Connor McDavid didn’t sugarcoat it after the Edmonton Oilers survived a 9-7 shootout of a win over the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday night. He had every reason to celebrate - five points in all - but the message was blunt: the problem has not been putting the puck in the net.
“Offense has never been the problem around here. We’re pretty good offensively, we understand that. You’d like it to be a lot cleaner than that coming down the stretch, but ultimately a win is a win in this league.”
That was the captain’s read after Edmonton nearly turned a dominant night into a disaster. The Oilers raced to a 5-0 lead, then pushed it to 8-2, only to watch Vancouver make things uncomfortable with a wild third period that threatened to erase all that work.
McDavid said the standard has to be what Edmonton showed early, not what it drifted into later.
“Obviously we understand the game has got to look a little bit different, but I thought, the first 40 (minutes) is what it could look like a lot of the time, and what it should look like a lot of the time. Guys working hard, tracking back, responsible with the puck, and just kind of rolling over them. That 40 minutes we have to replicate night in and night out,” he added.
McDavid finished with a goal and four assists, while Leon Draisaitl chipped in two goals and an assist and Evan Bouchard added a goal and two assists. Edmonton’s reward for hanging on was a split of the season-opening home-and-home series after dropping the first meeting 6-5 in overtime.
Coach Mike Babcock also saw two different teams in the same game.
“We know we can be way better,” coach Mike Babcock said of his first Oilers win since being hired June 23. “What I saw tonight was a group that could play right and knew what they were doing, and then I saw a group that didn't do it. So, the main thing is if you know you can do it, now you got to find a way to just rinse and repeat, do it again.”
The Oilers will try to clean it up when they host the Seattle Kraken at Rogers Place on Saturday.
In Other News...
Canucks Got Pushed Around In A Home Opener Fans Wont Forget
The Canucks home opener turned into one of those early-season nights that can shake a building, with Edmonton leaving Rogers Arena with a 9-7 win in a game that had goals coming from every direction. Connor McDavid piled up a goal and four assists, Evan Bouchard kept making history with a record-setting start for a defenseman, and the kind of weird, wide-open script that follows a season opener became the main attraction almost from the opening stretch.
For Vancouver, the aftermath goes beyond a bad result. The game featured multiple first NHL goals and even required goaltending changes, a sign of how quickly things got away from the Canucks once the scoring turned into a track meet. In a matchup that already had enough drama to stick in memory, the bigger question now is how Vancouver sorts through the defensive chaos after letting Edmonton turn opening night into a showcase. [Read more 🡒]
Canucks May Have A Jake DeBrusk Decision Flames Fans Should Watch
Jake DeBrusks spot in the lineup suddenly looks a little less settled than it did not long ago. During Canucks practice, he was not skating on a regular line, a sign that Vancouver is still searching for the right mix as it tries to find more consistency around a player brought in to help push the offense forward.
DeBrusk said he has to clean up parts of his game, while head coach Manny Malhotra framed the line juggling as an effort to test new chemistry rather than a firm judgment on one player. Even so, the Canucks know they need to tighten up defensively, and with a couple of key games looming, DeBrusks role is one of the more interesting decisions still taking shape. [Read more 🡒]
Oilers Showed Exactly Why Flames Fans Still Cant Relax
Edmonton rolled into Vancouver short-handed at forward, yet still found plenty of ways to stress the Canucks in a wild 9-7 game that felt more like a track meet than a divisional test. Even without several key pieces, the Oilers kept coming with offense, turned special teams into a weapon and made it clear that the usual safety net around a high-scoring lineup is not one rivals can count on.
The most unsettling part for Vancouver was how many different ways the Oilers could hurt them once the pace opened up. The game featured two shorthanded goals and two power-play goals, and Evan Bouchard kept adding to an already eye-catching start while head coach Mike Babcock pointed to both the upside and the fixes still needed. For the Canucks, it was a reminder that even a compromised Edmonton roster can still turn a night into a problem. [Read more 🡒]