3 takeaways from the Canucks’ 2-1 victory over the Oilers last night

Thatcher Demko is a Vancouver Canucks.

That’s it. That’s the entire article, there’s nothing more I need to say.

In all seriousness, how lucky are we to have been able to witness such great goaltending over the past few years? First it was Jacob Markstrom, and now it’s Demko, who has seamlessly stepped in and carried on the duty of winning the Canucks games that they don’t deserve.

Anyways, here are three takeaways from last night’s 2-1 win over the Oilers.

Struggles of the bottom line

With Antoine Roussel and Jay Beagle out of the lineup, the Canucks opted to roll out a fourth line that consisted of Zack MacEwen, Adam Gaudette, and fan favourite Loui Eriksson.

The results were suboptimal, to say the least.

According to Natural Stat Trick, the trio registered the three lowest individual corsi percentages on the team at five on five, with MacEwen “leading” the way at 33.33%. They also had the three worst expected goals percentage (xGF%): MacEwen finished the night at 11.35%, Gaudette had 11.08%, and Eriksson had 0%.

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Yes, you read that right. Zero percent.

In other words, the trio generated virtually no scoring chances at all, and there’s a reason that none of them played more the 8:22 minutes at five on five.

Prior to last night’s game, Gaudette had been playing well and MacEwen was a player I thought deserved more ice time. They obviously struggled mightily yesterday, but given the small sample size I’m not ready to panic just yet.

Plus, they were flanked by Eriksson, who’s obviously not an NHL calibre player anymore.

Two words: Thatcher Demko

Brock Boeser was the MVP of the team for the first half of the season, but Demko will probably be the season’s overall MVP with the way he’s currently playing.

Last night marked Demko’s fifth straight start and he was the main reason why Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl were limited to just a point each. He made timely saves at critical points in the game, with one at the second period that stood out in particular.

According to Evolving-Hockey, the Oilers were expected to score 3.57 goals, which means that Demko saved 2.57 goals above expected. Unsurprisingly, a large portion of his saves were made on McDavid, as Edmonton’s capital was expected to score 1.25 goals all by himself.

Most fans have been focusing on the new contracts that Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes will ink after this season, but we need to keep in mind that Demko is also eligible to be re-upped in the summer. It’ll also be interesting to see what type of deal he ultimately gets.