The Coaches Room is a regular feature throughout the 2023-24 season by former NHL coaches and assistants who turn their critical gaze to the game and explain it through the lens of a teacher. In this edition, Davis Payne, former coach of the St. Louis Blues and assistant with the Los Angeles Kings, Buffalo Sabres and Ottawa Senators, writes about the upcoming Western Conference Second Round series between the Vancouver Canucks and the Edmonton Oilers.
The Western Conference Second Round between the Vancouver Canucks and the Edmonton Oilers, which begins with Game 1 on Wednesday (10 p.m. ET; CBC, TVAS, SN, SN360, ESPN), is going to be a very interesting matchup to watch.
Each team’s focus is sharp right now after Vancouver defeated the Nashville Predators in the first round and Edmonton defeated the Los Angeles Kings. They know their opponent, so it’s going to be the sort of games within the game that is going to make the difference.
For the Canucks to get through this, they’ll need to slow down the Oilers’ two-headed monster of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. It’s going to be a different series for the Canucks. After playing a Predators team that was content to check tight and wait for its opportunities, they will have to adjust to a much higher pace coming at them.
Against the Oilers, they’ll face players who a lot of times are difficult to check 1-on-1, so their team structure is going to have to be very effective through the neutral zone to slow that down.
The Canucks play the first two games at home, so they’ll need to figure out which defense pair to put out against McDavid. Is it the Carson Soucy-Tyler Myers pair or the Quinn Hughes-Filip Hronek pair, who can defend very well, but are also part of igniting the offense?
It’s also going to be a much different series than the Oilers faced in the first round. The Kings were fine with sitting in their structure and forcing a puck into their zone and kind of working their way through a breakout into the offensive zone. Vancouver is going to check with a little more pressure, a little more denial on the entries.
Then, from their own zone, the Canucks will come at you. Their wingers are going to push, and they’ve got a lot of skill up front that can execute and make plays. So it will probably be a little bit different speed and a little bit different size.
Not that Edmonton can’t play that game, but it’s going to be a different strength that it will have to take away from Vancouver.
Discipline is going to be a huge factor early on the series. Everybody has their emotions up, so the Canucks’ penalty kill and how they approach the Oilers’ power play, which was 9-for-20 (45 percent) in the first round and has been one of the top power plays in the League for a few years, is going to be important.
Edmonton runs different sets against Vancouver’s penalty kill. The Canucks are going to hold a lot of the ice to the inside. The shot coming from Oilers defenseman Evan Bouchard at the point is going to be an important part for their power play, and it will be interesting to see how Vancouver deals with the threat coming from the puck at the net from the outside.
Edmonton forward Zach Hyman is a real good player in and around the net, and the Canucks will have to make a decision: Do they give space, or do they pressure? I would feel the Canucks would be more apt to hold the inside ice and force the Oilers to beat them from the outside.
Shot lanes are going to be critical for Vancouver. At the same time, how do you end up with bodies and numbers at the net when the puck hits your goaltender? That’s going to be a real key.
A lot of teams look at Edmonton’s power play and try to run their structure. What you don’t realize is how well the Oilers track down pucks and extend their zone time. The Canucks are going to need to be quick to pucks and they’re going to have to be really firm on first-chance opportunities to clear the puck.
Otherwise, two or three good clean possessions inside the zone usually add up to trouble for any opponent.
I see this as a series of how well you can defend through the neutral zone and how well you can attack off the rush, because both teams are very good rush teams. The Canucks are an excellent rush team.
Their numbers in terms of successful plays and their scoring percentages off the rush are very, very high.
It’s going to be a real counterpunch series and the counterpunches are going to come in knockout punches if you make a mistake with the puck.
Vancouver’s Thatcher Demko, a finalist for the Vezina Trophy as the NHL’s best goalie this season, will remain out for at least the beginning of the series with an injury, so it will be interesting to see how Arturs Silovs plays. The 23-year-old rookie got the job done against the Predators, but there are other elements coming at you with the Oilers.
There’s an element that makes that next pass. There’s an element that makes that seam play, the passes across the middle, the passes to the back post where you’re relying on coverage. Those are going to be critical for a young goaltender.
At the same time, you see it a lot of times when you throw a kid into the fire and all the sudden, they show up on the scene and do something extraordinary. This kid seems to have that ability with his attitude.
Secondary scoring is going to be very important in this series. Vancouver has guys like J.T. Miller, Brock Boeser and Elias Pettersson, who can be as dynamic and match up offensively against the McDavids and Draisaitls and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins’. It’s going to be real important for Vancouver to get contributions from the Elias Lindholms and Conor Garlands and Sam Laffertys. The guys at the bottom end of the lineup, can they gain an edge there?
This is why you see guys who become playoff heroes coming from different spots in your lineup because that’s how tight the margins are. Is that going to come from the Edmonton group, or is it going to come from the Vancouver group?
