Canucks eliminated in Game 7 after painful loss to Oilers
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No one expected the Vancouver Canucks to make it this far.
Widely picked as a team that would miss the playoffs in 2023-24, the Canucks defied the odds and made it to Game 7 of Round 2, with a third-string goalie, no less.
Despite their wildly successful season, this was one of the most painful losses in franchise history.
āShit, I mean Iāve lost games in junior that I still stay up at night and think about so this will hurt for a long time,ā says Conor Garland.#Canucks
— Noah Strang (@noahstrang_) May 21, 2024
The Canucks were outworked from the drop of the puck. They did have a bit of a pushback in the third period, but they still ended up losing 3-2 to the Edmonton Oilers.
“We don’t like to make it easy, that’s for sure,” Connor McDavid said postgame.
“I thought we played 52 great minutes. Then a little mistake, that’s going to happen, then obviously it gets a little chaotic from there. You could expect that, I knew it was going to be a tight game.”
It wasn’t tight, until the final 10 minutes. Conor Garland and Filip Hronek did muster up goals for the Canucks in the third, but it wasn’t enough.
“Guys played their asses off,” Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet told reporters postgame. “Let’s face it, I told guys before the game, they brought respect back to that jersey and the city.”
Despite Tocchet’s praise for his team, the Canucks are now eliminated from playoff contention, The Oilers will move onto their second Conference Finals appearance in three seasons. They’ll battle the Dallas Stars for a berth in the Stanley Cup Finals, beginning on Thursday night.
“They came out hungry,” J.T. Miller told reporters following the loss. “We had some really good looks and didn’t get the puck on net so shots might have been a little lopsided than they were, but they outplayed us at the beginning.”
“I thought in the second period we came back but we couldn’t get that extra bounce tonight.”
This wasn’t even a game where McDavid and Leon Draisaitl had to take over. The Canucks were just thoroughly outplayed by their opposition. By the time Zach Hyman tipped in an Evan Bouchard point shot early in the second period to make it 2-0, the shots were 23-4 for Edmonton.
A BOUCH BOMB TIPPED BY HYMAN! š£ pic.twitter.com/GcbUOBpSQD
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) May 21, 2024
Without Brock Boeser, their leading goal scorer, the Canucks were always going to be in tough. Miller and Elias Pettersson looked like two players who hadn’t played together a ton at even-strength. Ilya Mikheyev, who initially rode shotgun with Miller and Pettersson, had a glorious chance in the first period to open the scoring. However, he couldn’t finish on his chance alone in front, and looked like a guy who has one goal in his last 61 games.
Ilya Mikheyev is gonna want that one back š« pic.twitter.com/0sqhCprPoc
— Gino Hard (@GinoHard_) May 21, 2024
The Canucks can hold their head high after a successful season, but that doesn’t make this loss any less painful. Not when you get outworked by their opposition like they did tonight.
Lack of offence sinks Canucks
Who could have seen this coming back in January?
Prior to the All-Star break, the Canucks had scored the second-most goals in the NHL, only two behind the Colorado Avalanche.
Since then, things haven’t been the same.
The Canucks were 25th overall in goals from the All-Star break to the end of the season. Of the seven teams below them, only the Boston Bruins made the playoffs.
In the playoffs, they had 2.53 goals-per-game. That ranked 10th among playoff teams and second-last among teams that made it to Round 2.
While the Canucks had more individual goal scorers than the Oilers in this series (11-10), their stars were outdueled by Edmonton’s big guns.
McDavid, Draisaitl, Zach Hyman and Evan Bouchard combined for 12 goals and 39 points in this series.
Miller, Boeser, Pettersson and Quinn Hughes combined for six goals and 20 points.
It’s easy to call all kinds of narratives into question now, like the fact that the Canucks chose not to sign Phil Kessel prior to the trade deadline.
— Memarzadeh (@ArashMemarzadeh) May 21, 2024
While having someone with Kessel’s experience would have helped the Canucks since they were missing Boeser, he alone wouldn’t have made up for the fact that the Oilers’ stars doubled the Canucks’ big guns in terms of production.
But who knows, maybe Kessel would have at least provided the Canucks power play with some advice.
Late in the first period, Ryan McLeod was called for a high-sticking double-minor, giving the Canucks a glorious chance to open the scoring.
However, the Canucks power play, much like it has been all playoffs, was an absolute momentum sucker.
They went shotless for the duration of the four-minute power play. The only shot went to Connor Brown, who was stopped by Arturs Silovs on a shorthanded breakaway.
Edmonton carried that penalty-killing momentum into the second period, where they essentially ended the game with three goals, including a power play marker by Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, which stood as the game-winner.
The shot clock looked bad for Vancouver, and they would have done themselves more favours by hitting the net. See all that grey in the chart below? Those are missed shots by the Canucks, while Edmonton’s graph is littered with blue (shots) and red (goals)
Canucks might look a little less dead in the water if they hit the net a bit more. pic.twitter.com/CItTwgaQVM
— Micah Blake McCurdy (@IneffectiveMath) May 21, 2024
“You gotta hit the net,” Tocchet said. “We had two breakaways and we missed the net.”
The Canucks end their playoffs with the second-fewest shots ever by a team in their first 13 games of a postseason run.
Beginning of an era for Canucks?
Despite the loss, this looks like it could be the start of something special for the Canucks.
Miller doesn’t look like he’s slowing down anytime soon. He’s saddled by Boeser, who’s emerged a major two-way, goal-scoring threat.
In net, the Canucks future couldn’t be brighter with Thatcher Demko signed to a team-friendly deal for two more seasons, while young Silovs has proven he’s ready for the NHL full-time.
“Arty played his ass off for us,” Tocchet said postgame. “What a playoffs for that kid.”
This postseason, hopefully, was a major learning experience for Hughes and Pettersson, the Canucks two-most talented players. Hughes ends his postseason with no goals and 10 points in 13 games, after scoring 17 goals in the regular season. Pettersson, despite improving as the playoffs progressed, ends his postseason with one goal and six points in 13 games.
Those two need to be better. With the experience they just gained, they likely will be.
“I love this team, man,” Miller said. “I just love it. We don’t give up, ever. It’s a good sign.”
This is a well-coached team under Tocchet with proper management now in place. For the first time in over a decade, it feels like the Canucks Stanley Cup window has opened back up.
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