Wednesday night will be Game 1 of Vancouver-Edmonton in a Western Conference second-round series, with the Canucks having home-ice advantage in that matchup.
Vancouver swept Edmonton in all four regular-season meetings, though three of those games were during the Oilers’ horrid 3-9-1 start that led to the firing of coach Jay Woodcroft.
“We’re going into Round 2 of the Stanley Cup playoffs,” Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl said. “We don’t care about what happened in the regular season. And I bet you that they don’t either, as much as you think. We’re a different team now. It’s going to be tight-checking, with two really good teams going at it. The team that plays better hockey will win.”
The Oilers hope their regular-season fortunes change.
The Oilers face the Canucks in the first playoff series between two Canadian teams since 2022, when Edmonton beat archrival Calgary in five games to advance to the Western Conference final. Edmonton is favored, according to BetMGM Sportsbook, to beat Vancouver this time, too.
That’s likely because of how dominant Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl’s team looked in dispatching Los Angeles in five games in the first round. McDavid leads all playoff scorers with 12 points, Draisaitl has 10 and Edmonton went 5 for 12 on the power play and 10 for 10 on the penalty kill.
But the Canucks, coached by Jack Adams Award finalist Rick Tocchet, are no slouch, either. They overcame losing Vezina Trophy finalist goaltender Thatcher Demko and backup Casey DeSmith to injury in beating Nashville, with rookie Arturs Silovs stepping in and stopping 75 of the 80 shots he faced.
