This year feels different already and it’s only just begun. Last year was a fast start, a Covid winter, a Valentine’s coaching change and a romp across NHL cities that landed a finally balanced team in the final four. I believe they are better this time.
THE ATHLETIC!
- New Lowetide: Can Oilers winger Jesse Puljujarvi be a modern Jere Lehtinen?
- Lowetide: Why Oilers’ Evan Bouchard will be a key to 2022-23 season
- New DNB: A summer day with Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft
- New DNB: 11 bold predictions for 2022-23 season
- Lowetide: What’s Oilers prospect Reid Schaefer’s NHL ETA?
- DNB: Oilers’ missing pieces? Trade strategy? Breakout player? Mailbag
- Lowetide: 5 areas for Edmonton Oilers roster improvement in 2022-23
- DNB: Projecting Oilers’ opening-night roster
- Lowetide: Is Oilers’ Connor McDavid facing Hart Trophy voter fatigue?
- DNB: Dylan Holloway’s emergence for Oilers puts Jesse Puljujarvi’s future into focus
- Lowetide: Is this the year an Edmonton Oilers player wins the Calder Trophy?
- Jonathan Willis: Jakob Chychrun would look good on the Oilers, but is there a deal to be had?
- DNB: Oilers’ Connor McDavid may have 50 goals in his reach, but a bigger goal remains
- DNB: Darnell Nurse’s big-money contract with Oilers isn’t going to change who he is or how he plays
- Lowetide: Edmonton Oilers reasonable expectations for every player in 2022-23
- Lowetide: Oilers top-20 prospects, summer 2022
WHAT TO EXPECT IN OCTOBER
- At home to: VAN, CGY, BUF, CAR, STL, PIT (Expected 4-1-1) (Actual 0-0-0)
- On the road to: STL, CHI, CGY (Expected 1-1-1) (Actual 0-0-0)
- Overall expected result: 5-2-2, 12 points in 9 games
- Actual October results: 0-0-0, 0 points in 0 game
- Oilers in 2022-23: 0-0-0, 0 points in 0 game
One never knows about a team, but the first 10 games of a season (and the next 10) are vital. Edmonton was 8-1-0 after nine games one year ago, I have them less sensational but still within the range of a division winner at 5-2-2. The two losses are Carolina at home and Calgary on the road.
LINEUP
There’s some worry about Kailer Yamamoto and Warren Foegele, both men are not 100 percent and it’s possible morning recall Devin Shore makes the lineup. This is current wisdom, after the game starts tonight I’ll change to reflect the actual lineup (I like to refer back as time goes by).
- Kane-McDavid-Puljujarvi
- Holloway-Draisaitl-Hyman
- McLeod-Nuge-Foegele
- Malone-Shore-Ryan
- Nurse-Ceci
- Murray-Bouchard
- Kulak-Barrie
- Campbell (Skinner)
Even without the two injured wingers, Edmonton has three solid lines. The fourth line is less impressive than hoped from the Woodcroft coaching team, but injuries have influenced it and allowances must me made. There’s a logic and reason to this list, I’m especially pleased to see Jesse Puljujarvi at the No. 1 RW spot. As my article at The Athletic shows today, he can also wheel with Leon Draisaitl.
THE 2015-16 OPENING NIGHT LINEUP
- L1: Benoit Pouliot—Ryan Nugent-Hopkins—Teddy Purcell
- L2: Taylor Hall—Connor McDavid—Anton Slepyshev
- L3: Lauri Korpikoski—Anton Lander —Nail Yakupov
- L4: Rob Klinkhammer—Mark Letestu—Matt Hendricks
- D1: Andrej Sekera—Mark Fayne
- D2: Oscar Klefbom—Justin Schultz
- D3: Griffin Reinhart—Eric Gryba
- G1: Cam Talbot (Anders Nilsson)
- Extras: Luke Gazdic, Andrew Ference, Brandon Davidson
- Injured: Jordan Eberle, Dillon Simpson
This is the first NHL game for Connor McDavid, a 3-1 loss to the St. Louis Blues (Nuge unassisted was the only goal). There were some legit issues on this team (defense was too slow, with Fayne, Reinhart and Gryba sundials on the blue). Strengths included the top two lines and goalie Cam Talbot.
THE 2005-06 OPENING NIGHT LINEUP
- Smyth-Horcoff-Dvorak
- Torres-Peca-Hemsky
- Moreau-Stoll-Pisani
- Harvey-Reasoner-Laraque
- Pronger-Staios
- Ulanov-Smith
- Cross-Bergeron
- Conklin (Markkanen)
One of my all-time favourite Oilers opening night lineups. Chris Pronger’s season in the great white north was the most relaxing in history. He was so good defensively it was painful to see him go. For me, this represents the ultimate MacTavish. He has a bunch of MacTavishes and has sprinkled in the offensive talent (Smyth, Hemsky, Bergeron) with plenty of support. If there’s one thing I could change in life from a sports perspective, it would be the result of Game 7, 2006. The Monday homer hurts more, but this team should have won Stanley.
