EDMONTON \u2014 Organized? Structured? Hard to play against?<\/p>\n
Those were the slogans that accompanied Mike Babcock to Edmonton. In his first game behind the Oilers\u2019 bench, however, Babcock\u2019s team displayed exactly zero of those attributes in a thrilling 6-5 overtime loss to the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe turned the puck over. We stayed out too long on the ice. We made poor decisions,\u201d began Babcock after a game that required a late, three-goal comeback just to secure a single point for Edmonton. \u201cI mean, we gave up six tonight. I think we gave up five in exhibition (in four games).<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we want to work, we want to do things right, we’re going to have a lot of success. If we want to play like that, we’re going to be chasing the game. To be honest with you, I feel fortunate we got a point.\u201d<\/p>\n
That point came on the back of Evan Bouchard\u2019s five-point night. He had a hat trick and two helpers, becoming the first NHL defenceman with a season-opening hat trick since Mark Howe of the Hartford Whalers, way back in 1980.<\/p>\n
Amazingly, the three goals came sans the Bouch Bomb, three wristers that all found their way past Canucks goalie Kevin Lankinen.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was one of those nights,\u201d Bouchard said. \u201cBut without those guys in front none of them were going in. (Zach Hyman) was battling, (Vasily Podkolzin) is always battling in front. Without those guys they wouldn\u2019t have went in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaking of going in, let\u2019s talk about Tristan Jarrry\u2019s game.<\/p>\n
The returning Edmonton goalie who was supposed to give the Oilers a bounce-back season laid an egg in the opener. There was almost zero big saves, and simply no feeling that his team could get away with a mistake that wouldn\u2019t end up in the back of its net.<\/p>\n
Jarry let in a soft, soft goal that broke a 2-2 tie just 70 seconds int the critical third period, and before you knew it the score was 5-2 Canucks. Though he faced some very high quality scoring chances, Jarry didn\u2019t give his team a big save until overtime.<\/p>\n
Between the goaltending and the defensive play, this Oilers team looked no different than the last seven or eight editions. Loose, with lousy netminding.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s no recipe for success.<\/p>\n
\u201cI need one or two of those,\u201d Jarry admitted post-game. \u201cYou never want to get scored on. Obviously the goalie has the biggest outcome of the game and when he has those slips or those downs in a game, it makes for a (bad) game.\u201d<\/p>\n
What did Babcock think of his new goalie?<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s pretty clear,\u201d said Babcock. \u201cLet’s move on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Babcock understandably did not want to get too personal after Game 1 of an 84-game campaign. So he spoke about his team play instead.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe hard part is we have to play way better. That was ridiculous,\u201d spat the coach. \u201cYou can’t have a guy with five points and lose the hockey game. It just doesn’t make any sense.\u201d<\/p>\n
Podkolzin scored twice against the club that drafted him 10th overall, the second one a rocket that forced overtime with just 42.5 seconds left in the third period.<\/p>\n
There was a time when the Oilers were thrilled with a game like this, but that time has passed. This season was supposed to be about defensive responsibility, limiting chances, and responsible play.<\/p>\n
Then the 32nd-place team walks into your barn on Opening Night and scores six on you.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can talk about these guys and talent, but we have to do things right as a group,\u201d said a disgusted head coach. \u201cTonight, while it looked like we were trending in the right direction \u2026 the great thing about the National Hockey League is if you don’t do it right, you feel bad when you leave the rink.\u201d<\/p>\n
Folks in Edmonton have watched a version of this game for years. This was Babcock\u2019s first screening.<\/p>\n
Did he know what he was getting into when he took the gig?<\/p>\n
\u201cNot for one second did I think this was going to be easy,\u201d he promised. \u201cTonight was an indication we have serious work to do. Playing like that, getting away from the way we have to play, is unacceptable for us. We have to set a better standard for ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is what the Oilers are today, a loose team that talks a good game about responsible play. But when it doesn\u2019t go their way quickly enough, they devolve into a run \u2018n\u2019 gun, firewagon group that entertains on a Saturday night in October, but can\u2019t get it done in June.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s see where it goes, and how fast it changes, if at all.<\/p>\n
They\u2019ll reconvene in Vancouver on Thursday night.<\/p>\n
Alex Formenton got the push up to the top line when Babcock split Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl onto separate lines, playing on the left side with McDavid and Hyman. Podkolzin, Draisaitl and Kasperi Kapanen formed the second line. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins\u2019 injury at Monday\u2019s practice threw Babcock\u2019s training camp lines into the blender.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EDMONTON \u2014 Organized? Structured? Hard to play against? Those were the slogans that accompanied Mike Babcock to Edmonton.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":915155,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-915154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/915154","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=915154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/915154\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/915155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=915154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=915154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=915154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}