Rusty Oilers star edge Canucks in underwhelming OT choice

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With the Edmonton Oilers lastly unleashing all of their high weapons Wednesday at Rogers Place, followers most likely anticipated a couple of extra bullet holes in Vancouver’s goalie.

However the perfect Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Zach Hyman, Evander Kane and Connor Brown might muster in opposition to Canucks keeper Casey DeSmith was a considerably lukewarm 2-1 win on McDavid’s time beyond regulation breakaway.

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It was considerably stunning on condition that Edmonton’s gamers have been skating collectively for a couple of weeks now, however the rust was obvious. And so, maybe, was the shortage of urgency that’s commonplace for the third recreation of of the pre-season.

Offensively, the highest-scoring staff within the NHL final 12 months has been struggling discover mesh within the pre-season. They misplaced 1-0 within the opener, 5-0 within the second recreation in opposition to Winnipeg and didn’t rating their first even-strength purpose of the pre-season till Ryan Nugent-Hopkins popped one at 13:54 of the second interval of this one.

Throughout the rink, a part of the spring in Vancouver’s step stemmed from the actual fact they have been nonetheless stinging from a 10-0 loss to Calgary on Sunday. Both approach, the Canucks, who introduced their first and fourth strains and a lightweight sprinkling of different veterans, gave Edmonton’s finest gamers all they may deal with after which some.

“I believed we did quite a lot of actually good issues defensively, after two durations we had given up 10 pictures,” stated head coach Jay Woodcroft. “I didn’t see quite a lot of polish offensively, however ultimately we discovered a option to rating sufficient to win the sport. There have been quite a lot of exhausting efforts.”

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Issues did look good defensively, with Edmonton outshooting Vancouver 15-4 by way of the primary half-hour of the sport, which included three profitable penalty kills.

“It’s a optimistic signal as a result of that’s the place nearly all of our focus in coaching camp has been, the defensive aspect of issues,” stated Woodcroft. “We’re seeing some optimistic outcomes.”

Vancouver broke by way of on its fourth energy play, although. With Quinn Hughes scoring at 10:22.

It’s nonetheless the pre-season, so it’s approach too early to get wound up about something, however 4 minors in a interval and a half (and 6 in complete) isn’t superb, particularly for a staff bitten by premature penalties throughout final 12 months’s playoffs.

The calls got here in opposition to the veterans, too, with Evan Bouchard, Mattias Janmark, Darnell Nurse, Kane, Nugent-Hopkins and Draisaitl doing the time.

“I didn’t love the truth that we have been within the field as a lot as we have been however the penalty kill dug in,” stated Woodcroft. “It’s one thing that has to get cleaned up. After two durations we have been within the field for about 9 minutes, which is 1 / 4 of the sport as much as that time.

“We started working on our penalty kill, which is an effective factor, however you don’t need to be taking six penalties a recreation. It’s not a recipe for sustained success.”

Edmonton’s vaunted energy play bought off to a gradual begin within the first interval, going 0-for-2 on Vancouver penalties three minutes aside. They threw the puck round a bit however couldn’t get a lot going.

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