The Edmonton Oilers have already given their fans plenty to chew on in the first 122 minutes of the 2027 NHL season. There’s been flash, there’s been mess, and there’s been enough of both to make the first two games feel like a full week’s worth of drama.
Start with the upside, because there’s plenty of it.
Evan Bouchard has been absurd. In two games, he’s set two NHL records, becoming the first defenseman to score three goals and five points in a season opener, then adding three points last night to finish with the most points ever by a defenseman through the first two games of a season at eight.
He also set the Oilers record for most points through two games, beating Wayne Gretzky’s previous best of six from 1987-88 and Connor McDavid’s earlier mark of six before McDavid posted seven this year. At five-on-five, Bouchard is already at 4-3-7, and his career high for goals at five-on-five is 10.
He has four already. He’s also piled up 103 points in his last 78 regular season games.
Even better for Edmonton, he’s been on for just one goal against at five-on-five and has been on the ice for all seven of the Oilers’ five-on-five goals. That’s a ridiculous start by any standard.
McDavid has been right there with him. He has seven points in two games, and Edmonton has outscored opponents 6-1 with him on the ice at five-on-five. The Oilers captain looks lined up for another huge season, and 130 points feels realistic.
The team has also come out of the gate with purpose in both games. Vancouver scored first in the opener, but Edmonton controlled the first 10 minutes anyway. That kind of start matters, especially after so many early-game stretches last season where they looked flat and disinterested.
There’s been depth production, too. The Oilers have had eight different goal scorers through two games, and that matters when you’re trying to build early confidence across the lineup. Scoring hasn’t exactly been a foreign language for this team - 14 goals in two games says enough - but getting support scoring from beyond the usual stars is still a plus.
Owen Michaels picked up his first NHL goal, and it was a good one. He found space in the low slot, took Mathieu Joseph’s pass cleanly, and beat Kevin Lankinen. The reaction was just as memorable as the finish; his yell came through clearly on the TV broadcast, which only added to the moment.
Kasperi Kapanen has also been a major bright spot. He’s already scored twice on breakaways this season, and both times the move worked.
He’s been flying. Yes, he’s been on the ice for too many goals against, but the breakdowns around him last night weren’t all on him.
Jake Walman bobbled a puck before Paul Cotter scored. Max Jones fanned on a clearing attempt before another Vancouver goal came seconds later.
A weak wrister from the point also deflected past Devon Levi. Kapanen has still looked fast and dangerous.
Vasily Podkolzin has been even more impressive. He has three goals, including two on the power play, and he’s handled different roles on the top unit.
In the opener, he filled in for Ryan Nugent-Hopkins; in Game 2, he took Zach Hyman’s spot at the net front. He scored in both spots.
That’s a strong early sign, and it only makes Stan Bowman’s trade look better.
Mike Babcock summed up the mood after the game with this: “I’ve never met a bad win,” said Mike Babcock in his post-game address to his team. “We obviously can get way better and know that and we’re going to.
We started the game like a real team; we just have to learn to maintain it.” Edmonton’s 8-2 lead in the first 28 minutes was a monster stretch, even if the game drifted after that.
The talent is obvious. So is the need to sustain the effort longer.
Now for the other side of the ledger, because the Oilers have handed out plenty of material there too.
They’ve allowed 13 goals in two games and still managed to grab three of a possible four points. That’s not a talent problem. It’s a commitment problem - or at least a problem with staying smart for more than one period at a time.
The net front has been too soft. Edmonton has to make life harder around its own crease, plain and simple. Right now, too many forwards are getting to the dangerous areas too easily.
The goaltending hasn’t been steady enough either. Tristan Jarry gave up a bad third goal in the opener and needed to make at least one save on a breakaway or partial breakaway.
Devon Levi was too active on rebounds and kept sliding too far out. Maybe the first NHL game in 21 months had him amped up, but the bottom line is the same: Levi allowed seven goals on 22 shots, and Jarry gave up six on 23.