TONIGHT
I have tonight as a win. Not an easy victory, because the Vancouver Canucks have a great goaltender and an elite talent in Quinn Hughes. I’ll be interested in seeing who wins the shot share, how calm the Oilers are in their own end, and how much the additional speed will impact the game. Heaven help the slow movers in tonight’s game, there aren’t many left.
JAY WOODCROFT AND DAVE MANSON
When I was a kid, my brother had a record by Tommy James and the Shondells. I think it was a greatest hits album. Anyway, one of the songs was called “Mirage” and for 50+ years when I think of that word, sure as hell James voice comes to me and sings the hooks like it was yesterday.
One of the things we can’t really measure today, but will be able to discuss tomorrow, is innovations of the coaching staff. I can’t say for certain the biggest acquisition of 2022 was the coaching change, but I do believe it to be true.
LOWETIDE AND JAMIESON
Overture, curtains, lights! This is it, we’ll hit the heights, and OH what heights we’ll hit, on with the show this is it! 10-2 today, TSN1260. McCurdy and more, it’s opening night. 10-1260 text, @Lowetide on twitter. Talk soon!
Woodcroft Highlights:
“We found a way to win the game. That’s a good sign.”
“The hard part tonight with 11 forwards is we took so many penalties.”
On the Holloway gaffe: ” I felt confident in him. I put that line right back out there. That was a young mistake, I think he was trying to make a play. A pretty good player was sitting in the weeds…”
“We expect all of our Dmen to penalty kill”
A clear difference in the philosophy between two coaches. Tippett would have stapled Holloway’s ass to the bench after that play. Woodcroft puts him right out there again.
One builds confidence long term. The other approach, regressive and likely to devalue the kid’s confidence.
I thought Ryan McLeod skated parsecs at lightspeed tonight. Made some smart plays with the puck in the OZone and might have been the most consistently responsible tonight.
Hyman is sooooo under-rated. He scores 11g in the playoff and barely gets a mention because our top 3 scored 400 points. His contribution to the 4th goal tonight was awesome…this guy is the goods, he’s in his prime and is exactly what we need complimenting our skill in the top 6
Starts with the defensive zone block, the zone exit, the bull rush up the ice, finds Connor.
He surprises so many defenders by skating right into pressure. I think they’re honestly surprised half the time…
He’s coming right at me… it’s a trap!
I’d like to formally adjust my opinion on D. Ryan. He looked good tonight, I was afraid he had lost a step based on pre-season performance but he looked, quick, fast, smart tonight. It appears he’s an avg 3rd liner or excellent 4th liner
Well done.
Swiss league size & skill, NHL brain. He thinks the game so well that he’s useful. Not many players like this. I love that he took that high stick and still skated the puck out of the zone. Not waiting for another missed call to end up in his net.
what a player!
Judging vets in preseason is problematic at best.
Certainly our focus on what can improve on the team has shifted in the last 15 years so added scrutiny on the bottom 6 makes sense.
Perspective….
We have the luxury of Darnell Nurse, a 27 year old dman, a top 10 pick, with ~500 games and ~ 200 points for the next 8 years starting today….he’s a cornerstone of this franchise…
Darnell has so much personality, that interference penalty reminded me of Pronger in 06, the guy is a beast.
Darnell is the right ventricle of this team, he’s probably the guy Conor hands the cup to in June.
McDavid to Leon to Nuge to Nurse…..
I think Draisaitl will make sure McDavid hands it to Nugent-Hopkins.
Postgame show behind a paywall now. Gouge gouge gouge bedtime
Someone posted the updated concessions on Twitter today, and there’s a 2-popcorn + 2-pop combo for $36.50. Their cost is probably like $1-2 on that, max.
In entertainment, the cost of the good is almost irrelevant to pricing.
Campbell stopped 4 breakaways. Mcdavid with the Hattie. Good win from a veteran team. If they could only start on time. Down 2-0 or 3-0 has got to stop.
Paging jtblack
This is exactly the stat line I was talking about this morning. Some weaknesses but Giants walk among us offensively. The chatter around “the race to 1,000” will pickup late this year.
Word of the season should be “peaking.” If us fans keep peaking in mind we’ll have fun.
Ok youngins you got the first one out of the way. Shake off the wobbles and let’s get cooking!
Going to be a fun year.
164 point pace boys keep it rolling
Oilers used nine different forwards on the PK tonight.
And they were VERY effective. Canucks scored 1 / 8 on the PP. So we were quite impressive. We gotta take fewer penalties though.
Scott Awkward:
I know it’s never your preference to talk about personal milestones, but you reach 700 points tonight, three and one to get 701 in fact, in 488 games, and I think that deserves a comment… Anything?
Connor:
You know what, tonight was for our buddy Ben. We miss him. For the whole Stelter family, we think about him. I said a little bit ago that I think about him after big wins, and tonight was a big win and I’m thinking about him. His famous saying was, “Play La Bamba, baby!” so I think we’ll have to listen to that tonight.
Oh captain, my captain!
