Realistically speaking, only seven of the players in the Vancouver Canucks’ lineup for Monday night’s preseason game against the Edmonton Oilers are likely to be in the lineup on opening night of the regular season. It’s just Pius Suter, Daniel Sprong, Nils Höglander, Kiefer Sherwood, Vincent Desharnais, and one of Aatu Räty, Arshdeep Bains, or Phil Di Giuseppe, with Kevin Lankinen as the backup goaltender. That’s just another way of saying that 13 of the players in Monday night’s lineup won’t be on the ice on opening night, which makes it all the more impressive that they took the Oilers to overtime.
The Oilers had most of their top-six forward group in the lineup, including both Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. They had their two prize free-agent signings, Jeff Skinner and Viktor Arvidsson, on Draisaitl’s flanks. They had their number-one goaltender, Stuart Skinner, in net.
They had some defencemen. Okay, so the Oilers didn’t entirely dress their regular season roster for this game but it sure felt like they did, particularly when the Canucks didn’t have any of their stars on the ice. But perhaps that worked to the Canucks’ advantage.
The Canucks on the bubble — most of their lineup — had something to play for. McDavid and Draisaitl? A little bit less to play for. “It’s not about the wins and losses, the group did a great job,” said head coach Rick Tocchet.
“I’m really proud of them, the way they played. I just like the way that they .