Winless In The West

The splitting up of the 4-93-14 line did not last long as the three of them once again found themselves on a line together at home against the Vancouver Canucks.

I, for one, would have liked to see the experiment continue, as Benoit Pouliot was showing more good than bad on the top line, and something has to get this team going

First Period

1:00 Defensive chaos in the Oilers zone early. Calm down, troops.

2:28 Pinizzotto punches Dorsett in the face, who, in turn, punches him back.

6:00 Hall gets fancy inside the Canucks blue. I’d like to see him shoot that, rather than lose it in the defenders feet.

8:00 The Canucks have had a few odd man rushes on the night already. The Oilers defenders are playing the offensive blue line aggressively, with nothing to show for it yet.

9:10 Eberle and Hall nearly go in on a 2-on-1, but the puck gets behind Eberle and he goes offside.

9:40 Nikita Nikitin is heading off for tripping.

10:30 RNH and Pouliot go in on a 2-on-1 shorthanded, and Nuge opts to shoot. Miller with the stop.

12:01 Boyd Gordon bats the puck out of the air and over the glass. An unfortunate break for him, tired after the penalty kill.

14:46 Sounds like Bieksa ran over Scrivens, and Ference went after him and dropped the old mitts. Oilers to the power play.

15:41 Schultz failed to pick up Hansen breaking away and he goes in alone on Scrivens. Canucks go up on the shorthanded goal.

17:00 Canucks have one waved off for goalie interference. Nearly 2-0 for the bad guys.

18:30 Eberle has a partial breakaway, but gets hauled down. No call on the play.

19:45 More chaos in the Oilers’ zone to end the period. They're lucky to be trailing by one after twenty.

Not much to celebrate for Edmonton after the first, as the Canucks have a decisive edge in shots 10-4 and 5v5 CF% with 68.00.

Second Period

0:30 Nice pass by Hall to find Fayne trailing the rush. Shot is blocked.

1:30 Nice one timer from Draisaitl, even better save from Miller.

1:59 Steve Pinizzotto goes off, despite being the victim and not the perpetrator of the penalty.

2:02 Radim Vrbata scores immediately off the draw on the PP. Hendricks completely lost track of the puck on the play.

4:43 Pinizzotto doesn’t just fight—he can score too. The Oilers make it a one goal game off his first NHL goal.

6:00 Justin Schultz shows great vision to find Purcell alone at the side of the net, but he can’t get it past Miller.

6:10 Zach Kassian has a breakaway, makes a nice move and Scrivens makes the save. Justin Schultz hustled back to put pressure on Kassian.

9:00 Shawn Matthias is single-handedly beating the Oilers in their own zone.

9:39 Keith Aulie gives the puck away at his own blue line and Higgins makes him pay. The Canucks go up 3-1.

10:12 Eberle finds the loose puck in front of Miller but can’t get it by him.

11:30 Burrows trips up Eberle at the blueline. Oilers to the PP.

11:32 Off a Mark Arcobello face-off win, Teddy Purcell lets a bomb go from the point and beats Miller.

11:43 What in the hell? Boyd Gordon scores eleven seconds later to make it a tie game. All of a sudden, we have a hockey game.

14:10 Scrivens absolutely robs Kassian for the second time this game, this time on a 2-on-1.

15:48 Nuge off for tripping.

16:10 Huge stop again by Scrivens on the penalty kill.

17:10 Vrbata puts the Canucks back up with a power play goal. Henrik Sedin had a pretty good screen going.

Third Period

0:45 Petry makes a nice play to break up a 3-on-2 with his stick.

1:20 Oilers play twenty seconds of the third period with only four players on the ice.

2:33 Dorsett heads off for slashing. Oilers can tie it.

3:35 Burrows heads off for highsticking. Huge 5-on-3 opportunity here.

6:21 Andrew Ference puts a point shot through traffic and past Ryan Miller. We’ll take it.

9:07 The Oilers are going to the powerplay again as St. Albert boy Ryan Stanton is called for tripping. Can they steal this game?

9:30 Justin Schultz has his pass picked off and the Canucks go back on the 2-on-1. They get the cross ice pass through and Scrivens bails out Jultz. Sportsnet has the count at two breakaways and eleven odd man rushes for the Canucks.

11:32 Weber scores on a nice dish from Daniel Sedin—on a 2-on-1, believe it or not.

13:47 Hall off for highsticking.

19:50 Oilers have a late goal waved off as David Perron gets caught kicking it in.

19:55 Taylor Hall gets another chance to even it up, but its a long shot.

In Conclusion

As the Oilers scrambled all night to come back, they ended up outshooting the Canucks 32-31, while Vancouver still had the edge in 5v5 shot attempts with a CF% of 52.81.

A combination of things did the Oilers in tonight. Ben Scrivens continued down the path to replacement with a .839 save percentage, allowing five goals on 31 shots. He got no help from the team in front of him, as the same defensive lapses that have plagued the Oilers all season were on full display tonight. Both teams exhibited a lack of discipline as they each took five minor penalties. Vancouver won the special teams battle with two PPG and one SHG, while the Oilers managed one PPG.

Tonight, Oilers fans will dream dreams of Connor McDavid.