The 4-1 lead has claimed yet another victim in the NHL playoffs as the Edmonton Oilers dropped Game 1 of their second-round series against the Vancouver Canucks after being up 4-1 late in the second period. However, the story of the game was not just Vancouver’s late-game heroics, but also their defensive system that shut down Edmonton in the final 30 minutes of the game. That system will be Vancouver’s biggest advantage and if they win this series, it will be the biggest factor.
Canucks’ Defence Can Win This Series
Letting in four goals doesn’t look good from a defensive standpoint, especially allowing multiple first-period goals. But the Canucks defensive structure throughout the playoffs has been their biggest strength and it was on full display in the final half of Game 1. Vancouver held Edmonton to 19 shots and did not allow Connor McDavid to record a single shot on goal, the first time that has even happened in McDavid’s playoff career.
Related: Canucks Perform Epic Game 1 Comeback vs. Oilers, Win 5-4
The Oilers’ vaunted offence was completely shut down in the third period and was only able to record three shots. Even when the Oilers were trailing after the Conor Garland goal, Vancouver was still able to subdue their attack and make life easy for rookie goaltender Arturs Silovs. With a Defence like that, you can beat anyone.
Vancouver should expect Edmonton to have a bounce-back game after an embarrassing blown lead on Wednesday night. Edmonton is capable of having an offensive explosion with the firepower of McDavid, Zach Hyman, Evander Kane, and Leon Draisaitl (who left the game and was reported to be having cramps according to head coach Kris Knoblauch. That core group of players will be looking to bounce back after only being able to muster 19 shots against a rookie goaltender so the Canucks will need to be prepared for those assassins on the Edmonton front lines. If Vancouver can suppress their attack for a second-straight game, Edmonton may be in more trouble than they realized.
How Does Vancouver Sustain Their Structure?
It’s easy to say the classic line of “stick to the basics” but if Vancouver plans on sticking with the defensive structure they had in Game 1, that’s all they need to do. The team has bought into the system head coach Rick Tocchet has put in place for them all season and has been very successful with it. The club won the first-round series versus the Nashville Predators series by simply playing that way, and if if it ain’t broke, don’t try to fix it because you will lose if you do.
Where Vancouver has thrived this season and in the playoffs has been their ability to make games boring. They do a fantastic job of clogging up the neutral zone to force turnovers and prevent their opposition from gaining the zone with speed. Vancouver also has thrived in their zone where they can block shots in front of their goalie, keep their opposing offences near the side boards, and prevent them from cutting into the slot to create high-danger opportunities. The Canucks did that to Edmonton in the last half of the game and turned Edmonton into a completely different team.
What great teams will do is force opponents into a state of discomfort in the playoffs where they change their game plan and become a completely different team than they were in the regular season. The Oilers were on their heels the entire second half of a game they were winning, when they should have been in cruise control and able to ride their hot start to a commanding win. However, Vancouver’s resilient effort forced Edmonton to become an unrecognizable team and that was their undoing.
Vancouver still has a lot of work left to do if they want to win this series, but if they can stick to the defensive system that they showed in the last half of Game 1, they will be able to frustrate the Oilers and could come out of this series as the victor.