EDMONTON — Despite many perceiving the Edmonton Oilers as the Stanley Cup favourite after a trip to Game 7 of the Final, no one thought the roster was perfect. There were a few concerns with its construction.
They all showed themselves in a dreadful 6-0 season-opening loss to the Winnipeg Jets on Wednesday, one that resembled the 8-1 beatdown the Oilers incurred in Vancouver almost a year ago to start last season.
“We have some homework to do,” defenceman Mattias Ekholm said.
Inexperience on right defence, a slower lineup, and a penalty kill working in new personnel were all question marks that proved problematic against the Jets.
It didn’t help that goaltender Stuart Skinner wasn’t particularly good. He was pulled just past the halfway point of his first season-opening start after allowing five goals on 13 shots.
Skinner stopped Mark Scheifele on a breakaway in the second minute of the game, but he had plenty of issues from there — most notably pucks beating him clean or ricocheting off him in odd ways. Last October in Vancouver, Skinner surrendered four goals on 16 shots in relief of Jack Campbell, who had the same stat line.
“I feel terrible about what happened tonight,” Skinner said. “It sucks, especially when you do it two years in a row. You just don’t want to believe that you’re going to have a crappy start again.”
“It’s very frustrating to start like this. It’s not ideal, don’t feel great.”
Stuart Skinner spoke to the media after tonight’s #Oilers loss. @Enterprise | #LetsGoOilers pic.twitter.com/WBKmGRLqan
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) October 10, 2024
Skinner fell on the sword for the loss but was far from the only one to blame.
“Some of the defensive stuff we did was pretty bad,” coach Kris Knoblauch said.
The player who was most under the microscope heading into this game was righty blueliner Ty Emberson. He got the assignment to replace Cody Ceci as Darnell Nurse’s partner on the second pair. It’s hard to imagine his Oilers debut going much worse.
The Emberson-Nurse pairing was on the ice for two goals against at five-on-five, albeit one a three-on-two rush with no support from a backchecking forward. Emberson handled the puck as if it were a jack with so many attempted passes either being flubbed or ending up on the sick of an opponent.
Emberson and Nurse were split up by the time the third period began. Nurse played with Travis Dermott the rest of the way, whereas Emberson was bumped down with Brett Kulak.
“There were a lot of guys who could have been better. I don’t think he was great, but I don’t think he was terrible,” Knoblauch said of Emberson. “He was like a lot of guys with our night, he was just there.”
Options are lacking on the right side as summertime signee Josh Brown was waived and sent to the minors after the preseason ended and Troy Stecher was scratched in favour of Dermott, a lefty.
It already looks like the Oilers are missing Ceci, the maligned veteran rearguard dealt to San Jose in a cap dump for Emberson. Same goes for the fleeter, younger players they lost in the offseason like Dylan Holloway, Ryan McLeod, Warren Foegele and Philip Broberg.
The Oilers had trouble keeping up with the Jets at key moments. That goes from the net on out.
“The game was a little too quick for me,” Skinner said. “I just wasn’t up to speed.”
“Not good enough,” Ekholm said. “I think everybody saw that.”
And then there’s the penalty kill. It was almost flawless in the playoffs but lost regulars McLeod, Foegele, Ceci and Vincent Desharnais. It allowed two goals on three Jets chances.
On the night when the Western Conference championship banner was unveiled, the Oilers looked anything but the powerhouse they’re supposed to be.
Really, it was carryover from an uninspired preseason that saw the Oilers win just three of eight games and allow six goals against four different teams. The Jets mustered only 19 shots but thrived on quality over quantity.
“There was not enough urgency in the defensive end,” Ekholm said. “That’s where it starts with this team. I know we can be better.”
The Oilers can talk all they want about their desire to turn the page from last season. The comparisons to the opener in Vancouver last October were unavoidable.
There were 11 players who suited up in Vancouver who took the ice Wednesday, plus Ekholm — injured a year ago.
“I’m not looking back to last year much,” Ekholm said. “This team is completely new in that regard and it’s a completely new situation.
“We know that we can get to a much higher standard and a much higher level.”
Of course, the season unraveled from there as the Oilers lost nine of their next 11 games to drop them to a tie with the lowly San Jose Sharks for last in the NHL. It took months to get out of that hole.
“It’s the same as last year,” Leon Draisaitl said. “Learn from our mistakes, do it better next game and look for a better result.”
That’ll have to come Saturday against Chicago. Because more showings like the one against the Jets and the Oilers will have their work cut out for them early.
“We got punched pretty good,” Knoblauch said. “We’ve always been able to respond.”
The Lavoie conundrum
The Oilers reclaimed Raphael Lavoie on Wednesday, which was inevitable after the Vegas Golden Knights put him back on waivers after picking him up Monday. If the Oilers had been the only team to select the 24-year-old winger, they could have sent him right to AHL Bakersfield. That didn’t happen.
Another team with a lower priority based on last season’s standings also put in a claim, so the Oilers now must keep Lavoie on the big-league roster or place him back on waivers.
They have another choice.
Though the Oilers don’t know which team it was that finished ahead of them last season, there are just eight of them: Colorado, Vancouver, Boston, Winnipeg, Florida, Carolina, Dallas and the New York Rangers. They can try to work out a trade for something minor in return — a mid- or late-round draft pick or a depth prospect — with one of those teams.
Failing that, and if the Oilers have little intention of playing Lavoie and would rather accrue more space, they can hold on to him and wait for a potentially more advantageous time to put him on waivers. Rosters and needs of teams are fluid. For instance, The Athletic has learned from multiple team sources that Vegas was the only club to make a claim on Lavoie on Monday.
The Oilers are mulling their options, but it’s entirely possible they’ll expose Lavoie again — as soon as Thursday. Lavoie was in the press box Wednesday night but wasn’t introduced to the fans like scratches Stecher and Evander Kane were. The preferred outcome for the Oilers is to have Lavoie in the minors as an organizational depth piece. There doesn’t seem to be a good roster fit for Lavoie’s skill set in Edmonton.
(Photo of Mason Appleton watching the puck get past Stuart Skinner for Appleton’s first-period goal: Codie McLachlan / Getty Images)