Edmonton doesn’t need either one to be spectacular. It needs them to be dependable.
Shakir Mukhamadullin has had a rough couple of games. He’s been on for six goals against at five-on-five and has lost too many battles in front of the net.
He’s young, but he’s got to start using that big frame better. Lean on guys.
Box them out. Be harder to play against.
Ty Emberson may get his first game tomorrow against Seattle, and there’s a strong case for giving him a chance to compete for the third-pair right defense spot.
Jake Walman also looks like he needs to settle in. He’s been fighting the puck and, by the eye test, looked nervous.
The numbers back up the concern: he played 10:04 with Mukhamadullin and 10:00 with Connor Murphy. With Murphy, the shot count was 5-6 and the pair was outscored 1-0.
With Mukhamadullin, Walman was outshot 6-2 and outscored 3-0. It’s early, but that combination did not work.
McDavid, for all the production, has one shot on goal at five-on-five. That has to change. He’s said shooting doesn’t come naturally because he tends to pass first, but when he has the puck as often as he does and gets into good shooting areas, he needs to let it go more.
And finally, there’s the new goal song, Striking Oil by Royal Tusk. The issue isn’t the song itself.
The issue is that fans can’t hear it anywhere because it isn’t online. Royal Tusk was asked to send a copy, and the request went out publicly for the band to send the song to gregor@sports1440.ca so it can be played on the radio show.
Fans want to know what they’re hearing in the building.
There’s the snapshot: a team with enough firepower to overwhelm anybody, and enough sloppiness to make every game feel like a coin flip.
In Other News...
Oilers Suddenly Have A Goalie Opportunity Fans Did Not Expect
The rematch with Vancouver comes quickly for Edmonton, and it arrives with a different look in net than many fans expected. After the season-opening loss, the Oilers are turning to Devon Levi, who is set to make his debut and earn his first start of the 2026-27 season as the club tries to steady itself against the same Canucks team that handed it the opening-night setback.
The crease change comes amid a longer injury shuffle for Edmonton, with Tristan Jarry having struggled and Frederik Andersen sidelined, while the forward group is also taking hits. Zach Hyman will miss the game, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins has been moved to injured reserve, forcing the Oilers to call up Josh Samanski from the AHL to help fill out the lineup. [Read more 🡒]
Oilers Huge Night Still Left Fans Worried About One Problem
The goals came fast and the points piled up in a wild 9-7 win over the Vancouver Canucks in Edmontons second game of the 2026-27 season, the kind of night that showed why this roster can still overwhelm opponents when its best players are rolling. Connor McDavid finished with five points, Leon Draisaitl added two goals and Evan Bouchard kept driving the attack from the back end, giving the Oilers the sort of offensive burst that can make almost any early-season concern feel secondary.
Still, the unease around this start is hard to miss when the scoreline gets that messy. The Oilers were asked to win a track meet, and while they did it, the kind of defensive and goaltending stability this group usually needs never really settled in, leaving fans with plenty to celebrate and one lingering question about how sustainable nights like this can be. [Read more 🡒]
Oilers Suddenly Have A Real Chance To Test Josh Samanski
Josh Samanski has quietly become one of the more interesting depth bets in the Oilers system. The 24-year-old German centre signed a two-year entry-level deal ahead of the 2025-26 season after moving from the DEL to Bakersfield, and he already got a taste of the NHL last season when he appeared in 24 games. For a player who profiles as a potential bottom-six or middle-six centre, the next step is less about flash and more about whether his defensive game can translate when the pace tightens.
Now, the Oilers suddenly have a real opening to see what Samanski can handle under pressure. An emergency recall put him back on the NHL roster because of injuries, giving Edmonton a chance to evaluate whether his blend of size, structure and limited offense can hold up against bigger responsibilities. For a team always searching for affordable depth down the middle, his ability to survive this stretch may tell them a lot about how quickly he can move from promising call-up to something more permanent. [Read more 🡒]