound. I could see him and Mikheyev both causing some chaos for opposing powerplay units.

 

[DL44]

Aman should get a look on the PK. He has good natural defensive instincts, he can fly, and he's a natural puck hound. I could see him and Mikheyev both causing some chaos for opposing powerplay units.

Mikheyev.. forgot about him!
That's why Hoglander is up the lineup.
Soon...

 

[mossey3535]

It looks like Cam Charron will be tracking Canucks games this season, free for October: Vancouver Canucks 3 @ Edmonton Oilers 5 – 2022-10-12 Recap

Things come out closer than they felt watching the game last night.

I thought this matched up well with how I saw the game. Although I would argue that our D made a lot of short passes to forwards who had come back into the DZ which accounts for all the forwards I saw trying to carry it out of the DZ and then the neutral zone. This is a long way for a rush and against a trapping team basically straight into the teeth of the defence. While the scheme definitely makes it easier for a depleted defence, it means the forwards have to have great short passing and support through two zones to get the controlled entry into the offensive zone. IMO this accounts for the huge amount of dump ins, as basically any NZ trap will consider a dump a success.

Although we had only 3 more dumps than the oilers in total, that was 52% of our entry attempts while the Oilers only had 39% dump-ins. This also tells us about how successful either team's NZ defence was and/or how well the respective defences held the line. I was hoping to see a stiffer gap at our own blueline but the Oilers were still using some anti-TGreen tactics like the long bank pass off the center ice boards to an Oilers forward who has space at the entry since the d-men are either giving up the blueline and/or are too slow to pivot to cover the forward in the neutral zone.

Generally, the forward group did a good job in being more responsible and helping out our defence. I thought that we did very well at ES in terms of sheltering our defence and maintaining a stout forecheck and general forward possession in the first period but eventually the volume of chances didn't favour us.

Generally we would have come out much better if we were facing a less speedy team than the Oilers. If Demko had managed to make 1-2 saves he wasn't supposed to we also would have won the game. But I also think the number of opposition attempts out our own blueline is unlikely to go down until Dermott and (maybe) Myers returns.

 

[mossey3535]

Although this was a weird night for Demko, I thought he was pedestrian. Yes the Oilers goals were pretty but at his level last season he would have made a save on 1-2 of those. His lateral movement in some ways has come along quite a bit but IMO too often it is a spatially fast enough but he is not coming over ready to react to the shot. It is still more of a desperation move than him necessarily letting his track get him to the spot ahead of or at the same time as the pass.

Having said that, being able to win a low shot attempt game while still having to make sporadic but very difficult saves on special teams is something he's going to have to learn to do as the team hopefully improves. In some ways it is easy to thrive being on a poor defensive team where you get a lot of shot volume. Which is basically what he's had to do the last few seasons. As the team improves, being able to shut the door in game situations like this where your team makes few ES mistakes but gives up a lot of PP's is a mark of consistency that he needs to work on.

I'm happy to say that he wasn't down against his post as early or as often in non-threatening situations as he has been his whole career but I'll have to watch another few games. I think it's telling that McDavid didn't try too many sneaky long distance bad angle shots on him. At the end of last season McD was trying 2-3 of these attempts per game.

 

[archangel2]

Hughes got messed up really well by Kane going into Edmonton's first goal. At least one more double minor was called for.

.....and the refs missed some blatant calls on the canucks as well. There were some nasty cross checks the refs missed

 

[rypper]

 

[Vector]

Do players with no impact not get listed? Nils Aman, who had more ice time than Shore and Holloway, isn't there. Brad Malone also isn't listed but he only played 4 minutes.

 

[rypper]

Do players with no impact not get listed? Nils Aman, who had more ice time than Shore and Holloway, isn't there. Brad Malone also isn't listed but he only played 4 minutes.

I think that's the case. If you look at his site and pull up team specific graphs, both Aman and Malone are there but are essentially non factors.

 

[biturbo19]

One thing that's interesting about this, and I've thought about this a lot, is that you can clearly see the Oilers were targeting the Canucks right side defence for zone entries. The exception is Burroughs. So the Oilers are consistently trying to enter on the weaker partner. Hughes, OEL, and Burroughs with single digit zone entry attempts against while Schenn, Poolman, and Stillman with double digits. Apart from Poolman, the strategy didn't actually work out that great. They should have targeted Hughes rather than Schenn.

This is kinda the problem with Hughes. As dynamic as he is offensively, he's got his shortcomings defensively that i'm not sure he'll ever really completely overcome. He's challenged in denying/containing zone entries. He just doesn't have the reach or physicality to dictate anything. But attacking the other side is also a viable strategy when that side is so weak, in terms of setting a tone. If you decide you want to make a statement, you don't mind attacking the other side and forcing Hughes to be the one going back to retrieve pucks. Just opens up those opportunities to get in an try to rattle him with a physical forecheck.

If he's your "top defenceman" playing "big minutes", other teams have to worry a little bit about his counterattacking ability, but by and large, it can make things just a little too easy to play against. Where a team can kind of be content to attack him directly for entries, or just force him to keep going back to fight for possession and keep having to try to break the puck out. Either way, potentially putting the team on it's back foot trying to regroup for a lot of the game. And it doesn't necessarily take "top skill players" to pressure his pairing into playing on that back foot. Even just run of the middle speedy grinders can make life more difficult for Hughes and the forwards playing with him, by disrupting and retreating. Even ugly chip 'n chase hockey can be effective in forcing a bunch of energy expenditure.


Just tough to "anchor" a blueline around a guy like Hughes. In the same way the contending Canucks of yore couldn't really "anchor" their blueline around Ehrhoff. Getting a better partner for Hughes would certainly go a long ways in mitigating some of that issue...but at the end of the day, you're still always going to want to be trying to take control of his minutes/deployment. Unlike your archetype "all around Stud #1D" where you can dictate the matchup game the other way with teams wanting to get their skill players away from them.

It is what it is. Hughes in a fantastic offensive defenceman. It just comes with limitations as your #1.

 

[Pastor Of Muppetz]

8 powerplays not enough for you?

The Canucks went 1-for-9 on the power play and gave up a shorthanded goal — the Oilers went 3-for-4...This is why the Canucks lost.

However, the blown Hughes call was the 'turning point'in the game, and completely shifted the momentum....That gave the Oilers their first goal (in a game up till that point, they had no business being in).