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The Tape: Breaking down Max Sasson’s strong game line-matched against Connor McDavid

Photo credit: Perry Nelson-Imagn Images

By Lachlan Irvine

Sep 30, 2026, 18:00 EDTUpdated: Sep 30, 2026, 17:13 EDT

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There was no shortage of heroes in the Vancouver Canucks’ season-opening 6-5 win over the Edmonton Oilers.

Paul Cotter scored twice, including the overtime winner. Elias Pettersson and Jonathan Lekkerimäki got on the board with crucial goals. And Kevin Lankinen stood on his head for 50 minutes, finishing with 32 saves despite the scoreline not doing his performance justice.

But rather quietly, the Canucks player with the biggest assignment who passed with flying colours was Max Sasson.

Max Sasson played 16:37 against the Oilers on Wednesday, and with the last change, Edmonton seemed determined to match Connor McDavid up against him. But that proved to be a poor choice; McDavid was held to just two assists, while Sasson scored a goal and had the primary assist on Paul Cotter’s overtime winner.

Sasson’s line with Drew O’Connor and Linus Karlsson started the hockey game with the McDavid line waiting for them. Sasson wound up winning just four of his 14 faceoffs on the night, but he won the opening draw cleanly.

The M.O. for Sasson and the Canucks when handling McDavid in the defensive zone was pretty clear right away. The aim was to use at least two players backchecking to steer McDavid into the side boards and isolate him from teammates, a system the Florida Panthers used quite successfully in their back-to-back Stanley Cup Finals against the Oilers.

Early in the game, we see this plan in motion. As Jamie Oleksiak bowls over Zach Hyman and McDavid tries to take the puck with Brendan Gallagher trailing, Sasson closes in and forces him to poke the puck to Alex Formenton.

A few minutes later, Formenton and McDavid attempt a give-and-go at the Canucks blue line. Jamie Oleksiak funnels McDavid to the wall, and Sasson hustles to close off the back door passing lane as McDavid’s options dwindle. Sasson gets right in the way and kills any Oilers scoring chance.

When McDavid wasn’t on the ice, Sasson still used his speed and aggression to disrupt Edmonton’s flow. Late in the first, Sasson steps up as the Oilers regroup with three Edmonton jerseys surrounding him. Sasson zeroes in on the puck carrier, Connor Murphy, and forces a bad pass that Colton Dach can only deflect into the Canucks zone.

In the second period, you can see the disruptions Sasson is causing start to flummox the Oilers a bit. Here McDavid tries a desperate chip up to Bouchard, but Sasson reads it and quickly gets in the way of the Oilers defender, forcing the puck out of the zone.

In the third period, Sasson lets his linemates work their magic against McDavid as he hovers to protect the middle of the ice. Three Canucks – Buium, O’Connor and Karlsson – all swarm McDavid and force a turnover. Karlsson sends O’Connor and Sasson on the rush; both Oilers defenders try to cut off O’Connor, which leaves Sasson all the open ice he needs to receive the pass and slide the puck through the wickets of Tristan Jarry.

That’s not to say everything went perfectly for Sasson and wrong for McDavid. McDavid’s first assist on Evan Bouchard’s second goal came moments after Sasson had hopped off for a line change. And in the third period, a defensive zone faceoff McDavid won back to Bouchard was quickly whipped into the net through traffic while Sasson tied up the Oilers captain’s stick.

But when the dust settled after a chaotic game, the numbers finished in favour of the Canucks’ third line centre. According to Natural Stat Trick, in the 10:48 of ice time Sasson and McDavid shared, the Chances For numbers were 13-8 in favour of McDavid, while the Expected Goals percentages finished with 0.44 for Sasson and 0.28 for McDavid.

Perhaps that’s why in overtime, head coach Manny Malhotra played a hunch and sent out Sasson and Cotter for a three-on-three shift. These two players had spent less than 30 seconds on the ice together at even strength, but they enter the zone and immediately put together passing play that might’ve wound up in the net had the puck not hopped over Cotter’s stick. Something is brewing.

As the Oilers try to turn the play the other way, Cotter immediately hounds Ryan Shea into a giveaway that Sasson pounces on. Zach Hyman tries to cover him off as Sasson takes the puck toward the boards, but Sasson catches a glimpse of Cotter escaping his check and throws a perfect back pass to his streaking teammate — game, set and match.

There’s a whole lot of season left to go, but if Sasson keeps putting up well-rounded performances as he did in Game 1, he has the opportunity to brand himself as a star killer.

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