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EDMONTON — The Vancouver Canucks need more than their goalie to start on time.

Thatcher Demkoâ€s brilliant performance on Saturday wasnâ€t enough to save the Canucks, who were outshot 37-15 and lost 3-1 to the Edmonton Oilers.

This was a goalie-adjusted blowout. Without Demko, as Canucks winger Brock Boeser noted, the score could have been 5-1 or 6-1.

But had the Canucks just managed more in the first two periods, when they were outskated and outplayed and outscored 2-0, the game might have actually finished in their favour. Thatâ€s how good Demko was.

Two games donâ€t make a trend — especially when there are 80 remaining.

But in their National Hockey League opener on Thursday, the Canucks†sloppy first half on home ice against the Calgary Flames looked like nerves, opening-night jitters for a team desperate for a strong start after an encouraging pre-season. But they also didnâ€t surrender many shots or scoring chances and dominated the final period in a 5-1 win.

Against the Oilers on Saturday, Vancouver was outshot 13-4 in the first period and, honestly, its most dangerous scoring chance was when Oiler Andrew Mangianpane nearly bobbled the puck into his own net with no one around except alert Edmonton goalie Calvin Pickard.

Demko, meanwhile, faced a barrage of Grade-A chances. The goalie made point-blank saves against Matt Savoie, Trent Frederic and twice on David Tomasek.

The Canucks†game plan, like every team that visits Edmonton, was built around stopping Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. And with Demkoâ€s help, they held the best two players in the world off the scoresheet until Draisaitl scored an empty-netter with 1:13 to go.

But the Canucks needed to generate more. A forecheck and some offensive-zone time would have helped.

“Obviously, those guys (McDavid and Draisaitl) are good, but weâ€ve got to play our game and weâ€ve got to initiate more,†Canucks winger Kiefer Sherwood said. “Like, our forecheck is something that’s part of our identity, and when we’re not establishing that, it kind of trickles down. It probably starts with our passes. I didn’t think we made crisp passes and were throwing away too many pucks, and we just didn’t sustain possession when we had the puck. And then we’re kind of starting on the back foot, chasing it from the get-go.â€

Sherwood said starting better is “something weâ€re going to have to address.â€

“I don’t know, I think it’s a little different game plan when you’re going against, you know, those two guys,†winger Brock Boeser said. “Youâ€ve got to be aware of them at all times. (But) I think we didn’t take advantage when they were not on the ice. It’s obviously something we’re going to talk about and push to be better at.

“I think we sat back a little too much in the first two periods there, and I thought when we tried to get some momentum going in the third we took a couple penalties and that kind of made us take a step back. I thought we were in the box a lot. Weâ€ve got to be a little more disciplined and push a little harder.â€

The Canucks were shorthanded five times for a total of 9:33, yet blanked the McDavid-Draisaitl power play. But holding on five-on-four didnâ€t help establish their game at even strength.

Tyler Myers, with an unlucky puck-over-glass penalty, and Filip Chytilâ€s offensive-zone trip twice put the Canucks shorthanded when they were trying to push in the third period.

Boeser, knocking down Quinn Hughes†line-drive pass, spun and hooked a low shot past Pickard 47 seconds into the final frame to give the Canucks a chance to steal something from the game.

Demko stopped the first 20 shots he faced, but was beaten by Noah Philp at 12:21 of the second period after a give-and-go with Kasperi Kapanen. An undrafted 27-year-old who was signed out of the University of Alberta and took an entire season off hockey two years ago, Philp scored his first NHL goal with a shot that appeared to tick Myers†stick and change direction on Demko.

With shots 21-8 for Edmonton, Vancouver needed to just survive the rest of the period. But Chytil gave the puck away to Mangiapane in the Vancouver slot, and the Oiler had time to pick his spot stick-side on Demko with 49.8 seconds left in the middle frame.

“That was a bad pass,†Chytil said. “That goal goes on my back. But, yeah, it happens. Itâ€s just too bad that we didn’t get the win for Demmer because he was great. He was unbelievable. We just didn’t score enough goals to win a game. We should get a win for him in a game like that because, like I said, he was unbelievable.â€

Boeser said: “It doesnâ€t surprise me; Heâ€s a world-class goalie.â€

But the way the Canucks played, especially yielding territory and scoring chances early on, a world-class performance still wasnâ€t enough.

“I think weâ€ve just got to stay out of the box,†coach Adam Foote said. “We actually didn’t have a bad (start). It wasn’t going too wrong early. We almost had four or five two-on-ones in the first; we hit one of them. We’re fine, and then we take an offensive-zone penalty. It happens. But, you know, a team like that, youâ€ve got to stay out of the box.

