Yannick Weber made his first goal of the season a big one. Weber's goal with 8:28 left in the third period gave the Vancouver Canucks a 5-4 win against the Edmonton Oilers at Rexall Place on Wednesday.
Oilers vs. Canucks 2014 final score: 3 things we learned from Vancouver’s 5-4 win
It wasn’t a pretty game, but it sure was fun.
Walter Tychnowicz-USA TODAY Sports
While Weber had the game-winner, it was Radim Vrbata who paced the Canucks with two power play goals. Vrbata has eight goals on the season and is turning out to be one of the better offseason pickups. Daniel Sedin had three assists and Henrik Sedin had two.
Oilers forward Steve Pinizzotto had a Gordie Howe hat-trick in his first game of the season with Edmonton. He was called up from Oklahoma City on Monday. That turned out to be a very effective use of his team-low 7:42 played.
The Oilers thought they tied the game with eight seconds left in the third period, but forward David Perron was ruled to have kicked a loose puck past Ryan Miller. He totally did that.
Three Things We Learned
1. Sloppy hockey is the most fun hockey. Listen, neither coach is going to be happy with the performance of their team after this one. Canucks coach Willie Desjardins might be more upset than Oilers coach Dallas Eakins. The Canucks blew leads of 3-1 and 4-3 before ultimately winning. That said, when nine goals go up on the board someone is going home unhappy, but the fans were definitely entertained.
2. The Oilers hung in without much star help. Taylor Hall had an assist and Jordan Eberle, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, and Nail Yakupov all went without a point. Instead, the Oilers were helped by Pinizzotto, Teddy Purcell, Boyd Gordon, and Andrew Ference. Just think how things could've gone had the big name guys managed to hit the score sheet. At least for a night they got the kind of secondary scoring they'll need to get better.
3. Ryan Miller is slumping. Sure, he got the win but his .875 save percentage (28 saves in 32 shots) on the night is in line with what he's done in his previous three starts. On the upside, he's 2-2-0 in his past four starts. On the downside, his save percentage is .842 in those games. Improvement is necessary. Perhaps he could learn some enhancement techniques from Ben Scrivens.
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