Connor McDavid is a Very Good Hockey Player

Posted on by

Opening night of the 2021 NHL season was a near perfect storm for the Vancouver Canucks. On the road in Edmonton is always a tough test for the team, regardless of what other dynamic variables there might be.

In this case, you could just feel it coming. Wednesday nights opener was just about as good of a road game that the Canucks have played in years. They went into Rogers Place on the best player in the worlds birthday, kept him off the scoresheet completely and clearly frustrated him to the point where he is running Quinn Hughes with less than a minute left.

The fact that Vancouver was able to do that all without their best all around player in JT Miller, quite frankly, seemed like a once in a blue moon sort of occasion.

So Thursday night rolled around, and #97 made sure the Canucks, as well as the entire North division know it was just a rare off night.

From the drop of the puck in game two of this mini set between the rival teams, you could tell there was a different type of juice that McDavid and his linemates had separating themselves from the way they played 24 hours prior. Thatcher Demko was forced to start his season kind of similarly to how he ended last season, by robbing the Oilers on two high quality scoring chances off the bat, one by Zack Kassian, and the next on the Oilers Captain. The Canucks were on their heels for much of the first period even if the shot clock didn’t resemble that type of script. The two headed monster of McDavid and Draisaitl was an issue to deal with for two consecutive shifts, often dealing against one of the Canucks less capable defence pairings. Staying out of the box was evidently going to win or lose this game for Vancouver.

With the Canucks on their heels in their own zone, forward Tyler Motte took a highly debatable hooking penalty, sending the Oilers top ranked power play frrom 2020 out for the first time. It was nearly a full two minute shift (and a stunning display of puck possession) by the Oilers top unit. They knew the importance of the first goal and playing from ahead, and that’s what Burnaby native Ryan Nugent-Hopkins was able to provide them on that man advantage, a goal assisted by none other than 29 and 97.

With the Canucks needing a spark and a counterpunch, their power play wasn’t providing any of the above. What McDavid may have been dealing with on opening night may have found its way into Canucks star Elias Pettersson’s game on this night. The young swede appeared to have trouble gaining any traction playing with Jake Virtanen on the top line and was clearly frustrated without his regular lineman Miller.

Where it appears the Canucks may have let their spirits get away was with less than 5 seconds remaining in the first period, a crucial time of the game where you are just looking to get into the locker room down one. Thatcher Demko made a routine save at the periods end, but elected to hold onto the puck and freeze play with 2 seconds left on the clock, rather then play it and let time run out.

Literally the only problem on the planet with doing that, was wearing a #97 Oilers jersey, 2 seconds is the equivalent of half an hour for this guy. Leon Draisaitl won a draw as clean as you possibly can versus often reliable Bo Horvat, (who doesn’t lose many D-zone draws, ever) Kailer Yamamoto let go of a hot shot at the top of the circle which Demko was able to barely stir aside, unfortunately he planted it directly on the stick of McDavid who cleaned up the garbage upstairs at 19:59 of the first period, a draining goal for Vancouver.

 

Coach Travis Green clearly let his presence be felt in between periods, as the lines began to shift and you could tell the Canucks had some more life in their game. Some sustained pressure was able to be built when McDavid and Draisaitl weren’t on the ice, and eventually newcomer Nate Schmidt got Vancouver on the board with a low bomb from the point that slipped through the legs of Mikko Koskinen.

It didn’t take long for the Oilers to snag the momentum back, another absolutely brutal slashing call was made again on Tyler Motte, sending the high powered Oilers back to the power play. Something I have noticed in my annual assessment of Oiler games, is that there is regular, flashy, undress the entire Canucks roster McDavid, and angry to-the-point McDavid, the latter is what stepped over the boards for this certain shift. Not even 30 seconds into the man advantage, the Oilers Captain sped down the right side, backing Canucks defenders up basically into the goal crease, cut in and ripped his patented snap shot into the top left corner over the shoulder of Demko. This goal was a visual example of why you can’t take penalties against the Oilers, if you give that amount of space and time to one of these players, you will pay the price.

By now, it is all but logged as a win for the Oilers, if they were to go on and lose this one, it would call for everyone in Vancouver to buy a lottery ticket. Yet, the Canucks still were clawing as they have now built a reputation of doing. Another new face, Travis Hamonic let go of a low slapper that was able to find the stick of Tyler Motte for a nice deflection, making up for his 4 minutes in minor penalties that resulted in two Oiler goals.

Where the game finally went out of the window for Vancouver was late second, when the top two lines of Edmonton could not be stopped. Nugent-Hopkins fed a nice pass infront of the Canucks net to a wide open McDavid (three words that don’t belong together) who went to the back hand just to be robbed yet again by Demko. This time,McDavid was able to get enough of the puck to poke it past the goal line, extending the lead to 2 goals again, where the Canucks would never recover.

A hat trick for Connor McDavid, making up for his quiet night on his 24th birthday the night before. 4 points for him and his side kick Leon Draisaitl was sure to put the Canucks on notice, as the two teams will face off 8 more times in this short NHL campaign. With the return of JT Miller inching closer, it will be interesting to the see how this Canucks vs Oilers season series plays out, but for now it will be nice to get away from the teams that can beat you on the backs of two cheat-code players.

The Canucks open up a two game set in YYC against some former teammates and the Calgary Flames on Saturday night.

Evan Power, Evolution 107.9

 

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *