The greatest games in the series are decades old and many of the warriors who engaged creak when getting up for the day, but when both teams are good, the Oilers-Flames games matter in a way others do not, even in a regular season. Edmonton and Calgary enter the contest 1-0-0, and most believe each will be at the top of the Pacific at the end. The long journey for the Pacific title starts tonight.
THE ATHLETIC!
- New Lowetide: Edmonton Oilers early impressions from season-opening win
- New DNB: Oilers must adapt to short-handed lineup because it’s coming again
- Lowetide: Can Oilers winger Jesse Puljujarvi be a modern Jere Lehtinen?
- DNB: Oilers goalie Jack Campbell enters season intent on exceeding expectations
- 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 1-0-0)
- 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: 1-0-0, 2 points in 1 game
- Oilers in 2022-23: 1-0-0, 2 points in 1 game
This homestand could set up the team for the first half of the year. Tonight’s game is one of the toughest of the month. The Buffalo game is the first one we could reasonably expect to see Stuart Skinner, and by that time most all of the key players on the team will have played.
POSSIBLE LINEUP
- Zach Hyman [0-2-2]—Connor McDavid [3-1-4]—Jesse Puljujarvi [0-0-0]
- Evander Kane [0-1-1]—Leon Draisaitl [1-2-3]—Kailer Yamamoto [first game tonight]
- Dylan Holloway [0-0-0]—Nuge [0-0-0]—Warren Foegele [first game tonight]
- Brad Malone [0-0-0]—Ryan McLeod [0-0-0]—Derek Ryan [0-0-0]
- Darnell Nurse [1-1-2]—Cody Ceci [0-0-0]
- Ryan Murray [0-0-0]—Evan Bouchard [0-0-0]
- Brett Kulak [0-0-0]—Tyson Barrie [0-1-1]
- Philip Broberg (may play first game tonight)
- Jack Campbell [1-0-0] [3.01] [.917]
- Stuart Skinner (has not yet played)
MILAN TICHY
The Oilers have hired Milan Tichy away from the Columbus Blue Jackets. He was a scout for that team for 23 years, and one with the Nashville Predators in 1998-99. It’s never easy to identify connections, but he would have worked with Tyler Wright in Columbus from 2007-13.
Gare Joyce, in his brilliant book “Future Greats and Heartbreaks” has several passages about Tichy. During his time with the Blue Jackets, the team invested heavily in Europe. Among the names he might have had an impact in drafting are Rastislav Klesla (659 NHL games), Nikola Zherdev (421), Lukas Sedlak (164), Joonas Korpisalo (182), Alexander Wennberg (553), Vladislav Gavrikov (206), Markus Nutivaara (275), Alexandre Texier (123), Emil Bemstrom (117), Yegor Chinakov (64) and this past summer David Jiricek.
CONDORS GAME ONE
Bakersfield begins season number eight in the AHL tonight, I’ll have a preview article up at The Athletic this afternoon. Players I’ll be watching closely are Xavier Bourgault, Tyler Tullio, Carter Savoie (when healthy), Raphael Lavoie (ditto), Markus Niemenlainen, Mike Kesselring, Philip Broberg when he’s down there, Ryan Fanti and Olivier Rodrigue.
Players destined to help the teams as veterans/possible recalls are Calvin Pickard, Jason Demers, Mattias Janmark, James Hamblin, Greg McKegg, Klim Kostin, Seth Griffith and Devin Shore/Brad Malone.
What a disappointing start to the BoA. How do you get this team to start on time? Manwood has a lot of work to do. In two games, I have seen pure chaos and horrid defensive structure. Either he is being outcoached right now, or the players aren’t listening. We barely made a pass correctly tonight…
Drai was awful…I lost count at 10 turnovers.
McD didn’t have his supernova speed…he had trouble finding his normal space that’s created by his speed.
Pool…not even sure he played tonight? Even when I did see him on the ice, I closed my eyes.
Yams looked ok…he needs strong players to play with or he becomes ineffective.
Nuge…good game.
Hyman…worked hard. Like always.
Kane…disappeared, then reappeared, then disappeared. Nice pass to McD for the PP goal.
McLeod…might need to start playing on the top 2 lines. He’s good….really good.
Hollywood…still looks like a rookie, but I’d give him more icetime.
Foegele…liked his play but he has to stop throwing pucks away for no reason.
Ryan…meh.
Malone…laid some huge hits. We needed him in the BoA tonight.
Defense….horrible. All of them…except Ceci.
Stu was good and Campbell is getting hung out to dry. This could be a really good tandem if the team gets on the same page and plays structured hockey. Chaos will kill us.
Cody Ceci had a *horrific* line change contributing to a GA
Brownj: “The Oilers now have a reputation as slow starters. You don’t think teams come in and think let’s get them down early?
Drai’s quadriceps on are on my screen, but they’re muted.
Thank Gord, Pierre Maguire is at home and in bed with his Sidney Crosby “action figure.”
Reid Wilkins with the ultra-sarcastic ode-intro to the Oilers showing up on time tonight
This is all on our D imo
Milan Lucic tonight
CF% 73
FF% 82
SF 8 / SA 1
GF 1 / GA 0
Big Looch is 34 now
These numbers match the eye test.
Evan Bouchard quietly -3 on the night.
He’s like a better version of Quinn Hughes.
Better at what?
Not getting IDed for starters
Skinner was likely already slotted for the Buffalo start. Could get interesting if he plays out of his socks there too.
I hope the objective is to get Broberg 50 GPs by season’s end. The talent is there. Just needs to find his groove with the NA game.
The 2nd D pairing will make or break this team’s Cup chances.
Bob still pushing Nemo.
TTYTT, I think they should go 11-7.
And then Brown says the same
Call them both up and send Murray down. Run 11-7 and let Broberg and Niemo both audition for the role.
I’d try Nemo and Murray and Barrie as the bottom three first. And depending how his next few games go, I might give Desharnais a look before Broberg first. When Bro comes up next, I want it to be for the last time.
Deharnais is still hurt and won’t be back soon.
Thought he was due back at the end of this week?
Throw Murray on LW for the odd shift or two. He was more noticeable (in the good way) going forward anyways.
Better get their shit together or they can lose a ton of games with this sked which is no walk in the park. We historically suck against Buffalo and then it’s Canes, St. Loo and Pitt.
Stauffer: “They better start playing.”
Ryan Murray was god awful tonight
CF% 37
GF 1 / GA 3
4 teams in the last 4 years for Ryan….
Kulak in game 1 and now Murray in game 2.
Its early, and Ryan Murray had lots of accomplices, but our team D is really lacking to start.
Skinner deserves huge credit for keeping us in it.
Oilers baby stepping into the season. Intensity sorely lacking and attention to detail MIA.
A coach’s work is never done.
We have been talking about pathetic starts for at least half a decade now….3 coaches.
Its just odd now
Hyman McLeod Skinner best in blue tonight, but bar set low by the rest
I thought Ceci was quite good as well.
OT in Bakersfield was super entertaining and, from what I saw when I looked over, most of the game was like that. Pickard was very good until he made a poor decision, trying to toss a glove save in OT, gave it away right in front for the losing goal against.
I think we all under-estimated how important Duncan Keith was for the Oilers. he wasn’t perfect, but man he made a difference. Not sure if the d-corps we have right now will cut it.
skinner did well tonight. not alot of help
One good period only and you get a one goal loss.
I’m glad the talent level is such that they still should have won the game – but this is not the way this team should be playing at all.
This team should try playing all three periods.
Let’s take it one step at a time and at least try playing a 1st period.
Sleeping at the start of games can be costly….
So is Skinner an exhaustive list of tonight’s positives?
.915 now, by the way.
Holy hell can McDavid carry the puck. And other novel observations from “Steve”.
that was impressive
Some really odd stuff from both 29 and 97.
29 playing like he still needs to stand still.
97 too deferential. Looking instead of driving.
Way too much of the last sentence from the whole team
Everything is kept on the perimeter…
29 with some odd decisions with the puck tonight
Yep.
He played like he bet against the Oilers.
Game gets tied up on a Stuart Skinner breakaway goal.
Like what kind of breakout was that supposed to be?
Lol, pick a breakout, any breakout
Murray becomes the 7th D after tonight for a long while imo.
Holland needs to try and somehow land that Swedish Jake fella in Arizona.
The guy that had both ankle and wrist surgery this off-season and hasn’t even skated with his team yet?
Bouchard whiffed that. Damn.
well Yams seems more involved in the play on the Highlander’s line
Credit where it’s due: that was a nifty play by Bouchard.
In other news, I’m not seeing Puljujarvi good.
He’s late to most pucks
And when he gets to pucks, he promptly turns the puck over. He is what he is … a third line winger.
He leads the team in third assists!!!
Yam’s best shift of the game
That PP made them anxious
Oilers do not deserve this game
If they can bang one in, it will be a huge win. Especially for Stu
Way too many D getting walked wide tonight.
Maybe they all have torn hip adbuctors?
Kulak has had a brutal night and he isn’t the only D in that sense. Didn’t think we would miss Keith so much….
Don’t miss that contract of his.
Need to slow there forecheck with a little obstruction
They’re not a slow team. Get caught going the wrong way or even just with your weight on the wrong foot and you’re beat. We do the same to teams.
May the fates continue to bless Stuart Skinner and his posts of destiny.
Skinnergy = where a goalie and his goal posts create a force field greater than the sum of its parts.
This is the Skinnerverse!
Stuart “Kang” Skinner
Career NHL SV% now .914.
If the Oilers let the Flames have another 50 shots tonight, imagine how high it will go!
.923, assuming he stops them all.
Holy Hell Ceci – blocks!
that’s about as good as I’ve seen our Pk broken down
What puck does Hyman not get to first?
Sportsnet aka Mike Stone’s PR agency.
50/50 at $917K
Ron MacLean just said “Joman Rosi”. Teehee.
Brown pointing out that McLeod’s goal doesn’t happen without Murray pulling the coverage and making the pass.
Are we supposed to ignore what happened in the previous 90 minutes of hockey?
It’s a bit of a blur to me. Realized my new weiner-dog puppy likes watching hockey from my knee.
Are we supposed to ignore good and important plays because or previously poor plays?
I’m beginning to understand the Kassian etc thing
:-p
No, and Brown never suggested as much but none of that negates his play on the McLeod goal.
Just got back from training and its 3-4 not 1-4 lol nice way to get the 2nd period now go out and score another 2 goals to seal the deal.
I’d inquire as to what kind of training, but I’m afraid to ask
kung fu training lol
I think this Mr. Cloud fella has some talent.
Bouch is having a bad game. Another give away
-3 tonight. Thank Gord plus/minus is meaningless.
Is Bouch providing more evidence that “development is not a straight line” or is this just a 2 game (so far) blip as he finds his game? Holy Hell!
No, I cannot agree that his struggles are all partner-induced.
Nit unless his partners make his decisions and move his feet and stick for him
Keith would get Bouchard moving with his quick passing.
lucic caught Bouch from behind in the 1st period. That should not happen
Shush–he’s just keeping his next contract affordable.
who the hell was that pass to?
Bouchard getting noticed for the wrong reasons tonight
It seems that it is going to be a tubthumping type of season.
Hehe…
I GET KNOCKED DOWN! BUT I GET UP AGAIN!
Am I imagining it, or have the Oilers broken an unusually large number of sticks tonight?
Breaking sticks is a good sign.
Compare this with Oilers sticks being unmarked, and in perfect shape from game to game.
Leon’s having a rough game. Can’t seem to get moving. Lots of iffy passes.
And only two points!
He is literally that good.
He’s been the best Dman tonight by a long stretch.
…I’d bring up his salary but I have a limited amount of beer.