"I thought [Talbot] was really good," Oilers coach Todd McLellan said. "It's hard to criticize a win, but I thought our team was sluggish tonight. We started well and played the first 15 minutes with energy, but after that, we fell off. There was not a lot of support. There would be one man and four guys watching. As a result, we played in our own end a lot and didn't have the puck much, and our goaltender needed to be superb, and he was."
Edmonton had the two best chances in a scoreless first period. Taylor Hall set up Iiro Pakarinen in front as he circled behind the net, but Markstrom made an excellent glove save from in close. Later in the period, Connor McDavid set up Hall at the side of the net on a rush, but Markstrom made the save.
"I thought we had some really good chances to score, but with 40 shots, we should have created some more Grade A chances," Canucks captain Henrik Sedin said. "It was a good game chance-wise for us, but with the amount of puck possession we had, I think we should have created more traffic in front of [Talbot]."
Vancouver appeared to score 5:29 into the second period when Canucks forward Brendan Gaunce and Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse crashed into Talbot. The goal immediately was waved off by the referee, who ruled Gaunce made incidental contact with Talbot before the puck crossed the goal line.