Less than 24 hours—and a short flight—after what might have been their most emotional victory of the season, the Vancouver Canucks found themselves facing off with Connor McDavid and the Oilers in Rogers Place.

For Sam Gagner, the matchup represented an opportunity for revenge on the franchise that exiled him to the minors. For the Canucks, it meant one of their few remaining opportunities to play a sub-.500 opponent and earn a desperately-needed two points in the Western Conference wildcard race.

Jeff Paterson provided the lineups on Twitter, which included the news that Thatcher Demko would start and that Ben Hutton was out with an apparent foot injury:

Tonight also marked the 800^th game in Alex Edler’s career.

In what might be described as a less-than-ideal start, Derrick Pouliot took a high-sticking penalty 26 seconds into the game. The Oilers’ first—and, really, their only—powerplay unit features Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, and the duo earned a handful of chances on the man advantage but were unable to beat Thatcher Demko. With seven saves in the first five minutes of the period, Demko was already off to a better start than in his last outing.

The good times for Demko did not last—and the bad times for Pouliot kept on rolling. The frequently-embattled defenseman coughed up the puck to Sam Gagner behind his own net under light duress. Gagner then centered to Alex Chiasson for an in-close shot that Demko didn’t have much of a chance on. 1-0 Oilers, and one box checked on Gagner’s vengeance checklist.

Jujhar Khaira received a similar chance on the very next shift, but this time Demko was able to get in front of it. It already looked like it might be a long night for the rookie netminder, with 13 shots against before the period’s halfway point.

In a near “opposite day” kind of occurrence, McDavid took a holding penalty against Jay Beagle, sending the Canucks to their first powerplay of the game. The Boeser- and Horvat-less “top” unit hit the ice first, but were unable to generate much more than a shot on net. Pettersson stayed out with the second unit when they came out and that group—which also featured Troy Stecher and Adam Gaudette—put together numerous chances but couldn’t finish on any of them.

The Canucks would have liked to build on that momentum, but McDavid had other ideas. Immediately after exiting the box, McDavid flew into the Vancouver zone and took a pass from Draisaitl at top speed, easily juking by the Canucks’ defense before saucing the puck to an unchecked Zack Kassian in front. Kassian had blown through Tyler Motte’s coverage and into perfect position for a tap-in. 2-0 Oilers, and two goals featuring ex-Canucks. Also, two goals that couldn’t really be blamed on Demko at all.

To add injury to insult, Kassian proceeded to absolutely crush Ashton Sautner on his next shift—though he also appeared to decline Luke Schenn’s invitation to fight in the aftermath. To even things up, Josh Leivo turned down a bout with Darnell Nurse shortly thereafter. As both teams upped the physicality, it became clear that neither squad was interested in what would be a demoralizing loss for either of them.

As Vancouver started to get their feet under them, they started to test Mikko Koskinen with regularity—and the shots ended up at 18-17 in favour of the Canucks by the end of the period. Leivo led the charge with five shots of his own. The scoreboard, however, remained at 2-0 Oilers. As for the out-of-town scoreboard—

—probably file that one under “less-than-ideal,” too.

Dan Murphy’s passive-aggressive interview with Mark Spector.

“Danny.” “Spector.”

The situation did not improve as the second period began. Just over a minute into the frame, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins dug out the puck along the boards and fed Connor McDavid. The Oilers’ captain circled into the slot with speed before making another perfect tip-pass to an unattended Nugent-Hopkins—completing the extended give-and-go and giving Edmonton a 3-0 lead.

Tanner Pearson earned the Canucks’ best chance yet shortly thereafter, handcuffing Mikko Koskinen with a wrister that rebounded dangerously into the slot—but Bo Horvat was unable to reach it in time.

Nikolay Goldobin and Elias Pettersson did their best Draisaitl/McDavid impression, with Goldobin setting up a streaking Pettersson as he entered the zone. Andrej Sekera had not choice but to trip the shifty Swede, sending Vancouver to their second powerplay of the game.

The man advantage would be a brief one, however, as Zack Kassian quickly broke away shorthanded, forcing Troy Stecher to grab him by the arm and negate the powerplay 38 seconds in. Neither team scored during the four-on-four action, and the Oilers were unable to convert on their own brief opportunity.

As Vancouver struggled to generate offense, the efforts of two forwards in particular stood out. Josh Leivo continued to take charge offensively, leading a four-on-two that was broken up by a Brock Boeser giveaway. Nikolay Goldobin, on the other hand, set up a number of nice plays that went nowhere once they hit the sticks of his teammates.

Antoine Roussel, meanwhile, tried to get the squad going in his own way—by going after McDavid post-whistle and drawing the ire of Kassian.

