Taken By Chance – Dylan Holloway (71.35 SCF% // 83.45 HDCF%) had his best postseason game. He along with Leon Draisaitl (64.45 percent // 83.45 percent) led the team being involved in five high danger chances during 5v5 play. My personal favourite of all the chances was Ryan Nugent-Hopkins’s (64.50 percent // 59.53 percent) goal. Seeing the long-time Oiler score such a beautiful goal in a big moment was good. One last tidbit – Evander Kane 73.18 percent // 80.14 percent) was huge on the game-winning goal. The physical play to gain puck possession sucked all the momentum the Canucks gained by tying it away and gave everyone on the ice immediate life.

xG Breakdown

xGF% – Warren Foegele (85.23 percent) gives us an example of how large percentages aren’t always what they seem. He had a small individual number in quality for (xGF) at 0.05 and an even smaller number against (xGA) at just 0.01. That’s so marginal it may as well read 50 percent – it’s why context matters. The real leaders would be Darnell Nurse (75.94 percent) and Dylan Holloway (72.68 percent). Nurse in his first game free from Cody Ceci (56.88 percent) showed he can be way more effective than he has been. He and Desharnais (68.65 percent) were relied upon in key situations, the result certainly says this is worth continuing.

Game Flow

Game Score

Shot Heatmap

In The Crease – Calvin Pickard is the man of the hour in Edmonton after a simple performance where he let in no weak goals. That was enough for Edmonton as they got improved play out of the defence to aid in shot suppression. The Canucks never particularly tested Pickard hard, but that’s a good thing. No fluke goals and the Oilers get the result they need. I said after last game I would go back to Skinner, good on Pickard to prove the naysayers wrong and give the team some hope.

Flashalytic’s 3 Stars – 

1) Leon Draisaitl

2) Evan Bouchard

3) Dylan Holloway

(Stats compiled from Naturalstattrick.com // Game Score from Hockeystatcards.com // xG and Under Pressure charts from HockeyViz.com // Game Flow and Shot Heatmap from NaturalStatTrick.com)