I have some bad news, folks. Newell Brown, Sam Gagner, and Thomas Vanek have not magically fixed the Canucks power play. At least, not yet. I mean, it’s the last game of the preseason; there’s still a week of practice and plenty of games to get it right.
It just seems odd that the Canucks are so hesitant to try Troy Stecher or Brock Boeser with the Sedins on the power play. Instead, the first power play unit is an all-veteran affair, with Gagner and Henrik on opposite sides of the ice on the half-boards, Alex Edler at the point, Daniel in the slot, and Thomas Vanek as the net-front presence. Daniel, Henrik, and Vanek seem to rotate as the occasion arises, but that’s the basic setup.
As Tyler Dellow pointed out, who’s going to shoot the puck on that unit? Vanek is the only real shooter of the five, and he’s generally been a net-front guy on the power play, rather than a sniper. It’s a unit that seems primarily built for slap-pass deflections from the player in the slot, but if that’s the only threat, it will get shut down easily.
Switching Stecher and Boeser in for Edler and Gagner seems like something worth trying and Boeser did get a brief spin on the top unit while Daniel was in the box at one point, but it doesn’t appear to have even crossed Newell Brown’s mind based on preseason and practice formations.
I repeated the mantra, “It’s only preseason,” as I watched this game.
- Alexander Burmistrov has had a mediocre preseason, but he made a nice play on the opening goal, taking the puck off Darnell Nurse on a ring-a-round dump-in, then feeding a wide open Jake Virtanen in front of the net. Virtanen was ready for the pass and hit it, as his good buddy Justin Bieber once said, “one time.”
- That’s 4 goals and 6 points in 6 preseason games for Virtanen, who should probably reserve a spot in the locker room next to Derek Dorsett for prime shoulder-rubbing opportunities.
- With just seconds left in the first period, Patrick Wiercioch got caught deep in the Oilers’ zone. Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl broke the other way against Alex Biega and a covering Sam Gagner, both of whom could not have played it worse. Gagner gave McDavid too much space, while Biega just let Draisaitl skate to open ice for a one-timer that beat Markstrom glove side. I can understand why Gagner played it the way he did, but when it comes to Biega, like Biega himself, there’s no defence.
- Giving McDavid and Draisaitl a 5-on-3 is just plain unfair. Frankly, the Oilers’ opponents should always be allowed to ice an extra skater when McDavid and Draisaitl are on the ice as it is. A power play should just be 5-on-5, so when the Canucks took back-to-back penalties, giving McDavid and Draisaitl a 5-on-4 should have been more than enough. I mean, of course they scored when given a two-man advantage, because they’re already a two-man advantage. Together, that’s a four-man advantage. The league needs to fix this like when they introduced the “Canadiens Rule” that ended a power play when a team scored because the Canadiens were just too good.
- Markus Granlund tied the game just 21 seconds later on a shorthanded breakaway. Granlund picked off a poorly-conceived pass from Matthew Benning, who’s sure to see an extra fiver in his birthday card from Uncle Jim this year, then broke in alone on Cam Talbot, beating him five-hole with a quick snapshot.
- The Canucks power play looked decidedly mediocre in this game, but came through with the eventual game-winning goal. Troy Stecher snapped a low shot, Markus Granlund managed to bat the rebound toward the net, and Loui Eriksson made like Manu Ginobili and knocked that bat(ted puck) down with his hand, then whacked it into the net.
- Jussi Jokinen took one of the dumbest penalties I’ve seen in some time. With a delayed penalty pending for the Canucks, Henrik Sedin went to play the puck. The whistle was clearly about to blow when Jokinen tried to lift Henrik’s stick with no chance of actually getting the puck and whiffed completely, smashing Henrik in the mouth instead. So dumb.
- This game could have gotten out of hand if it weren’t for Jacob Markstrom. The Oilers out-shot the Canucks 27 to 17, but Markstrom made every save that was in his power to make. His best stop came on Patrick Maroon after a broken play on a 3-on-1, lunging desperately across like a fencer down to his last touch to take away an open net.
- Darryl Keeping is tracking zone exits for Canucks defencemen this season and Edler was lights out in this game. 7 of his 11 touches of the puck were controlled zone exits, which is a stunning percentage. When he got control of the puck, he transitioned like an effective segue. Speaking of effective segues, I’ve been wondering if I should buy a self-balancing scooter.
- Thomas Vanek and the Sedins weren’t bad together, but dynamic they ain’t. Vanek isn’t exactly fleet of foot and at even-strength, the trio seemed to be skating through molasses. It seems like a lie to say they ever “rushed” the puck up ice; it’s more that they slugged the puck up ice. They looked like they were in a video game where someone had been holding down the “hustle” button for an entire shift, except they looked like that right from when they left the bench.
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Sam Gagner came to the Canucks with a reputation for shaky defence and he’s given fans some clear examples so far in the preseason, a couple of them coming in this game. And yet, late in the third, Travis Green replaced Brock Boeser with Sam Gagner to defend a one-goal lead. I can’t do this again, Travis. I just got out of a bad relationship with a guy who hated kids. Don’t do this to me again.