“You know, we were right there (in the third period). And when you have a performance from your goaltender like that, killing five power plays … you just have to be a little bit more patient.â€

ICE CHIPS— Foote tweaked his forward lines for Edmonton, starting ex-Oiler Exander Kane up the lineup on a line with Chytil and Conor Garland. Kane, whose hit-of-the-game on Alec Regula late in the third period drew a retaliatory penalty that gave Vancouver a power play, was one of the best Canucks … Top centre Elias Pettersson finished with 16:38 of ice time, but 3:30 of that came in one chunk at the end of the game. He went 3-15 on faceoffs. Centre Aatu Raty was 9-2 in the circle.

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MILWAUKEE — Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Quinn Priester has experienced postseason baseball at Wrigley Field before, only from a much different perspective than the one heâ€s about to have.

Priester grew up in the Chicago area and was in Wrigley Fieldâ€s stands for Game 5 of the 2016 World Series. The 25-year-old right-hander will be back at Wrigley for Game 3 as he continues his breakthrough season by trying to pitch the Brewers into the NL Championship Series.

“I was in the last row in the nosebleeds,†Priester said about that 2016 experience. “My mom and I had our backs against the chain-link fence up there drinking hot chocolate because it was late October in Chicago and it was freezing.â€

Priester watched the Cubs beat Cleveland 3-2 that night to begin their rally from a 3-1 series deficit that earned them their first World Series title since 1908. Now he wants to make sure the Cubs donâ€t start a similar comeback.Milwaukee carries a 2-0 lead into Game 3 of this best-of-5 NL Division Series.

This start will mark Priesterâ€s postseason debut. Jameson Taillon is starting for the Cubs.

Priester went 13-3 with a 3.32 ERA during the regular season while winning 12 straight decisions at one point. According to Sportradar, that was the longest streak within a single year by any pitcher since Gerrit Cole won 16 consecutive decisions for Houston in 2019.

Until the Cincinnati Reds beat Priester 3-1 on Sept. 26, the Brewers had won 19 straight games in which Priester had pitched. That stretch included 16 starts and three appearances in which he had followed an opener.

“Heâ€s been sensational for us,†Brewers manager Pat Murphy said.

The Brewers needed starting pitching due to multiple injuries on April 7 when they acquired Priester from the Boston Red Sox for minor league outfielder Yophery Rodriguez, the 33rd pick in the 2025 draft and minor league pitcher John Holobetz.

Priester, the 18th overall selection in the 2018 draft, had a 6-9 record and 6.23 ERA in 21 career appearances with the Pittsburgh Pirates and Red Sox at the time of the trade.

“I had followed him for years,†Brewers president of baseball operations Matt Arnold said. “Obviously when guys come up to the big leagues, especially as pitchers, they donâ€t always have success immediately, but we thought there were some really good ingredients there.â€

Priester quickly warmed up to the idea of pitching in Milwaukee.

“I was really surprised,†Priester said. “I felt like I was kind of in the mix for the rotation in Boston. I certainly felt like I had a shot at it. When I did get traded, I was super excited for the opportunity. Being close to home was super exciting for me and my fiancée, being able to see family. And obviously, being in Pittsburgh, every year, youâ€d see how well the Brewers seemed to play.â€

Priester wasnâ€t as familiar at the time with the Brewers†reputation for getting the best out of pitchers who hadnâ€t encountered much success before arriving in Milwaukee. Heâ€d develop into the latest example.

The turning point came against the team he next faces.

Priester gave up seven runs over 4 1/3 innings in a 10-0 loss to the Cubs on May 2, raising his ERA to 5.79. That immediately followed a start in which he allowed five runs over five innings in a 6-5 loss at St. Louis.

“That was the kind of the moment when I felt things needed to change,†Priester said. “What I was doing, itâ€s not like I wasnâ€t trying, but what I was trying just wasnâ€t working. And so I started to write some things down every day, came in with some goals, talked to all of our guys, started to go about the lineups a little bit differently.â€

Priester pitched 24 more times the rest of the regular season and allowed more than three runs in just two of those appearances.

“The Cubs blistered this guy, and he wanted to continue pitching and his competitive nature came out, and actually the last couple innings of that outing he was pretty darned effective,†Murphy said. “I think that failure, if you will, for him, like, launched him into open ears, ‘OK, how do I figure this out?†And we got the best version of him because of his competitive nature, and we got the best version of him going forward, and itâ€s been miraculous.â€

Priester added a cutter this year that he now throws about 20% of the time to complement his sinker and slider, while he abandoned his four-seam fastball. Priester averages less than one strikeout per inning, but he has a knack for inducing ground balls and weak contact while working quickly.

He understands the raucous atmosphere heâ€s going to encounter. When Priester was in the stands for that 2016 World Series game, Priester recalled how “Kris Bryant hit a homer and I thought the stadium was going to collapse.â€

But he also enters this game with the confidence that comes from spending the last few months living up to all the expectations that accompanied his draft selection.

“I think it was just kind of a ticking time bomb waiting for a year like this to happen for him,†Brewers outfielder Sal Frelick said. “Iâ€m super happy we got him when we did because I just kind of knew it was coming for him.â€

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