The Vancouver Canucks went 1-for-8 on the power play Wednesday while blowing a 3-0 lead in their season-opening 5-3 loss to the Edmonton Oilers.
The Canucks were left to rue their special teams struggles after the loss, in which the Oilers scored five unanswered goals after Vancouver went up 3-0 in the second period.
"That stings a little bit, but I thought we did a lot of good things 5-on-5, and for a majority of the game, we carried the play and outchanced them 5-on-5, but our power play let us down a little bit tonight," captain Bo Horvat said, per NHL.com. "We preached on having a good start and I think that's kind of what we lacked a little bit last year, we were getting off to bad starts. I thought we played great, but when they get those power-play goals. It kind of stings a little bit, but for the most part, I thought we played really well 5-on-5."
"I thought we played outstanding in the first half of the game," Canucks coach Bruce Boudreau added. "You could see them building, but in the end, if our special teams were better, I think it would have been much different. We had some opportunities; two breakaways when we had a 3-1 lead and that would have made it difficult for them to come back. Then we had some open nets at that time.
"If you give teams too many chances to come back, they're going to come back, especially with those two guys [Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl]."
The Canucks ranked ninth in the NHL last season with a power play success rate of 23.5 per cent. The team fell well short of that mark Wednesday, converting at a rate of 12.5 per cent.
Vancouver fans were also left feeling that the team should have had an additional four-minute power play, as a missed high-sticking call proved costly. Oilers
Bruce Boudreau
Connor Macdavid
Leon Draisaitl
Bo Horvat