Vancouver Canucks gameday: A meeting with Connor McDavid’s Oilers

The short holiday break is over, and the Vancouver Canucks are back to work tonight. Can they pull off a road win against Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers? Here’s what to know for gameday.

The Vancouver Canucks surely enjoyed their five-day break between games, but now it’s back to business as they visit the rejuvenated Edmonton Oilers.

Connor McDavid and co. have been surging hot since hiring Ken Hitchcock as their new head coach in November. Despite losing three games in a row, the Oilers sit a respectable 9-5-2 since Hitchcock was brought on to replace Todd McLellan.

The first meeting between these western Canadian rivals took place just over a week ago on Dec. 20, a 4-2 Vancouver victory. Today will mark the second of four meetings between the Canucks and Oilers this season.

For those of you who still believe the Canucks are capable of making the playoffs, you don’t need to be reminded about the importance of this specific game. Vancouver sits one point behind Edmonton for the final playoff spot in the West, but the Oilers have three games in hand. Is it too early to call this a “must-win,” even if we’re only in December?

Both the Canucks and Oilers aren’t so great when it comes to the special teams units. They rank 15th and 19th in power play percentage at 20.5 and 18.3, respectively. The Canucks have a slight edge in the penalty killing department (78.9 percent, 19th in the NHL), compared to Edmonton’s awful 75.6 percent — fourth-worst in the league.

But the these two teams, dare I say, are quite similar in many ways. They’re carried solely by a group of young stars, lack secondary scoring, leave a lot to be desired on defence and are still figuring out their goaltending situations.

The Canucks, of course, wouldn’t be in the playoff race without rookie Elias Pettersson, future captain Bo Horvat and All-Star Brock Boeser. The Oilers would probably be the worst team in the NHL without McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. Three young stars on each side, and they all do the large bulk of the scoring for their respective teams.

Quite similar, indeed.

But it’s a story of two teams with different expectations. The Oilers have no excuse but to make the playoffs and compete for Stanley Cup championships with the world’s greatest hockey player. The Canucks are far from finished their rebuilding project, but they’ve fared better than expected this season.

Even if this isn’t the most heated of rivals right now, it should make for a great game. The Canucks will try to gain serious ground in the playoff race, while Edmonton will try to distance themselves further from the teams on the outside that are looking in.