Streaking Oilers drill Canucks' hole deeper
Demko strong, but Smith shuts out team with fast-fading playoff hopes
The Vancouver Canucks' season has been filled with frustration.
J.T. Miller cursing at the ref in the first period said a lot: last season he wasn't as vocal about what he perceived to be a missed holding call on the opposition.
The Canucks, again, played plenty well Thursday evening at Rogers Arena against the visiting Edmonton Oilers, but, as has so often been the case of late, they left with nothing but frustration after a 3-0 loss.
The home team controlled much of the play through two periods but couldn't sustain enough pressure and never found a goal. And in the third period, with so much on the line, the Oilers played strong defensively and even forced the Canucks into a series of late penalties.
The Canucks have now lost 14 of 24 games so far this season and even with 32 games left to play, are all but mathematically eliminated from the playoff race.
And that's even with their two closest opponents in the standings, fourth-place Montreal and fifthplace Calgary, faltering of late.
There's just too much ground to make up for the Canucks. They could, of course, find a spark and win two-thirds of their remaining schedule, but there's little to suggest in what we've seen so far that such a remarkable turnaround is possible.
The Oilers got power play goals from Alex Chiasson and Jesse Puljujarvi, plus an empty-net goal from Connor McDavid, while goalie Mike Smith got the shutout for the Oilers, who now sit in second place in the NHL's North Division.
Here's what we learned ...
DEMKO STANDS HIS GROUND
What was a pretty even first period still needed some big efforts from both goalies to keep the game scoreless.
Thatcher Demko was flawless on a pair of Edmonton breakaways, and Smith was no slouch either, stonewalling Brandon Sutter on a breakaway.
The chances were pretty even again in the second, but the stops that Demko had to make still felt tougher than those Smith faced down, even if the totals suggested a slant the other way.
Maybe it was just the context of the game, with the Canucks' playoff hopes held together by a thread.
The only Oiler to beat Demko in the frame was Chiasson, who swept home a loose puck on a power play midway through the second period.
POWER PLAY STRUGGLES
The Canucks' power play was a top-five unit in 2019-20.
Coming into Thursday's game, the Elias Pettersson-led quintet was sitting in a mediocre 22nd spot in the league. And that mediocrity continued, as the Canucks went 0-for-5 with the man advantage.
THE VIRTANEN SHOWCASE
There's not a whole lot Travis Green can do with the lineup he's been handed, if things go awry.
Bumping Miller down to the third line and bringing Jake Virtanen back into the lineup and putting him on Bo Horvat's wing are the most drastic options he really has available to him.
And there was little doubt that playing Virtanen on the second line was as much about putting a player whose shine has done nothing but stained on the trade block back in a position to — maybe, just maybe — show what he can do and pique the interest of one of the few teams that has shown any trade interest in him in recent times.
At last count, those were the Boston Bruins, the Nashville Predators and Ottawa Senators.
His performance was mixed at best.
He took two first-period penalties.
He was looked off more than once for a breakout pass.
His second period was much better as he had some nice zone entries and found himself in the slot with the puck on his stick more than once.
But like the rest of his team, there wasn't much to report on from the third period as the Oilers laid down tight defensive play and also killed off a pair of Canuck power plays.
POCKET BATTLESHIP
There's never been any doubt about Nils Höglander's enthusiasm for the game.
Elevated to the top line in place of Miller, he had another hard-working night, finding a few opportunities to get the puck on goal and playing a physical game, most notably sitting Oilers defenceman Kris Russell on his rear with a hard hit to the chest in the second period.