EDMONTON — Every playoff series is a string of adjustments, but the Edmonton Oilers are making at least one huge change Tuesday night for Game 4 as they try to level their Stanley Cup quarterfinal against the Vancouver Canucks.
The Oilers are switching goalies, replacing struggling starter Stuart Skinner with Calvin Pickard. Coach Kris Knoblauch will also deploy Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl on separate lines, and may insert Philip Broberg as a seventh defenceman while going with only 11 forwards.
Hey, when your goaltending has been average, and none of your depth guys are getting the ice time to make a contribution, it’s time to make some lineup moves.
“All you can ask for is an opportunity to play in the Stanley Cup Playoffs,” Pickard said. “The preparation is done and I’m excited to get out there.”
After 13 seasons of professional hockey and 140 games in the NHL, Pickard (pronounced PICK-urd) will make his first-ever Stanley Cup playoff start at the age of 32.
“I’m at a point in my career where worrying about other stuff isn’t going to do me any favours,” he said, calmly speaking to reporters Tuesday morning. “I got that opportunity in November (when Jack Campbell was farmed out); I’m not putting too much pressure on myself, and tonight is no different.”
Pickard has been an excellent backup all season, posting decent numbers despite the unfavourable starts that an NHL backup tends to get, with a 12-7-1 record and a .909 save percentage. This, however, is an entirely different forum — the glare of a Game 4, with his team trailing the Vancouver Canucks 2-1 in the series.
“I’m just believing in myself,” he said. “I know I can play at this level, and this year I proved it to myself and everybody around me. It’s a really good opportunity for me tonight. I feel like I’m ready.”
Speaking of ready, Knoblauch will deploy McDavid and Draisaitl as centres on the Oilers’ top two lines in hopes of spreading out his scoring and sparking other contributors.
“We can go back and forth throughout the game, depending on how the flow is and how everything’s playing out,” Knoblauch said. “But right now, they’ll centre their own lines.”
The theory that has played out in Edmonton over the years goes like this: When you separate McDavid and Draisaitl, if you’re trailing in the third period and need some goals, you can move to Plan B and reunite them.
If you start them on the same line and fall behind, there is no Plan B.
Meanwhile, an 11-and-7 alignment would be a first here for Knoblauch, as the Canucks continue to force Edmonton’s hand.
“I think it takes away a little bit of the flow and rhythm, especially with your defencemen,” Knoblauch said. “But on the flip side of it, offensively with the forwards it is a lot easier to double-shift 97 (McDavid) or 29 (Draisaitl) and have them back out on the ice right away with another line. There are pros and cons to it.”
WORD FROM MESS
Former Oiler Craig MacTavish was on Edmonton radio Monday, relaying a story from the old days when the Oilers found themselves in a similar spot as they are today — down in a series and being out-competed by their opponent.
MacTavish recalled a locker room address from legendary captain Mark Messier, who instructed, “It’s time to get your balls on the crest of your jerseys and go play the game.”
Is that where today’s Oilers find themselves?
“He’s not wrong. Not wrong at all,” said Oilers veteran winger Corey Perry. “It’s definitely time to lay everything on the line.”
It’s time to up the compete level, especially from an Oilers’ bottom six that hasn’t had much ice time or production. They’ll get more time to affect this series in Game 4, and Perry said that simply doing all the little things won’t be enough.
Eventually, the depth guys have to help on the scoresheet as well.
“Those bottom-six guys, they kill penalties, they’ve been doing a heck of a job blocking shots. At the end of games, they’re out there, six-on-five,” Perry said. “But at the end of the day, yeah, we do need some more production.”
Perry was talking about himself as much as anyone. He’s still searching for his first playoff point, though it was Perry’s shot that Arturs Silovs pulled off the goal line in Game 3, a save that held up under review.
THE MARK OF Z
Canucks defenceman Nikita Zadorov said the NHL is protecting its investment by suspending teammate Carson Soucy one game for his cross-check at the end of Game 3 to Oiler Connor McDavid.
“Obviously, it’s a big loss for us,” Zadorov said. “My thought on that — I’ve been thinking for a couple days — unfortunately, that’s the world we’re living in. Sometimes, you know, social media and the public views can create some hard decisions for specific people (at the NHL). They might make questionable decisions. That’s how I look at it. At the end of the day, they have to protect their investment.”
Soucy struck McDavid in the face with his stick after the best player on the planet was knocked forward from behind by a cross-check from Zadorov, who was reacting to the Oiler’s two-handed slash on Soucy after the final buzzer.
The NHL’s Department of Player Safety also fined Zadorov $5,000 for his role in the scrum, but issued no supplemental punishment to McDavid or Edmonton winger Zach Hyman, who came to his linemate’s defence with a cross-check to Zadorov’s face that opened a cut and required stitches.
“I guess I don’t make that much money for the league,” Zadorov said, smiling, when asked why the NHL isn’t protecting him. “I don’t know. I mean, it’s a hockey play. There’s a lot of sticks. It’s hard to see. Carson, I saw he said there was no intention to hurt somebody. I had no intention to hurt anybody either. I saw my teammate get slashed, I had to step in, you know? I’ve been doing it for 11 years. It’s just an unlucky play; I got caught there too. Whatever, move on. Game 4 today. Let it be.”
NOAH’S ARC
Soucy’s suspension means Noah Juulsen will get his second-ever playoff game for the Canucks. The 27-year-old former Montreal Canadiens’ first-rounder has restarted his NHL career in Vancouver after a serious eye injury derailed him for three years.
After spending most of the last two seasons in the American Hockey League, Juulsen made the Canucks as a depth defenceman this season and grew his game with the help of assistant coach Adam Foote and others.
But Juulsen hasn’t played since Game 2 of the first round against Nashville on April 23, and in the last six weeks has played only twice.
“I think, obviously, the longer you’re out, the harder it gets,” Juulsen said. “But I think as a group, we try to keep each other engaged and stay on it the best we can.”
In 54 regular-season games, Juulsen actually led Canuck defencemen with 12.15 hits per 60 minutes, and became a trusted penalty killer.
“That’s when you have good depth … is when you have your seventh defenceman probably one of your best PK guys,” Tocchet said. “We’re getting a really good PK guy, a great shot-blocker, physical. Even five-on-five, he’s one of our best hitters. So, that’s another element that he’s going to bring into our lineup.”
QUOTEBOOK
Tocchet on what he expects physically in the wake of Game 3’s ending: “I think it’s going to be an aggressive game. But I also think that you’ve got to play between the whistles. Discipline, I think for us, is at an all-time high. We have to be very disciplined, but you have to play tough. I’m not sure they’re going to allow cross-checking. I think they’re making a point of emphasis the last couple of games, on both sides, they’re not going to allow the cross-checks.”
PROJECTED LINEUPS FOR GAME 4
CANUCKS
Suter-Miller-Boeser
Joshua-Lindhom-Garland
Karlsson-Pettersson-Mikheyev
Aman/Podkolzin-Blueger-Lafferty
Hughes-Hronek
Cole-Myers
Zadorov-Juulsen
Silovs
OILERS (11 F, 7 D)
Nugent-Hopkins-McDavid-Hyman
Holloway-Draisaitl-Kane
Foegele-McLeod-Perry
Ryan-Janmark
Ekholm-Bouchard
Nurse-Ceci
Kulak-Desharnais
Broberg
Pickard
