Oilers Look To Keep Winning Against Rangers

When the Edmonton Oilers (4th) and Vancouver Canucks (32nd) met, expectations were vastly different on either side. Edmonton was expected to take care of business convincingly. Reinforcing why its 11-3-3 start had established the club as a Stanley Cup contender.

It’s still early November, and no team is winning a championship this time of year. But Edmonton head coach Mike Babcock has made his expectations clear. He wants his team playing with the same urgency, discipline, and intensity now as it would in June.

For the Vancouver Canucks, they entered Saturday with just three wins. They are flirting with the possibility of having one of the worst seasons in NHL history. Expectations for them were understandably modest. The priority was simply to remain competitive, show some fight and, perhaps, find a few positives to build on moving forward.

Two nights after being routed 6-2 in Winnipeg, the Canucks responded. Edmonton, meanwhile, remains a work in progress. The Oilers avoided their first three-game losing streak of the season. They secured a 4-2 victory at Rogers Place on Saturday night, but the performance was far from convincing.

Oilers Lacked Its Best Effort

Despite jumping out to an early lead, the Edmonton Oilers found themselves tied 1-1 with Vancouver after 40 minutes, following a lacklustre second period. Breaking the game open required a fortunate rebound finished off by Jason Dickinson, a spectacular, no-look-calibre setup from Connor McDavid to Leon Draisaitl, and several timely, high-quality saves from Devon Levi.

Babcock admitted that Edmonton was far from their best, particularly during the final four minutes of the opening period and throughout the second. Still, he believed the difficult stretch could ultimately serve as a valuable learning experience for the team.

“This is what I expected tonight,” he said. “I knew (Canucks coach) Manny (Malhotra) would have them ready and competing really hard. I’d like to beat them 6-0, but the reality is this was way better for us, and it was way better that they pushed back and we had to stick to doing it right instead of getting all over the place and turning pucks over. And I thought we did that at the start of the third to get ourselves to a 3-1 lead.”

Despite holding the league’s third-best record Sunday, Edmonton continues to show familiar flaws. They’ve leaned heavily on an 18-game surge from their stars, and Saturday was no different, with McDavid, Draisaitl and Bouchard each logging at least 24 minutes to carry the load.

Edmonton (12-3-3) will host the New York Rangers (10-7-1) on Monday night at Rogers Place.