GAME RECAP: Oilers 3, Canucks 2 (Preseason - SO)

EDMONTON, AB – The Edmonton Oilers squeaked past the Vancouver Canucks in the shootout on Monday night with a 3-2 victory at Rogers Place in their final home game of the preseason.

After Corey Perry and Ben Gleason found the scoresheet in the third period, the Oilers and Canucks blanked in overtime before heading to the shootout, where Leon Draisaitl's slap shot in Round 2 and Viktor Arvidsson's backhand finish on goaltender Kevin Lankinen in Round 3 secured the Blue & Orange the pre-season win over their Pacific Division rivals.

Goaltender Stuart Skinner marked his second pre-season appearance by stopping 21 of 23 shots in the victory, while captain Connor McDavid contributed assists on both Oilers' tallies in the final frame.

"I thought we wanted to get our battle level up," McDavid said. "Obviously, not the most experienced NHL lineup over there, but I thought they battled hard. They played well and we were trying to get some bumps in and win some battles, and it gets yourself going a little bit."

The Blue & Orange have two pre-season contests remaining in Seattle (Wednesday) and Vancouver (Friday) before they face Winnipeg in their 2024-25 season opener at Rogers Place on Oct. 9.

"I feel like there are still some things we want to iron out as a group and I think everybody has another level they can get to," McDavid said. "Hopefully, we'll get there this week."

FIRST PERIOD

The Oilers and Canucks played to a scoreless first period on Monday that began with the Blue & Orange's new-look line of Skinner, Draisaitl and Arvidsson heading up the ice up on their first rush of the preseason. The trio nearly orchestrated a nice tic-tac-toe for Arvidsson to finish off in the right circle, but Draisaitl's no-look backhand pass from just outside the blue paint missed the stick of his new Swedish linemate.

"During the first shift, I was thinking it was going to be an outstanding night for those three," Knoblauch said. "They moved the puck up really nicely and entered the zone, and they just missed on a really good quality scoring chance.

"I think maybe they were just getting used to each other and I thought they had some good chances. Probably not as many as you would expect in a game like tonight, but it was a good first step."

The line combinations didn't matter near the 13-minute mark when Josh Brown and Phillip Di Giuseppe traded penalties to give Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl a twirl at four-on-four, but the Oilers' best scoring chance came on the power play just before the period's midway mark after Draisaitl found Arvidsson in between the hash marks for a turnaround one-timer that Kevin Lankinen pushed aside to keep it scoreless.

Goaltender Stuart Skinner continues to round into regular-season form after making seven first-period saves for the Oilers, including a blind sprawling stop where the starter lunged across the crease and got to Ty Mueller's effort from the left circle that was set up with a sweet cross-ice feed from Nate Smith.

The Oilers held a slim 8-7 shot advantage through a scoreless opening 20 minutes.

SECOND PERIOD

This time, Skinner couldn't slide across and prevent the Canucks from taking a one-goal lead on the power play at 14:07 of the middle frame.

Forward Drake Caggiula was assessed a holding penalty against Mark Friedman that led to last season's top-two scorer for the AHL's Abbotsford Canucks letting go of a quick wrist shot from the left circle that eluded the blocker of Skinner as he lunged across the crease, giving the Canucks a 1-0 lead.

Bains played eight NHL games for the Canucks in 2023-24 and is expected to play a much bigger role this season for Edmonton's rivals from the West Coast.

The Oilers managed seven more shots in the second period, with their best opportunity to equalize coming on a breakaway for forward Corey Perry, who accepted a two-line stretch pass McDavid at 10:39 of the frame before he lost the handle on the puck as he tried to sneak it back around Lankinen's right pad.

THIRD PERIOD

Remember that nifty move from Perry late in the middle stanza that just lacked the finish?

This time, the 39-year-old put it all together to come up with the game-tying goal early in the third period – including McDavid delivering another terrific pass to the veteran to make the play happen.

The Oilers captain dropped a reverse pass in the left circle to Perry to pull a defender with him, opening up space for Perry to dangle his way across the goal line and through the blue paint before he slid his sublime equalizer past the left pad of Lankinen at the far post to make it 1-1 with over 15 minutes left in the third period.

It wasn't long after when Perry dropped his mitts in defence of McDavid, taking an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty in the process after trying to pull forward Pius Suter away from his captain as he became wrapped up with two Canucks near the top of the circles in Vancouver's own zone.

" I don't think he said anything, but there's another guy there pretty quick," Perry said. "But he's our captain, our star and star in this league, and I didn't appreciate what was going on."

The Oilers found themselves on the power play near the 10-minute mark of the final frame, where defenceman Ben Gleason took his time at the top of the left circle to pick his spot under the glove of Lankinen for a short-lived 2-1 lead.

"We've trusted him with a lot of responsibilities," Knoblauch said. "I think he's an exceptional puck mover. His strengths are moving the puck, whether it's on the breakout, finding the wingers to get it to, or getting a shot on net like tonight on the power play.

"Being able to sift that through the traffic, I think for him to play well, that's part of his game. Another one is that maybe he's not as big and quick as some other guys, but I think he's a smart player who can read the play and get to spots to break up what the opposition is doing."

Just 19 seconds later, Nate Smith got the goal back for the Canucks with the deflection from the right circle on Kirill Kudryavtsev's waist-high effort that evaded Skinner's gear to make it 2-2.

Despite almost half a period left, we were bound for overtime.

OVERTIME & SHOOTOUT

The Oilers had multiple looks on odd-man rushes to settle the contest, but the Canucks had the best chance to win it in overtime on the stick of Daniel Sprong, who tried to slide it through the mayhem around Edmonton's crease while Stuart Skinner was retreating from no man's land after he kicked away two chances for the Vancouver forward.

In the end, the shootout was the only solution.

After both McDavid and Lekkerimaki missed in Round 1, Draisaitl was the first to find twine with a ridiculous slapshot from between the circles that he tucked under the crossbar to put the onus on the Canucks to score. We've seen the German try the move a few times over his career, but seeing him pull it off brought Coach Knoblauch back to his days behind the Philadelphia Flyers' bench as an assistant coach.

"I should've seen that when I was coaching in Philadelphia – Claude Giroux would do that too," Knoblauch said. "It takes a heck of a shot and a lot of confidence to make that, and obviously, he had a great shot and put it in a great location. It freezes the goalies because they can't really overplay that shot, because if they do, then they know the deke's coming.

"It's a nice play, but you need the courage to do it."

Sprong was stopped by Skinner on Vancouver's next attempt, leading to Arvidsson ending the game in the third round of the shootout by outwaiting Lankinen and tucking a backhand into the empty cage beyond the sprawled-out Canucks' netminder.

Final score: Oilers 3, Canucks 2.