Huge Silver Lining In Oilers Embarrassing Loss to Canucks

The Edmonton Oilers were embarrassed on Wednesday night. As head coach Jay Woodcroft said, “To a man” everyone needed to be better. The team didn’t show up with a level of compete that is going to win them any games in the regular season and a pre-season work ethic isn’t going to cut it. The Oilers should all be looking at themselves on Thursday, a day they chose not to hold a practice and will sign autographs in the evening at West Edmonton Mall and see Wednesday’s game as a wake-up call.

Related: Oilers “Laid An Egg” In Humbling 8-1 Loss to the Canucks

“We laid an egg”, Woodcroft said numerous times when speaking to the media. There’s not a whole lot more you can say. However, with the worst loss of the season hopefully out of the way, there’s also one clear message that should ring through the locker room like a fire alarm warning a sleeping family to wake up and quickly be on the move — the Oilers better get their butts in gear.

Saying They’re Contenders Doesn’t Make Them Contenders

The Oilers are being selected by many as early favorites to win the Stanley Cup. But, a few more games like Wednesday and that will change in a hurry. Perhaps a little too much confidence bled into this group. Perhaps they know how good they are and didn’t come out in Game 1 ready to prove it. If so, they were humiliated because they made that mistake.

It’s a mistake they likely won’t make again.

Their defense wasn’t good enough. They didn’t push hard enough on offense. No one helped out the goaltending. Those were just a few of the issues that the Oilers now know they need to address. They’ll take a day to reflect and stew in the shame of such a loss and get back to it on Friday. They’ll have to answer questions from fans as they sign autographs on Thursday night. Then they’ll get an opportunity on Saturday to show those same fans and the team that just schooled them that they’re better than that.

The Oilers are still contenders. They should be extra-motivated contenders now.

The Game Was So Bad, It Was An Anomaly

There is some good news in a drubbing that severe — it’s a one-off. Thinking the Oilers will perform this badly moving forward is a bad bet; there’s too much talent on this team to see these kinds of performances turn into a regular thing.

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There may be questions about the goaltending, specifically if Jack Campbell’s performances in pre-season were a fluke. Maybe Stuart Skinner’s rookie season was a nice bonus that won’t repeat itself. At the same time, this is just one game and it was good for the Oilers to learn that things can get ugly after opening night.

There’s no need to panic yet. It certainly wasn’t pretty, but the sky isn’t falling.

The Oilers should have been motivated and there’s no excuse for them to have missed the memo that the season had begun. But, if they needed a kick in the pants as a reminder that these games now mean something, they got it on Wednesday. If Saturday produces the same results against the same team, with the Oilers at home… then you worry.

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