Almost every ESPN analyst picks Oilers over Canucks, including Messier
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The Vancouver Canucks might have won the Pacific Division title this season, but they are shaping up to be the underdog in their second-round playoff series against the Edmonton Oilers.
After The Athletic’s Dom Luszczyszyn revealed that his model heavily favours the Oilers in the series, it is now the staff of ESPN’s hockey crew joining in on the Edmonton love. In their second-round predictions, 24 members of ESPN’s staff were asked who they liked better in the Oilers-Canucks series.
23 picked the Oilers to knock off the Canucks—including Mark Messier, who said Edmonton would win in six games. Messier, who is beloved in Edmonton but loathed by Canucks fans, is an intermission analyst on ESPN.
#Oilers are the overwhelming favourite according to ESPN's hockey staff with 23 of 24 saying that Edmonton would eliminate Vancouver in the second-round.
The most popular response was Oilers in 6.
— Preston Hodgkinson (@NHLHodgkinson) May 5, 2024
The only member of ESPN’s staff who chose the Canucks was Ryan S. Clark, who picked the Canucks to advance to the Western Conference Finals after defeating the Oilers in seven games.
This goes against the grain of what happened in the regular season, where the Canucks swept the season series against the Oilers winning all four games and outscoring Edmonton by a 23-7 margin in those games. There are, however, some caveats to that dominant record.
Three of those four wins came at the beginning of the year when the Oilers were not nearly playing at the level they are now and the fourth came without Connor McDavid in the Edmonton lineup. This playoff series will be the first time that Vancouver has seen the Oilers firing on all cylinders.
There is also the fact that the Canucks might be without their two top goaltenders in Thatcher Demko and Casey DeSmith, who were both injured in their first-round series against the Nashville Predators. Arturs Silovs played well against the Predators, but the Oilers’ offence is a whole new beast.
The Oilers also looked very good against the LA Kings, not having much problem in their five-game series, whereas the Canucks did not look overtly dominant against a wildcard Predators club.
Playoff hockey, however, is not decided by those who predict the series and nothing is certain until both these teams take the ice. A schedule for the series has not yet been released, but reports seem to indicate that Game 1 is set for Tuesday night.
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