Miller, reportedly on the verge of being scratched because there was a deal on the table with the New York Rangers, put in a fine performance.
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With all the noise swirling around their team, all the acrimony that’s apparently driven the J.T. Miller experience to a finish, you would not have been surprised to see the Edmonton Oilers simply blow the Vancouver Canucks out of the water on Saturday night at Rogers Arena.
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The last time these teams met in November, that’s what happened. The Oilers made the Canucks look silly in the first rematch of these playoff rivals from last spring.
Whereas the Oilers were true cup contenders last season and have carried on as such this year, the Canucks looked close to taking a big step forward after last season — and then they’ve done anything but.
It’s why we’ve spent so much talking about anything but their on-ice performance in recent days.
This team has become a mess. It appears that Miller will be traded imminently, such has the internal esprit de corps soured.
But for this night, at least, it was about a pretty complete effort, start to finish, by these Vancouver Canucks, perhaps for the last time.
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They roared out to a 3-0 lead, deserved, and peppered the Edmonton goal.
Quinn Hughes was his usual self. Elias Pettersson played with a jump and a spark that he needs to find every night.
And Miller, who was reportedly on the verge of being scratched because there was a deal on the table with the New York Rangers, put in a fine performance. He had a pair of assists but it was really his work going head to head with Connor McDavid that was the real story.
You can never stop McDavid, merely contain him, and sure, McDavid was in on both of Edmonton’s second-period power play goals, but when you can battle the world’s best player to draw, as Miller did, that’s a win.
Halfway through the first period shots were 3-2 Edmonton and the Oilers looked to be surging.
By the end of the opening frame, this was far from the case: the Canucks outshot the Oilers 14-4 over the second half of the frame, outscoring the visitors 3-0.
And two of the goals were on the power play.
Who is this team, what is this power play and where has this all been?
“I’m planning on being a Canuck today, tomorrow. Whatever happens, happens. I’m focused on the next game,” J.T. Miller said about his future with the team.
He admitted this time is different.
But he’s pressing on, he implied.
He had a great night, going out on a high note if this is it.
He won 18 of 23 faceoffs. When you win that many faceoffs, that makes a difference.
The one thing that’s been pretty consistent through all of this has been Canucks defending well.
They gave away just eight shots in the final two frames, even with the two power play goals by Edmonton in the second period.
Listen, when you’re the game’s best player, you’re going to draw lots of attention.
And you can understand McDavid’s frustrations to a degree and why he takes matters into his own hands.
The league does need to do a better job of making calls on fouls on McDavid.
But he can’t take matters into his own hands as he has of late.
Earlier this week he elbowed Minnesota’s Marcus Johansson and got away with it.
And on Saturday, he cross-checked Conor Garland in the face. It was potentially a match penalty, in all honesty.
It followed a smart, though cynical, bit of play from Garland, who held on to McDavid after the two fell to the ice. With little time left on the clock and the Oilers in possession, Garland admitted tackling the superstar seemed like the prudent thing to do.
Kudos to the officials for getting the call on Tyler Myers right as well, as he tried to take Evan Bouchard’s head off.
Match penalties all around.
It wasn’t just how Miller managed McDavid’s night, it was also about how he got in Leon Draisaitl’s face.
On one second period shift, Miller threw a big hit on the world’s second-best player, then later the two big forwards came at each other, with whack after whack after whack.
The second Draisaitl goal was about some remarkable moments of skill. It wasn’t just about Draisaitl scoring from a tricky angle, it was about the sudden shift in skating angle by McDavid on the zone entry. It was about the casual confidence of Evan Bouchard flipping a back-hand pass across the face of extreme pressure at the blue line over to McDavid, it was about Ryan Nugent Hopkins just calmly collecting the cross-seam pass from McDavid, before even more patience as he looped around behind the net to find Draisaitl.
You give the Oilers an inch and they truly do take a mile.
Surely Draisaitl is the best tight-angle shooter of all time?
It’s been rare to see Kiefer Sherwood misfire on a hit, let alone take a dumb penalty.
But he did that in the second period, just missing Evan Bouchard with a hit attempt, then letting his stick carelessly whack Bouchard in the face.
NEXT GAME
Tuesday
Buffalo Sabres vs. Vancouver Canucks
7 p.m., Rogers Arena, TV: ESPN Pacific, Radio: Sportsnet 650
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