VANCOUVER 鈥� Forward Arshdeep Bains hopes his final audition was good enough to earn him a spot in the Vancouver Canucks cast when the curtain opens on the NHL regular season.
Bains scored on the power play and added an assist as Vancouver defeated the Edmonton Oilers 4-1 in the final pre-season game for both teams Friday night.
鈥淚 think there is a lot of desperation,鈥� Bains said about the final chance to impress the Canuck coaches and management. 鈥淓verybody wants to make the team. There鈥檚 only so many spots.
鈥淓veryone is giving their all.鈥�
Jake DeBrusk scored into an empty net and collected two assists for the Canucks (3-2). Quinn Hughes and Carson Soucy also scored while Elias Pettersson had two assists.
Defenceman Evan Bouchard scored for the Oilers (3-5)
Vancouver goaltender Arturs Silovs stopped 28 shots.
Oilers goalie Stuart Skinner made 22 saves.
Bains knows making the roster on a Canuck team that won 50 games and collected 109 points last year won鈥檛 be easy.
鈥淓veryone is trying to put their best foot forward,鈥� said the 23-year-old left-winger who grew up in nearby Surrey, sa国际传媒 鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot they want to build on from last year. I want to come in and help.鈥�
Bains, Aatu Raty and Nils Aman are all players on the bubble as the Canucks make their final roster decisions. With centres Pius Suter and Dakota Joshua both out with injuries there are spots open.
Bains played five games with the Canucks last year but didn鈥檛 register a point. In 59 games with Vancouver鈥檚 American Hockey League farm team in Abbotsford, sa国际传媒, the six-foot, 184-pound left-winger had 16 goals and 39 assists.
He one goal in three previous exhibition games this year.
Bains gave Vancouver a 3-0 lead at 7:50 of the second period. With about 10 seconds remaining in a tripping penalty to Mattias Janmark, Danton Heinen slid a pass across the front of the net that Bains banged into the open corner.
Bains played a role in Vancouver鈥檚 opening goal midway through the first period. He found a loose puck in the Oilers zone and tossed it along the boards to Hughes, whose shot from just inside the blue line beat a screened Skinner.
Canuck coach Rick Tocchet gave Bains a positive review.
鈥淗e had a good game,鈥� said Tocchet. 鈥淗e鈥檚 a guy that we鈥檝e really got our eye on.
鈥淗e鈥檚 got to work on game management. He鈥檚 got to understand (there鈥檚) certain times to stick handle (or) when to get the puck deep.鈥�
Soucy likes the way Bains has developed during training camp.
鈥淛ust improvement every game, (he鈥檚) a little more comfortable,鈥� said Soucy. 鈥淚 know coming in as a young guy, it鈥檚 hard to play the style you want.
鈥淚 think it showed tonight. He made a couple nice moves. A goal and an assist, I think he played really well.鈥�
Edmonton鈥檚 Ryan Nugent-Hopkins said a loss wasn鈥檛 how the Oilers wanted to end the pre-season.
Silvos also made some big saves, especially in the first period and late in the game when Edmonton was pushing.
鈥淚 didn鈥檛 think we played a bad game,鈥� said Nugent-Hopkins. 鈥淲e had a lot of chances that didn鈥檛 go in for us.
鈥淥bviously we want to win our last pre-season game but we need to move forward and look forward to next Wednesday,.鈥�
The last time the teams played a game that mattered the Oilers defeated the Canucks in Game 7 of the Western Conference semifinal. Edmonton went on to lose Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final to the Florida Panthers.
NOTES: Joshua is still recovering from off-season surgery to remove a tumour related to testicular cancer, but is back with the team 鈥� Canuck forward J.T. Miller played his first game of the exhibition season after taking a knock during training camp. 鈥� The last time the Oilers lost in the Stanley Cup final was 2006. The team missed the playoffs for the next 10 years. 鈥� Forward Connor Garland was one of the Canuck scratches.
UP NEXT: The Canucks open their regular season with home games Wednesday against the Calgary Flames and Friday against the Philadelphia Flyers.
The Oilers open the season with a four-game homestand facing the Winnipeg Jets Wednesday, Chicago Blackhawks Saturday, Calgary Oct. 13 and Philadelphia Oct. 15.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 4, 2024.
Jim Morris, The Canadian Press
