{"id":908875,"date":"2026-09-25T08:02:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T08:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/908875\/"},"modified":"2026-09-25T08:02:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T08:02:10","slug":"oilers-takeaways-ahl-laden-lineup-impresses-against-canucks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/908875\/","title":{"rendered":"Oilers takeaways: AHL-laden lineup impresses against Canucks"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s either going to be a great year in Bakersfield or a very long season in Vancouver, after an AHL-laden Edmonton Oilers<\/a> roster walked into Rogers Arena and beat the Canucks 2-1 Thursday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey worked their butts off,\u201d said Oilers veteran goalie Tristan Jarry, one of only four Oilers players expected to open the season in Edmonton who made the trip to Vancouver. \u201cIn the offensive zone, the defensive zone \u2026 They were doing everything right. Just everything we’ve been going through in practice, they really implemented tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Canucks iced a lineup with roughly 16 expected Opening Night players, compared to an Oilers roster that featured three or four: Jarry, Ike Howard, No. 6 defenceman Ty Emberson, and Josh Samanski, who will likely be Edmonton\u2019s 12th or 13th forward.<\/p>\n

As for NHL games played, the Canucks lineup had 6,789 games to 1,277 for the Oilers.<\/p>\n

But it was Howard, playing his third pre-season game, who was the most dangerous player on the ice, with a goal, an assist and seven shots on goal. Quinn Hutson had the other Oilers goal and five shots on net, while Jarry allowed just one power-play marker, stopping 25 shots to all but secure the Opening Night start against these same Canucks Tuesday night in Edmonton.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was impressed with our group here tonight,\u201d Babcock said. \u201cWe found a way to get it done, and they should feel good about themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another young player who made his presence known was rugged winger Connor Clattenburg, who drilled veteran defenceman Filip Hronek, one of his game-high five hits.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like him,\u201d said Babcock. \u201cHe can skate, he’s physical. He pisses off the other team, which is kind of fun, and I like watching that. But he’s got energy, and he’s a good teammate. You know, he’s going to play here one day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Defenceman Tomas Cibulka was plus-2 with an assist in 17:00 of ice time. And Viljami Marjala, the OT hero from Tuesday night in Winnipeg, had another strong game.<\/p>\n

Expect a bunch of assignments on Friday as the Oilers get down to their NHL squad for practice. Their final pre-season game, at home against Calgary on Saturday, will be a dress rehearsal for Opening Night.<\/p>\n

Here was how the Oilers lines looked Thursday night in Vancouver:<\/p>\n

Howard-Michaels-Hutson
Jones-Samanski-Raty
Tralmaks-Marjala-Griffith
Clattenburg-Berzkalns-Lewandowski<\/p>\n

Stastney-Emberson
Stillman-Cibulka
Leppanen-Carfagna<\/p>\n

The day began with a shot across the Oilers\u2019 bow from revered alumnus Mark Messier, who questioned the whole process of hiring head coach Mike Babcock.<\/p>\n

The fact that Babcock interviewed with players, a compromised leadership group, and that too many decisions were being made by the Oilers players. It was all too much for the Oilers legend-turned-ESPN panellist.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am just horrified about the whole thing,\u201d said Messier.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think from the management to the coaching to the players, there has to be a divide,\u201d continued the guy who once installed Mike Keenan behind the bench in Vancouver as a prequel to the darkest and most futile era of his own career. \u201cThe leadership of your team has to protect the players inside the dressing room. How can you do that when you\u2019re directly involved with the decisions they\u2019re making at the management level and hiring of the management and coaches? I don\u2019t understand it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fact that a Hall of Fame Oiler had taken a strip off the current players was a hot topic at Thursday\u2019s practice.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t see a lot of headlines about any players here; I see a lot of headlines about the coach,\u201d said Oilers captain Connor McDavid.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur organization has its layers just like everyone else. My job is just to be who I am and captain of this team and make sure I\u2019m doing things right every day, and to be ready to roll.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nobody wearing blue and orange is going to speak ill of Messier, a five-time Cup winner in Edmonton. A team that accrues the Babcocks, Alex Formentons, and all the other second-chancers the way Edmonton has, better have a thick skin.<\/p>\n

It was the friendly fire that surprised, if anything.<\/p>\n

Zach Hyman, who was on the ground floor of the Babcock hire, invited Messier back to his hometown to have a look-see.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he really wants to see what\u2019s going on firsthand, he\u2019s more than welcome to come here,\u201d invited Hyman. \u201cOilers fans love him. There’s a lot of excitement, there\u2019s a lot of positivity here. Nothing but good is happening right now. So, to try and spew something negative right now, I think it\u2019s his opinion.<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t heard anything about me, Leon (Draisaitl), or Connor; it\u2019s about \u2018Babs,\u2019 which, obviously, I think he can handle that,\u201d Hyman continued. \u201cFrom a player standpoint, there\u2019s a lot of excitement with training camp, how pre-season has gone, how we\u2019ve worked in those games. I think that you\u2019re seeing changes on the ice, and it feels good as a player, and it’s all positive. It\u2019s been really good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Babcock took the high road when asked about the Messier criticism. It won\u2019t be the last blast he\u2019ll get this season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s either going to be a great year in Bakersfield or a very long season in Vancouver, after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":908876,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-908875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/908875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=908875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/908875\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/908876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=908875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=908875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=908875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}