What the Canucks and Oilers need to do better in game 2 ft. Tyler Yaremchuk: Canucks Conversation
2 months ago
On today’s episode of Canucks Conversation, David Quadrelli and Harman Dayal were joined by OilersNation’s Tyler Yaremchuk for some pre-game insights from an Oilers fan’s perspective.
Tyler reflected on game 1, acknowledging that despite the Oilers leading 4-1, their performance wasn’t at its best. “When they were up four-one, I was thinking, ‘wow, the Oilers don’t look that good. If they can win this one with this ‘C’ effort and be a little better in game two, they could very easily steal both of these.’ Of course, it all came crashing down, and the Canucks mounted that great comeback. The Oilers didn’t have a shot for almost twenty-five minutes. That was their C+ effort, to be kind; they have a lot of areas to improve on tonight. If both these teams are at their A+, I think Edmonton wins, so it’s on Edmonton to bring their best and not shoot themselves in the foot tonight.”
When it comes to Stuart Skinner, Tyler isn’t too concerned about the Oilers netminder. “(Skinner) has bounced back nicely already in these playoffs, going back to the regular season, he had a lot of good bounce-back starts,” he said. “One thing I’ve been impressed with this year is the mental side of it. There were a lot of games where Skinner would give up an early one and then (be) lights out the rest of the way. I love his mental processing and the way he works through adversity. It was weird to see him in this last game take the bad penalty and mentally spiral; (he) gave up the bad goal to Garland, and the one to Miller I think should’ve been stopped. I think he’ll bounce back; he’s a strong mental goalie.”
Tyler didn’t hold back in his assessment of Oilers’ defensemen Darnell Nurse and Cody Ceci after their rough game 1. “They stink,” he said. “Cody Ceci is not good. They tried to upgrade on him at the deadline and make the deal for Tanev, (but) couldn’t do it. It’s been three playoff runs of Cody Ceci not being good when it matters most… For whatever reason, Jay Woodcroft and Chris Knoblauch are stubborn and won’t move off of it, and I don’t get it. If I listed the things that could sink the Oilers in this series, Nurse and Ceci (are) at the top of the list.”
The importance of denying McDavid time and space cannot be understated for the Canucks, and Tyler explained how the Oilers can better utilize his abilities. “Getting the puck on his stick early, and the Canucks did a really good job of staying attached to his hip and not letting him gain speed through the neutral zone, that kills a lot of his chances. You want to attack him early. The longer McDavid has the puck on his stick, you’re just giving him more time to find that perfect seam that he’s searching for. The Canucks did a good job of getting on him early, and the Oilers defencemen need to do a better job of putting the puck on his stick when they’re coming out of the defensive zone. It’s all about puck control and possession for Connor McDavid, that’s where he thrives. I think he’ll get that going tonight; he doesn’t have back-to-back bad games all that often.”
Tyler praised the Canucks’ ability to capitalize on momentum shifts “The Canucks smelled blood in the water,” He said. “Even the Zadorov goal; you’ve got Edmonton reeling, (so) hammer pucks on net, you could tell Skinner was rattled. Vancouver did a really good job of turning a little bit of momentum into a lot of momentum. I give them full credit for the way they played, even keeping their foot down after they got the lead. Shutting down McDavid was massive, (being) opportunistic with their chances was huge, and when they got the lead they didn’t sit back and defend it, and I think that frustrated the Oilers.”
You can watch the full segment below:
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