Oilers are sick and tired of hearing this about the Canucks ahead of Game 1

The first game of the second round series between the Edmonton Oilers and Vancouver Canucks takes place later tonight and there’s already some drama. As pundits and fans are getting ready for the Canadian battle in the postseason, Oilers’ players are getting sick and tired of hearing about their regular season performances against the Canucks. Vancouver swept swept the four games between the two teams in the regular calendar, and the Oilers don’t want to hear about it any more.

“I don’t know how much more we need to talk about this,” said Leon Draisaitl , who can be pissy at times during interviews with reporters.

“We’re going into Round 2 of the Stanley Cup playoffs. We don’t care about what happened in the regular season. And I bet you that they don’t either, as much as you think. We’re a different team now. It’s going to be tight-checking, with two really good teams going at it. The team that plays better hockey will win.”

Draisaitl explained how those losses came at a difficult time for Edmonton, right before former coach Jay Woodcroft lost his job. Things have been quite different under head coach Kris Knoblauch.

Defenseman Vincent Desharnais also voiced his frustration over the comparisons and previous games, wanting to focus on the playoffs being an entirely new season in itself.

“It is old, for sure,” Desharnais said of the season-series talk. “It’s been so long. People keep asking about it … Those first three games were, like, six or seven months ago. We’re a different team. And, at the end of the day, whatever happened in the regular season doesn’t mean anything.

“The most important part is the first game on Wednesday, the rest doesn’t matter.”

Fans have been waiting long enough for this Canadian series to commence, and it could be why they needed to look back at this season’s clashes in the meantime.

Later tonight for Game 1, we will see if the Oilers were right not to worry about the sweep, which included a season-opening 8-1 demolition, at the hands of the Canucks.

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