Postgame: Canucks’ depth shines in massive 3-1 win over Edmonton

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Last night felt different around the NHL and its not hard to see why: It was the last Saturday night of the regular season. The playoff bubble teams in the East are all fighting to the nail to make the playoffs, while in the west, it’s settled; we know who the eight teams will be. But, that’s not to say there aren’t any stories to be told regarding the Western Conference playoff landscape: In fact, last night’s late game was one that I have had circled on my calendar since the start of the season.

Canucks vs Oilers is always a great matchup, but this year is different; both teams are contenders at the same time, which is something I hadn’t previously seen in my life, up to this point. I think it’s, honestly, really cool tha- okay, enough of this: The Canucks owned the Oilers like they did in October and November, asserting themselves as the real top dog in the Pacific Division.

Take a breath, Vancouver. It seems as though the Canucks are going to win the Pacific Division for the first time in franchise history. They had to beat the Oilers in order to clinch the division, without actually clinching the division; so, let’s talk about how the Canucks were able to fend off the best possession team in the NHL.

A two-game reset was perfect

Casey DeSmith hasn’t had it easy ever since that dreadful 10-7 game against the Minnesota Wild in mid February. After Thatcher Demko left a game early on March 9th – effectively putting him out of the lineup for over a month – DeSmith was tasked with the starter’s net and the results have been mixed.

None of that matters anymore, though: DeSmith was absolutely lights out against the Oilers on Saturday, stopping 32 shots and allowing just one goal – which came off a double deflection directly in front of the net.

The American netminder finished the night with a .970 SV% and a 2.94 GSAx; a great performance from a bottom-of-the-lineup piece, something the Canucks haven’t had a great deal of over the last several weeks.

Ian Clarke is the best goalie coach in the world, by the way.

The top guys weren’t the top guys

…And how dare they.

This game was a complete heel turn to the win vs Vegas on Monday night, where the Canucks’ best players carried them to a comeback win against a formidable foe. This time, it was the depth guys who came up huge.

Sam Lafferty scored his first goal since March 25th, and it was oddly similar to another one he scored against, well, Edmonton.

Lafferty had such a crazy good start during the Canucks’ PDO run of dreams to start the season, but has since cooled back down to his usual form: A speedy, physical, low-end third liner who doubles as an incredibly solid fourth line defensive piece. Even still, there’s a lot of value in a guy like Lafferty playing fourth line minutes and tonight was a great indicator as to why. He’s a sneakily snarly player that can occasionally chip in offensively.

You know who else hasn’t scored in a minute? Pius Suter. Despite some growing frustrated with Suter’s lack of production in the last month or two, Suter provides enough value as a middle six, two-way ace that can play with anyone on any line and provide similar production and underlying results.

After an incredibly poised play in transition from Tyler Myers, Suter redirects the puck past Stuart Skinner to give the Canucks a two-goal cushion in the second frame.

It was nice to see the depth carry the Canucks to a win; it was reminiscent of a win we would’ve typically seen in November or December during the PDO run of dreams. The Canucks are no longer PDO merchants, they’re a true contender, and they’ll need more nights like these from the bottom of their lineup if they want to get to June.

I also think it’s really impressive that Quinn Hughes and Filip Hronek lost their matchup and the Canucks still won the game. It’s rare for the top pair to not win their matchup, let alone get caved; and the Canucks don’t typically win those games, making tonight another statement as to why they should be taken seriously as a true, top-end team in the NHL.

Lineup decisions were razor sharp

Although the top guys ghosted, I really liked what I saw throughout most of last night’s game, in general. When the lineup was announced, I took a look to see what the mindset must’ve been for Tocchet and his coaching staff to match Edmonton’s high flying, possession based style.

What I found was that these line combos all had good possession numbers prior to last night’s game, at least adjacently for some.

I know that the Canucks front office needs to acquire more firepower to play alongside of Elias Pettersson, but I have generally liked what I’ve seen with him and Nils Höglander on the same line. Adding Ilya Mikheyev on the right wing was another solid shout, as he’s proven to both produce and drive play when flanking Pettersson.

Suter – Miller – Boeser is, by the raw data, the Canucks’ best possession line. In 183 minutes played, that line has a 65.2 xGF%; and although it’s a small sample size, I genuinely think that Suter’s defensive acumen fits well with Miller, giving the power forward more free reign to be the line’s top offensive driver.

Then there was the third line of Joshua – Lindholm – Garland. Going into this game, I was curious to see if this would end up being the line to matchup against Leon Draisaitl: It was, and the third line somehow managed to limit Draisaitl’s line to just two high danger chances in the head-to-head matchup.

It doesn’t matter how you deploy them or who you put with them, Joshua and Garland drive play no matter what; but I’d like to give Elias Lindholm his flowers because I think he’s starting to come alive a little bit here. His performance against Arizona was noticeable for his reps on the penalty kill, where he was anticipatorily tenacious in his approach and was rewarded as such with praise from the fanbase and media. Last night vs Edmonton was just more of that same type of game, just with more offensive flashes and stronger underlying’s at even strength.

I hope the points start coming for Lindholm; it would be a cool story for him to bring back some contractual value for himself after flaming out to start his Canucks tenure.

So, it looks like the Pacific Division belongs to the Canucks, meaning they’re most-likely to face Nashville in round one. Vancouver matches up against them well and I would much rather them play the Predators over the Kings – and this is coming from a pure entertainment perspective, I don’t want to sit through a seven-game series of 1-3-1 hockey.

It’s been one heck of a season for the Canucks and there’s only two more games to be played: Calgary on Tuesday and Winnipeg on Thursday. This has been, in my mind, the most fun season of Canucks hockey I have ever watched. The Benning era is far away and greener pastures are ahead. It’s good to be a fan of this team again.

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