Tyler Myers obliterates Trent Frederic with awesome hit, Canucks lose 3-1

First Period

Picking up where he left off against Calgary, Filip Chytil worked toward earning an obscure nickname from the Stanchies with an early setup for Conor Garland.

Some heavy hits and a stretch of back-and-forth inaction later, Demko was tasked with making his first five-alarm save of the evening.

The Canucks’ did well establishing their cycle in the offensive zone early and often, but struggled connecting on the pass for meaningful shots.

A scary shift pinned inside the d-zone against the McDrai line soon gave way to a meaty and impressive shift from Quinn Hughes, Fil Hronek, and the youth movement featuring Braeden Cootes, Jonathan Lekkerimäki, and (relatively young) Drew O’Connor.

For whatever reason, the Canucks’ puck-handling left a lot to be desired. While the zone time was stifling and heavily in their favour, the puck appeared to be treated like a hand grenade by most of the roster, resulting in very little to show for their work.

Midway through the period, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins appeared to draw first blood. Fortunately for Vancouver, the refs (correctly) waved the goal off due to Darnell Nurse having deflected the puck past Demko with a high stick.

Not long after, Connor McDavid—a pretty good player—drew a holding penalty against Derek Forbort, sending Edmonton to the power play.

Adam Foote & Company, still without Teddy Bleuger as their primary PK faceoff guy, began their PK with a forward duo of Aatu Räty and Garland. Räty was huge for Vancouver on the faceoff, and Demko was huge for Vancouver between the pipes. Additionally, Edmonton’s David Tomasek had two tap-in opportunities turned aside by the tie-up efforts of Marcus Pettersson.

Though they killed Forbort’s penalty, it was more of the same for the final ten minutes: Vancouver generating nothing off of their o-zone cycle, and Demko making critical saves.

Like, seriously. This could have been ugly.

Edmonton’s Tomasek drew a high-sticking minor against Evander Kane, sending Edmonton to their second straight power play. Though Vancouver’s PK went two for two in the period, it required a highlight reel save from Demko and a penalty drawn by Räty against Trent Frederic to accomplish.

The Canucks best scoring chance of the period came shorthanded, when Andrew Mangiapane fumbled the puck on a d-zone regroup, nearly throwing the puck past Calvin Pickard’s left skate.

First period takeaways:

• In Demko we trust
• Some impressive o-zone time and some deeply uninspiring results of that o-zone time.
• Elias Pettersson drew the McDavid matchup, yes. Still, not liking how quiet he’s been at 5-on-5 four periods into the season.
• Adam Foote’s first job as “bad cop” should be to tell Evander Kane that he doesn’t have what it takes to stay out for extra-long shifts. In a period where Vancouver spent 3.5 minutes on the PK, in no world should this iteration of Kane finish the frame with the 2nd-highest ice time.

Second Period

The Canucks power play saw a few looks generated by Garland, but little else.

It was pretty well all-Edmonton for the first ten minutes of the middle frame. Nearing the midway point, Lekkerimäki bowled over his check inside the o-zone, which was neat. Lekkerimäki’s efforts sprang the puck out to Cootes, who set up Tyler Myers with a pass from behind the goal line for a one-timer.

Speaking of, Myers kept up his semi-annual tradition of annihilating an Oiler with a body check. This time, Myers stepped up on Trent Frederic at the Canucks’ blue line, flattening the Oiler forward with gusto.

Moments later, Leon Draisaitl drew an interference penalty against Kiefer Sherwood, leading to two minutes of Demko making an early case for the Vezina.

Demko’s otherworldly performance appeared to be getting the goat of the Oilers’ best players. Unfortunately, Edmonton’s Noah Philp broke the shutout streak with the first NHL goal of his career, assisted by Kasperi Kapanen and Vasili Podkolzin.

1-0 Oilers

With 2:30 left in the period, Kane threw a hard hit on Alec Regula from behind, drawing the ire of Darnell Nurse against his former teammate. Both were sent to the box for unsportsmanlike conduct, putting the game at 4-on-4.

If you’re wondering why there is so little “instant reaction” in the second period coverage of this edition of Instant Reaction. Well, it’s because the Canucks didn’t do anything of note. It was the Thatcher Demko show featuring no one.

Sadly, with 22 seconds left in the 4-on-4 and 50 seconds left in the period, Demko gave up his second of the period. Though who could blame him? Absolute no-shows in front of him.

What can Demko do about this giveaway from Chytil?

2-0 Oilers

There aren’t any takeaways from that period beyond Demko doing his best to buoy the lifeless corpse that was this team. Canucks finish the first 40 minutes, outshot 28 to 9.

Third Period

As if Adam Foote spent the entire intermission reading Twitter reactions to the team about their pathetic play through 40 minutes, the Canucks top line of Jake Debrusk, Brock Boeser, and Elias Pettersson responded early with a goal from Boeser to halve Edmonton’s lead.

2-1 Oilers: Brock Boeser from Quinn Hughes and Jake DeBrusk

The primary assist on Boeser’s goal gave Hughes 410 career points, the most by a defenceman in team history.

For the next four or five minutes, the Canucks’ struggled immensely to break the puck out of the d-zone without icing the puck.

By the midway point, Myers threw the puck over the glass in one of those failed attempts to break the puck out of the d-zone, giving Edmonton a third power play opportunity.

As you can probably guess, the highlight of that power play opportunity was a genuinely sensational save from Thatcher Demko on Leon Draisaitl.

With six minutes remaining, Frederic drew a tripping penalty against Chytil, putting Vancouver back on the PK.

Mercifully, Demko was not tasked with stretching his popliteus’s to their physical limits just to keep the Oilers’ lead in check.

With three minutes left in the game, Kane caught Regula with his head down behind Pickard’s net, levelling the defenceman for the second time of the game. The clean hit drew a cross-checking penalty from Noah Philp, putting Vancouver on the power play for just the second time in the game.

Following a brief stoppage, Foote pulled Demko for the 6-on-4. Unfortunately, for the min-maxers watching, Foote rolled out his usual PP1 rotation, and Fil Hronek for the 6-on-4.

Yadda, yadda, yadda. Empty netter for Draisaitl later, and this one was over.

3-1 Oilers

A time out later, and the Canucks fail to make it a win streak, wasting an otherwise immaculate performance from their starting netminder.

Yeesh.

What’s your instant reaction to tonight’s game?