May 13, 2024 by Ryan Lotsberg

The Vancouver Canucks beat the Edmonton Oilers 4-3 in Game 3 on Sunday night. The Oilers got on the board first thanks to an early powerplay goal, but the Canucks scored one of their own and added two more in the first period for good measure. The teams exchanged powerplay goals in the second period. A furious late game rally by the Oilers fell just short as the Canucks held on to take the series lead.

Call Outs

Stuart Skinner allowed four goals on fifteen shots before being pulled after the second period. The first Canucks goal was a point shot through traffic on a powerplay. I have a tough time faulting goalies in those scenarios, but tracking the puck through traffic is a part of the job description. The defence hung him out to dry on the other three goals, but you need your goalie to bail you out sometimes if you want to win in the playoffs. This loss wasn’t all on Skinner, but the numbers suggest that he needs to be better.

The fab five (Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Zach Hyman, Evan Bouchard, and Mattias Ekholm) blew the defensive zone coverage on Boeser’s first goal. McDavid and Ekholm both pursued JT Miller as the puck went to him in the corner. Draisaitl was in a fantastic position to defend the upcoming play until he decided to move for some reason. It looked like he decided to shift his focus to Carson Soucy at the other point, but the puck wasn’t ever in danger of heading there. As a result, Boeser was left all alone, and he beat Skinner.

Warren Foegele had an atrocious giveaway on the third Canucks goal. He has full possession of the puck by the faceoff circle in his own zone, and he just passed it up the middle without looking to see who was there. The other Oilers had already started up the ice, which left Brock Boeser all alone behind the defence. I don’t love that Cody Ceci was too eager to jump up ice with Boeser behind him, but Foegele was in a situation where he would get the puck out 99 times out of 100. The puck went down low to Boeser, and he beat Skinner once he got the puck. Foegele has shown up in this section too many times in these playoffs.

Related: Call Outs, Stand Outs, and Shout Outs: Oilers even series with Canucks in Game 2

The Oilers penalty kill is starting to slip again. The Canucks went 2/3 on their powerplay in Game 3 after they went 1/3 in Game 2. The Oilers penalty kill has either been amazing or dreadful at various times throughout the season. It lacks consistency. They went 12/12 in round one, but they’ve gone 3/6 in the last two games. Special teams is by far the biggest advantage that the Oilers have. They can’t afford to have the penalty kill go into a slump right now.

I hate to harp on the referees because I know they have a tough job, but they have been awful in this series and I thought they were particularly bad in this game. Draisaitl’s interference penalty was highly questionable. There was minimal contact, and Draisaitl has the right to his ice there. Boeser leaned into Ekholm to absorb a hit, and that contact broke Ekholm’s stick. Ekholm’s stick was clearly parallel to the ice, but the arm extension was minimal if there was any at all. It didn’t look like Darnell Nurse even did anything on his cross checking penalty.

Meanwhile, Arturs Silovs was able to get away with holding Derek Ryan’s stick in the crease and preventing a goal. It looked like he threw his stick, but there was also some contact on the butt end of his stick, so it’s hard to say that he definitely threw the stick.

Stand Outs

Leon Draisaitl scored a big powerplay goal to get the Oilers within a goal in the second period, and he added an assist on the Oilers’ third goal. He also had five shots on goal in just over 29 minutes of ice time.

Evan Bouchard is dominating right now. He scored a big goal late to make the game interesting in the last couple of minutes. He also had a secondary assist and six shots on goal in a team leading 31:24 of ice time. Bouchard spent more than half of the game on the ice, and he was fantastic throughout the entire game.

Shout Outs

Mattias Ekholm scored a rare powerplay goal. He has scored a goal in every game of the series so far.

Zach Hyman had eight shots on goal, although he had nothing to show for his efforts on the scoresheet in this one.

Dylan Holloway led the team with five hits. It says something that a kid that got 11:25 of ice time led the team in hits. The biggest thing it says is that the team isn’t being physical enough, but good on Holloway for bringing the physicality.

Wrap

This game was reminiscent of the Oilers that we saw in October. The Oilers were generating shots and spending a lot of time in the offensive zone, but they weren’t able to convert on many chances. Silovs played a great game, but he had some bounces go his way as well. The Oilers made a couple of self-inflicted mistakes that led to goals against, and the penalty kill struggled. They also didn’t get adequate goaltending. All of those things were happening in October too. Now those patterns are rearing their ugly heads at the worst possible time.

Nikita Zadorov received a $50,000 fine for cross checking McDavid in the back at the end of the game. Carson Soucy received a one-game suspension for cross checking McDavid as he was falling as a result of the Zadorov cross check. Soucy will miss Game 4.

This series just got even more heated. Game 4 should be intense! That one goes Tuesday night at Rogers Place.