With just a minute-and-a-half remaining in the middle frame, it would be Jay Beagle who finally got the Canucks going with the tap-in of all tap-ins. After Mikko Koskinen let a soft Boeser shot trickle through his pads, Beagle was left all alone with the puck literally waiting for him on the goal-line. For Beagle—wearing the “A” on his chest tonight—it was his first goal in 21 games.

Beagle remained unimpressed with himself:

The period ended with the score at 3-1—but not before McDavid had a clean breakaway with 20 seconds remaining that was turned away by a well-positioned Demko. It was Demko’s 30^th shot against.

The out-of-town scoreboard was also stacked against the Canucks:

Sven Baertschi’s confusing joke (?) about “Netflix and…sweatpants, I guess.”

The start of the third period went significantly better for the Canucks than the previous two, with no major chances against in the first few minutes and Connor McDavid taking the worst of a collision between he and Brock Boeser.

Some solid pressure applied by the Ashton Sautner-Luke Schenn pairing produced a couple of chances and an Oscar Klefbom penalty for holding Josh Leivo. Once again, Newell Brown threw his powerplay units in the blender—producing a top unit of Bo Horvat, Adam Gaudette, Markus Granlund, Nikolay Goldobin, and Alex Edler. This island of misfit toys managed multiple chances that Mikko Koskinen denied.

The second unit of Edler, Boeser, Elias Pettersson, Tanner Pearson, and Josh Leivo kept on the pressure, and the end result a long shot from Edler drifting past Koskinen shortly after Klefbom returned to the ice. Leivo and Horvat provided the double-screen, though some light contact from Horvat on Koskinen led the Oilers to unsuccessfully challenge the goal. The score was 3-2 with a little under 13 minutes remaining. Boeser and Pettersson picked up the assists, ending a four-game pointless drought for Pettersson.

A Derrick Pouliot giveaway at the blueline resulted in an Edmonton two-on-one that threatened to bury the Canucks, but Thatcher Demko stretched out to make a dazzling toe save on Leon Draisaitl. Vancouver lugged the puck back up the ice and Tyler Motte tipped the puck past Koskinen—but not the crossbar. The final frame looked poised for a firewagon finish, with the Canucks looking to make a two-goal comeback in the third period for a second consecutive game.

After the second TV timeout, Draisaitl sent Pettersson to the ice with a can-opener and went to the box for the Canucks’ fourth powerplay of the game. This time, the big boys came out right away and began firing away at Koskinen without success. Unfortunately, as the second unit came out, Vancouver was caught with too many men on the ice, negating their man advantage less than a minute in. The infraction appeared to be the result of Boeser neglecting to come off the ice.

Despite some confusion at the benches that caused an odd-man rush against Demko, the Oilers were unable to score during the brief powerplay that followed the stint of four-on-four, and the Canucks got back to the business of tying the game with five minutes remaining.

Travis Green pulled Demko later than he would have liked thanks to the Canucks’ inability to exit their zone. Vancouver went 6-4 with just over a minute remaining, but soon found themselves right back in their own end. Draisaitl hit the post on an attempt at the empty cage, giving the Canucks one last burst of hope—but Vancouver was unable to get a single shot on net with Demko on the bench, and the game remained untied.   

If there’s such a thing as a “must-win” game, this one probably qualified as a “can’t-lose.” The Canucks don’t have many games left against sub-.500 games, and the two points they could have earned against the Oilers were absolutely vital to their dwindling playoff hopes.

Sure, the Canucks made a valiant effort to come back—but they also put themselves in the position of being down 3-0 in the first place, and that’s simply not going to cut it if the squad wants to make it to the postseason.

With the loss—and with wins for the Minnesota Wild, Dallas Stars, and Arizona Coyotes tonight—the Canucks now sit nine points back of the last wildcard spot in the Western Conference with a scant 15 games remaining. The victory actually vaulted the Oilers—and the Blackhawks—past Vancouver in the standings, leaving the Canucks third from the bottom in the conference.

In other words, it was a big loss for the Canucks—and a big win for #TeamTank. 

Leivo led the team in shots with six, played nearly 20 minutes, and set one of the screens on Alex Edler’s goal. At times, he seemed like the only Canuck capable of driving any offense—and one of the few that consistently played like he knew it was an important game.

Goldobin’s playmaking skills were on full display tonight—even if his teammates weren’t feeling up to finishing any of those plays. Goldobin routinely dished the puck to teammates in dangerous areas despite being bounced around a couple of lines. Goldobin’s ice-time of 16:28 was fifth most among forwards.

Edler was all over the statsheet tonight. He scored a goal, had five shots on net, four hits, four blocks, and a takeaway. He also played an astounding 29:25, with more than five-and-a-half minutes of special teams time. With Ben Hutton out, the load Edler has to carry on the left side of the blueline is enormous.

The Canucks head back home face the Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday, March 9. The star-time is 7:00PM PST and the game will be broadcast on both CBC and Sportsnet Pacific.