Blowing Game 1 might be the wake up call the Edmonton Oilers need

VANCOUVER — Stuart Skinner didn’t mince words, not after he and his Edmonton Oilers gagged on a three-goal lead to open this all-Canadian, one-anthem Round 2 series against the Vancouver Canucks.

“I thought we gave them this one,” Skinner said.

Stop us if you’ve heard the Oilers say that before.

Skinner’s words may sound like a knock against the Canucks, who have proven these playoffs they don’t quit, but he also isn’t wrong. Vancouver scored three times in five minutes to blow the lid off Rogers Arena and somehow steal a 5-4 win in regulation – and it wasn’t even their most chaotic comeback this postseason.

There was the Meltdown in Music City, this was Larceny in the Lower Mainland.

Coach Rick Tocchet reminded everyone there was a reason why “resilient” was the word Canucks players picked to put on the front of their playoff t-shirts. It’s a belief that’s been drilled in them since September.

“I just think that we’re going to fight ’til the end, whether it’s 5-1 or 6-1, that’s just the group we have,” Canucks captain Quinn Hughes said after his team improved to 5-0 over the Oilers this season.

We know the Canucks have the heart of a lion. But what do we have in the Oilers? We’re still trying to figure that out.

You could say the Game 1 loss was uncharacteristic for the Oilers in 2023-24. Kris Knoblauch’s club has generally locked down leads, and even learned to win in different ways, as evidenced in how Skinner and the Oil salted away a 1-0 victory in Game 4 in Los Angeles last round. Edmonton was 29-3-1 when leading after two periods this season and a perfect 4-0 these playoffs – until Wednesday night.

“It’s something we’ll have to learn from a little bit,” Oilers defenseman Mattias Ekholm said. “When they score, it’s all about that next shift … At the end of the day, we let them get three goals and put ourselves in a tough spot. Up until that point, we were in a really great spot, but we kind of gave it away, so that’s the disappointing part.”

One problem. This is an Oilers team with a penchant for shooting itself in the foot at the most inopportune time, repeatedly dooming their chances at playoff glory. It’s hard enough to grind through the slog to win the toughest trophy in sports; it’s impossible if you also have to beat yourself along the way.

Maybe Game 1 was the best thing that could’ve possibly happened to Edmonton. Wednesday was like getting hit in the face with a two-by-four with the whole country watching. It stung, it staggered them, but it might also have been a much-needed a rude awakening for a clearly talented team that might’ve been floating on high after making relatively quick work of the Kings.

The real truth is, you can get away with one collapse like that in a long playoff run. Every legitimate Cup contender has one now and again. You might be able to squeak by the Canucks this round with a proper response, and that is far from a guarantee. But you can’t expect to put a win on a platter for the Stars or Avalanche next round and hope you can score your way out of the other games; the margin for error is razor thin against teams that strong, to say nothing of a poor recipe for success in a Stanley Cup Final.

The Avs seem to erase three-goal leads with ease. Gulp. There are no more freebies from here on in.

“I think a little bit too passive,” Knoblauch said of his team, which didn’t register a shot on goal in the third period until there were four minutes left. “If you look at the neutral zone, we were backing off. We need to be aggressive and winning that puck battle … I think we could be a little more assertive, and allowed them to get back in the game.”

If you’re an Oiler fan, there are plenty of reasons to be as confident as your players sounded postgame. On a night when the best player in the world, Connor McDavid, wasn’t a dominant force, the Oilers were still able to build a three-goal advantage. Their special teams were perfect again, and there seems to be a large gulf between the Oilers and Canucks in that department. Arturs Silovs was swimming around his crease at times. And Edmonton’s high-end skill and poise with the puck seemed to overwhelm Vancouver.

If you’re a Canucks fan, the optimism has to revolve around the idea that Game 1 planted a seed of doubt, revealing a chink in Edmonton’s armor. That you survived an adventurous Arty Party with Silovs, who bent but didn’t break. That you got some much-needed depth scoring from across your lineup. And that the belief that “anything can happen,” as Dakota Joshua said, resonates through not just the room, but the entire city.

It was an odd game, one that began to swing not when Elias Lindholm scored before the end of the second period, but when Leon Draisaitl missed the final eight minutes of that frame. Chaos ensued for Edmonton and the tide began to turn. Knoblauch said Draisaitl was dealing with cramping and equipment issues and there is no cause for concern for his availability for the remainder of the series.

It was a night when neither team left the building probably loving their game, but one was feeling much worse than the other. The Oilers sat back and paid dearly.

“I think that when you get up, you can’t just shut it down, hope that we’re going to be able to stifle some teams,” Skinner said. “I think there’s definitely a lesson learned here for us. No matter what the score is, you’ve got to know that the other team is not going to just let you win.”

Here’s the thing about lessons. You can only claim that you’ve learned one when you’ve proven it by repeatedly demonstrating a different approach. Wednesday was a reminder these Oilers haven’t yet checked that box. There’s still time, but the Canucks will have something to say about that, too.