Dan Murphy and Iain MacIntyre provide insight into Vancouver Canucks game against Edmonton Oilers and whether mounting losses are affecting Canucks

VANCOUVER – The way things are going these days, pretty much every opponent looks like Goliath against David of the Vancouver Canucks But no one is bigger in the National Hockey League right now than Connor McDavid and Auston Matthews

Over a third of the season, McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers is on track for 104 points Matthews has scored 18 goals in 19 games, putting the Toronto Maple Leaf on pace with 52 goals We remind you that it’s a 56 game season

These totals are almost unthinkable Fifty goals or 100 points in a year cut short by a pandemic would be the subject of eternal discussion in Canada Either achievement would be considered historic

And yet the Calgary Flames, embarrassed 7-1 by the Oilers on Saturday and approaching a crisis point after four losses in five games, traveled to Toronto on Monday and shut out Matthews and the mighty Maple Leafs 3 -0 The Flames limited Matthews to just three shots on goal as the first Hart Trophy co-favorite, who had scored seven times in the previous four games, had a 16-game streak in a row

On Tuesday night, the equally desperate Canucks must find a way to limit McDavid, who scores a hat trick and five-point game against those same Flames

It would help follow Calgary’s blueprint: get a great goalie and score multiple times on the power play Both have been issues for the Canucks

But the game will likely just depend on how well Vancouver defends against McDavid and other Oilers superstar Leon Draisaitl

In their season opener, which seems ten years ago, but was only January 13, McDavid was deemed unnecessary and the Canucks beat the Oilers 5-3 It was the highlight of the season’s Vancouver so far, as McDavid’s revenge came 24 hours later when his four points included a hat trick in a 5-2 win over the Canucks

“He’s one of the best in the league and everyone knows that,” Canucks defenseman Quinn Hughes said after practice Tuesday morning “I think he’s going to have his chances – he’s too good a player not to For us, we just have to do as good a job as possible to limit the number he gets As a five-man unit, you have to know when he’s there and you might have to think defensive during that shift when you’re there “

Canucks coach Travis Green will likely try to squeeze out his defensive tandem of Alex Edler and Nate Schmidt against McDavid, led by Vancouver center Bo Horvat, who played one of his best games ever. the season face to face against the Oiler in this beginning of the season which we fondly remember

Green revealed only Tuesday morning that his goalkeeper would be Thatcher Demko, which was expected after Braden Holtby looked horrible on one goal and suspicious on two more as the Canucks lost a two-goal lead and lost 4-3 in overtime Sunday to the Winnipeg Jets

He continued a disheartening trend that has seen the Canucks play much better since their excruciating start to the season, only to find the results virtually unchanged Despite being the best team in their last seven games, Vancouver is just 2-3-2 in this span and falters near the bottom of the North Division

“It can be difficult sometimes to stay positive,” said winger Brock Boeser “But we all feel in the hall that we are playing better and that we are there We did a much better job defensively and are not giving up lots of chances for the other teams, working together to get the puck out clean There are just a few little details in some of these games that have cost us I think if we deal with that we will chain a few wins together, and that’s is something we really need right now “

The Canucks have had a winning streak this season, a four-man at the end of January that included three wins over the Ottawa Senators in last place

The Oilers and Canucks will play a rematch at Rogers Arena on Thursday Edmonton has won nine of its last 11 games and, interestingly, has beaten every other team in the division except the Canucks

“I think our squad is in a good frame of mind,” said Green “I think it’s a shame that we only came out of the last six games with six points But I like d ‘where they come from where they were at in this sequence of games We met our group today and talked about not looking back and controlling what you can and what you can control today, that ‘what are you doing today “

Select as many teams as you want from the leagues below You can change your selection at any time

There is not enough recent news in your lineup We will let you know about the latest news as it becomes available, or feel free to add other selections to your settings

We have sent an email with instructions to create a new password Your current password has not been changed

By checking this box, I accept the Rogers Media terms of service and privacy policy

By checking this box, I accept the Rogers Media terms of service and privacy policy

We did not recognize this password reset code Enter your email address to get a new one

Sorry, we couldn’t verify this email address Enter your email address below and we’ll send you another email

Oilers vs Canucks