When asked about the season opener and how the Edmonton Oilers let the Vancouver Canucks build a commanding second-period lead, leaving goaltender Tristan Jarry struggling to make several key saves, head coach Mike Babcock didn’t mince words on Tuesday night.
“Our part is to play way better. That was ridiculous,” Babcock said. “If we want to play like that, we’re going to be chasing the game.”
He was then asked whether he knew what he’d signed up for, given that this was the story of years past with the Oilers: play well enough to win by scoring a lot of goals, but also play badly enough to let teams score at will. “We’ve seen this before…” started one reporter. “I haven’t,” quipped Babcock back. The journalist went on to say, “That’s what I was going to say. …”Does changing the way this team plays and the structure this team has to play is going to be a little more difficult than maybe you first thought?”
“I don’t think so,” said Babcock. “I don’t think I thought for one second it was going to be easy. But tonight was an indication we have serious work to do.” He noted they would look at things tomorrow, show the players, and clear it up. “We started fine. But playing like that and getting away from what we’re supposed to do is unacceptable for us. So we’ve got set a better standard for ourselves.”
The Good News For the Oilers
Evan Bouchard had five points and a hat trick in the overtime loss. He fired pucks on net all night, and even simple shots went in because bodies in front of the net made it hard for Kevin Lankinen to see. This was the first hat trick by a defenseman in the opening night of the season since 1980. He was also the first defenseman in NHL history with a 5-point game in a season opener.
The effort and Bouchar’s unbelievable performance weren’t enough for the Oilers to secure two points, but it was a great start personally for the blueliner, who had 95 points in 2025-26. Babcock didn’t want to talk about it.
“To be honest with you, we’re fortunate to get a point. Great comeback, but in the end, we still gave up three chances in overtime in a minute-and-a-half.”
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