For a game that was supposed to feel different, Edmonton’s season opener looked awfully familiar.
The Oilers still played like a team trying to win a sprint. They still leaned hard on their offence. And by the end of it, Mike Babcock was still talking about structure, puck management and the kind of decisions that get a team in trouble.
That doesn’t mean his first night behind the bench was meaningless. Babcock’s fingerprints were there, especially in how he managed ice time and tried to distribute responsibility.
But the debut also made one thing clear: changing habits is one thing. Making them stick is another.
Babcock’s first swing came in the way he spread the workload around. One of his big goals coming into the season was keeping Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl closer to just over 20 minutes a night, while making Edmonton’s depth matter more. On Tuesday, McDavid finished at 22:49 and Draisaitl at 21:15.
That was a decent first step, especially with Edmonton spending much of the third period chasing a three-goal hole before the game eventually reached overtime. Babcock still kept his two stars relatively close to the range he talked about in camp. Colton Dach and Mathieu Joseph each logged just under 15 minutes, and Edmonton’s third line had a real role for much of the night.
As the deficit grew, though, the plan became harder to maintain. Babcock said afterward that he did not get Owen Michaels’ line out enough in the third period because of the score, though he added that he “didn’t mind” the work from Dach’s line.
And when the Oilers needed a goal late, he went right back to the familiar answer: McDavid and Draisaitl together. That’s the kind of move Edmonton has leaned on for years when the game is on the line, and Babcock was no different once the push for the tying goal began.
The bigger issue was that the Oilers drifted away from the habits Babcock has been preaching since camp. He’s talked about finding the line between speed, aggression and structure, but the opener showed how quickly the whole thing can unravel.
“I thought we started good and then we didn’t do things right,” he said post-game. “We turned the puck over.
We stayed out too long on the ice. We made poor decisions.”
Those mistakes piled up fast. Edmonton got caught with players above the puck, pressed too aggressively in the offensive zone, and kept handing Vancouver chances to attack in transition. What had been manageable turned into a 5-2 deficit, and suddenly the Oilers were relying on their offence just to drag them back into the night.
Tristan Jarry took plenty of the blame after giving up six goals on 23 shots, but the goaltending also made Edmonton’s breakdowns impossible to ignore. Babcock saw it the same way. He said afterward that he felt “fortunate” to come away with a point and pointed out that the Oilers still surrendered three chances in about a minute and a half of overtime.
That’s the part that should make Edmonton uneasy. This wasn’t a new conversation.
Earlier this year on the Cam and Strick podcast, Pierre McGuire relayed a conversation with then-Oilers coach Todd McLellan, who was frustrated that his team simply would not commit to playing team defence. Different roster, different era, same underlying problem: whether the players are willing to buy in and do it consistently.
That’s the real test for Babcock now. The Oilers can say all the right things about discipline, structure and playing the right way. The challenge is doing it for 84 games, not just talking about it for one night.
One game is nowhere near enough to declare Babcock’s approach a success or a failure. Jarry needed to be better, Edmonton was missing key players, and it was only opening night. But the broader concern is hard to miss: the Oilers have heard this message before.
Babcock may be as committed to preparation and structure as any coach this team has hired. Installing the system is only part of the job. Getting the group to live it is what will decide whether this version of the Oilers really looks different.
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Babcocks Blunt Oilers Message Overshadowed A Night Fans Wont Forget
The opener in Edmonton had plenty of the kind of drama fans remember long after the final horn, and Evan Bouchard was right at the center of it with a performance that gave the home crowd plenty to cheer about. Even in a game that went to overtime, there was enough offense and enough spectacle to make it feel like one of those nights that can shape early-season conversation.
Mike Babcock, though, was not interested in celebrating the mood around the arena after the loss. The Oilers coach turned his focus straight to the other end of the ice and made it clear he expected more from his team without the puck, leaving the performance as much a warning as a takeaway for a club that already knows its margin for error can be thin. [Read more 🡒]
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Oilers Suddenly Face A Bigger Nugent-Hopkins Concern Than Fans Expected
The Oilers forward depth took another hit Monday when Ryan Nugent-Hopkins was placed on injured reserve after a lower-body injury suffered late in practice. The timing adds another layer of concern for Edmonton, which has already been managing a crowded injury list and now has to navigate a stretch without one of its most reliable two-way centers, with the expectation being that the absence could last about two weeks.
Josh Samanski was recalled under emergency conditions to help fill the gap up front, giving the Oilers another temporary option while the lineup stays in flux. Edmonton also has Matt Savoie and Alec Regula on long-term injured reserve with month-to-month timelines, so Nugent-Hopkins status only sharpens the pressure on a depth chart that is already being tested in a hurry. [Read more 🡒]