McDavid the 6th fastest player to reach 700 career points (488 games) in NHL history.
Nurse had a nice edge to his game.
“Connor McDavid has no personality.”
That interview with Scott Oake says otherwise. Asked about 700 points in 488 games and he deflects to talking about Ben instead. He’s the best player in the world, and perhaps the most humble/modest as well (relative to his skill).
I thought that was an excellent excellent interview as well
Might Kane get a call from the league on the high stick to Hughs?
Why? Ceci and Ryan got high sticked you don’t here anyone whining for Kanuck suspensions.
Might the NHL overlook a chance to screw over the Oilers?
Kane is pretty filthy out there – the kind of player you hate when he plays for the other team and love when he plays for yours.
Game was won on special teams and McDavid/Drai – interesting.
Add in a little Jack Campbell…..what a 2nd half of the game.
He could of easily have been rattled after the start he had. Geez the Kanucks sure had a lot of good looks
Nurse with more than 26 minutes. I’ve obviously been critical of the contract (drink!), but the man’s a horse, even as he still has a little more chaos than we might like.
I think the mins he logs and percentage of those mins on the pk and against elites as well his effectiveness in those mins aren’t correctly factored into the contract calculation.
Your millage may vary.
That bad angle shot that almost banked off of Campbell and in…. that’s the type of shot that goes in on Smith like every time.
I found myself basically expecting that to go in…
Post
Traumatic
Smith
Disorder
Minor downer stat: the only top-six forwards to be held scoreless were Puljujarvi and Holloway…the two I think we most wanted to see have a good game.
(I’m defining “top-six” based on the lineup going into tonight’s game…by time on ice (all game states), RNH and MacLeod came in at five and six, with Puljujarvi a distant seventh and Holloway ninth,)
JP had a great game and I was a little bummed to see the coach pull the chain in the 2nd half.
JP plays like that for 81 games and we’ll be a very happy fanbase
Mostly based on the fact that neither are penalty killers. I’m sure the coaching staff would have liked to see them more. Especially JP, who I thought had a really good game.
Yeah, they were in fact the only Oilers not to get time on the PK tonight.
They could probably get a way with just showing a video replay of these three stars for the rest of the homestand
This is going to be awesome reading back through this thread after fact.
I can’t wait to see the point HH goes from strutting to silent that I’m sure occurs.
Don’t feed the…..
I’m sure he secretly has a McDavid jersey.
The Canucks kinda look like the same team as last year. Wait – it IS the same team! What a surprise. They had that game and blew it, pissed away at least a loser point as well.
I thought Campbell was excellent too. He didn’t steal the game in the traditional sense but that was almost 40 min of shutout hockey.
Onto the redesigned Flames next. Don’t take a penalty….
Campbell shut the door and gave his team to come back in this game. The boys were able to outscore their mistakes … hopefully that was just opening night jitters.
Play La Bamba Baby!
Oilers win.
Quinn looks like he’s going to cry. He’ll have to cry himself to sleep on his Devils pillow.
Despite the ref’s best efforts, the Oilers have tucked this game safely into bed, gave it a kiss on the forehead, and wished it goodnight
The Oilers won’t be denied. The Canucks had them down 3-0 and they folded faster than Superman on laundry day.
That was fun
I am so fucking happy that Evander Kane is an Edmonton Oiler! He’s been everything this team has needed, and more!
He’s going to score 70.
82*3 = 246?
Yeah, but a nightly hat trick’s probably not sustainable…I doubt he finishes with more than 100.
Thank you Jack.
Thank you Leon.
Thank you Connor.
Get lost stripes.
Sick play by Kane! Hat trick for Connor. Love that play by Kane!!
And people questioned whether Kane would make a good teammate.
Kane is able, but defers to the Captain for the hatty.
Biblical!
2nd opening night hat trick of his career
Unselfish play by Kane there to get McDavid the hat trick. Locker room cancer!
Let’s take the 2 points and run….
…and don’t look back
beat 2 teams to get it
Such an unselfish play
Sportsnet really wants Oiler fans to watch the opposing teams broadcast this season. Noted.
Not a fan of the play by play tonight….
I thought it was fine
It was meh…. At best.
If a team scores on a PK with the goalie pulled, does that count as a shorthanded goal?
Yes, I think it does. Shorthanded goes by the number of players on the ice (rel the opposition number), not the number of non-goalies.
Makes sense, thanks for the explanation!
I appreciate the even up call but neither needs to be made….
Nice shot, Snoozemenko.
Are they going 6 on 4?
Louie strongly suggests Hyman clipped a guy on purpose
Louie is aiming for a new market.
The fans cheering the ref falling XD
Louie wtf, he didn’t bulldoze into him. Demko sold that like a used car salesman.
Is Tom Brady in net for the Canucks? That’s not a penalty.
Man that’s not a good call….
Connor and Leon will not be denied.
What a bullshit call on Kane. Gimme a damn break.
How in gods name is that a penalty
Game Management.
that is an absolutely horrible call
Guys, there’s still 4 minutes left. Bear down