🟦 2023-24 Round 2, West Semi Finals: (P2) Edmonton Oilers at (P1) Vancouver Canucks (EDM WINS 4-3) 🟩

[Tomdog]

8 hours ago, JR Ewing said:

 

Fans are going to have finally come to the realization that, from 2006 on, the salary cap has changed the game. The cap has forced a re-defining of what constitutes a dynasty, has ended the era where every team had enforcer or two or even three, and the salary cap will also mean that some of the greatest players to ever put on a pair of skates will probably not win a Cup. I said it two years ago and say it now: it could very well come to pass that the Oilers trip to the Conference Finals against the Avs may be the furthest they ever go.

 

It's just how it is 

And that will be a shame. 

[FD19372]

Hronek makes it a one-goal game. Great one-timer. 3-2 Oilers.

[JR Ewing]

-Ryan McLeod bailed on contact, coughing up a free GA and then Bouchard pretty carelessly tossed away the puck for an icing that results in a GA.

-Other than that, the score flattered the Canucks who, aside from the last few minutes, didn't get a breath in this game.

-I called it Oilers in six, it went one more.

 

[FD19372]

The story for the Canucks is, (Boeser or no Boeser), you can't get outshot 23-4 halfway through a Game 7 home game, and expect to win. Silovs was the reason they had ANY chance in this game. He was very good. I picked the Oilers in 5.

[JR Ewing]

 

[SaucyJack]

Did Vancouver get any decent chances to tie the game once they cut the lead to 3-2?

 

I ask because my power went out late in Period One.  (Great goaltending on both sides until then.)  Power restored only after the  game was over, and I didn’t want to risk running my phone down 5G-streaming it in case of a lengthy outage.  Damn it all!  Anyway, the NHL app game highlights show nothing of interest after Hronek’s late tally.

[Math]

Personally, I wanted this game #7 to go completely out of control with lots of fights, cheap shots, bruises and all players being banged up after the 12th OT finishing past 7am.

[JR Ewing]

1 hour ago, Math said:

Personally, I wanted this game #7 to go completely out of control with lots of fights, cheap shots, bruises and all players being banged up after the 12th OT finishing past 7am.

 

Thankfully, the Oilers were able to mostly rest McDavid and Draisaitl for games 6 and 7.

 

[SaucyJack]

6 hours ago, SaucyJack said:

the NHL app game highlights show nothing of interest after Hronek’s late tally.

The ESPN game article confirms this, citing a key Oiler timeout after Hronek’s goal.  In particular it cited Holloway, Draisaitl, and Hyman making great defensive plays to prevent any serious chance for Vancouver to score further.  (Hence nothing in the game highlights after the 3-2 goal except for the final seconds expiring.)

 

So much for the thirty-year Rangers-Canucks anniversary reunion.

[JR Ewing]

7 minutes ago, SaucyJack said:

The ESPN game article confirms this, citing a key Oiler timeout after Hronek’s goal.  In particular it cited Holloway, Draisaitl, and Hyman making great defensive plays to prevent any serious chance for Vancouver to score further.  (Hence nothing in the game highlights after the 3-2 goal except for the final seconds expiring.)

 

So much for the thirty-year Rangers-Canucks anniversary reunion.

 

That's right. The Canucks didn't get a shot from that point on.

 

[Tomdog]

Edmonton's defense late in the game looked like they may have finally realized what it takes to win cup.

[JR Ewing]

54 minutes ago, Tomdog said:

Edmonton's defense late in the game looked like they may have finally realized what it takes to win cup.

 

That was pretty much the story all year, even though they don't get a lot of credit for it. Even counting the horror start where Jay Woodcroft employed a strategy which got him fired, they had the 3rd-lowest High Danger Shots Against and the 4th-lowest Expected Goals Against.

 

When it comes to the "what can you create while minimizing what you gave up" portion of the sport, they were terrific: