{"id":915210,"date":"2026-09-30T10:38:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T10:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/915210\/"},"modified":"2026-09-30T10:38:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T10:38:11","slug":"vancouver-canucks-straight-up-cotter-finds-a-home-in-season-opener-win-against-oilers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/915210\/","title":{"rendered":"Vancouver Canucks Straight Up: Cotter finds a home in season opener win against Oilers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Get the best of Vancouver in your inbox, every Tuesday and Thursday.\u00a0<a class=\"c-link\" href=\"http:\/\/newsletter.straight.com\/subscribe\/?utm_source=straight&amp;utm_medium=article\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" data-stringify-link=\"http:\/\/newsletter.straight.com\/subscribe\/?utm_source=straight&amp;utm_medium=article\" data-sk=\"tooltip_parent\">Sign up for our free newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Well, that was something.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Will the first game of the Vancouver Canucks\u2019 2026-27 season also be its most exciting? Probably not, just based on the odds. But also, that one is going to be tough to beat.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>We just witnessed the Canucks scoring multiple goals on a pissed-off Edmonton Oilers squad that already looked like it wanted to take starting goalie Tristan Jarry out behind the woodshed after years of squandering its Stanley Cup chances in large part thanks to goaltending.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Canucks may have already showed the Oilers what they needed to see\u2014that Jarry just isn\u2019t the answer. The Canucks scored an astounding six goals in an eventual 6-5 overtime win against Edmonton as the visitors went up 5-2 at one point thanks to some horrific Edmonton defending and weak play by Jarry.<\/p>\n<p>The Oilers battled back to score three goals and bring the game to overtime before free agent acquisition Paul Cotter played hero, scoring his second goal of the night.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/TheStanchion\/status\/2105158236311814339[\/tweet\" rel=\"nofollow\">https:\/\/x.com\/TheStanchion\/status\/2105158236311814339<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Yeah. Wow.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s our Straight recap.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Things we loved:<\/p>\n<p>The offseason acquisitions seem like they\u2019ll integrate nicely. Cotter was fantastic. Brendan Gallagher gave it his all and Jamie Oleksiak was a force.\u00a0Max Sasson, who helped create the winning goal and scored another of his own, was terrific and could really boost this team if he\u2019s going to play to that level every night. Fast, fun, and fiery, Sasson is on track to be a fan favourite.\u00a0Kevin Lankinen could really make the Canucks\u2019 record a lot better than it has any right to be if he\u2019s going to play like that.\u00a0Forward Elias Pettersson seemed particularly fired up. Yes, scoring a (nice) goal was huge. Being the first to the pile to celebrate the OT winner might have even been bigger.\u00a0No comparison <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/nuckaround\/status\/2105119119632973840\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" data-trackaction=\"\">here<\/a>. We love our cool ass coach.<\/p>\n<p>Things we didn\u2019t love:<\/p>\n<p>Related to that last note: man, it just sucks to see Mike Babcock back on a bench. Sure, there is a little solace and humour to be found in him coaching the Oilers. (I mean seriously, I have some friends who are from Edmonton and I love them\u2026 but even they have full knowledge that they are the bad guys.) But legitimately, it\u2019s mostly sad to see him yapping around behind the bench again. The guy should not be in the NHL.\u00a0This <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/passittobulis\/status\/2105156172043227228\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" data-trackaction=\"\">terrible call <\/a>on Linus Karlsson.\u00a0Those <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/Dd4indGnPtJ\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" data-trackaction=\"\">horrific vests<\/a> that they gave out to the Oilers fans. Yuck. Maybe they should separate from Canada.\u00a0Yeah, it\u2019s pretty tough to see Vasili Podkolzin turn into a legitimate player for a rival. And you just knew he was scoring that tying goal after scoring earlier as well. It is never going to get easier to understand how and why the Canucks essentially gave up the former 10th overall pick for nothing.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Funniest moment:<\/p>\n<p>It had to be the Oilers\u2019 crowd loudly cheering for a Jarry save after a run in which he let in a few in a row. At least the fans have some humour left in them.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Three stars:\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>1. Evan Bouchard<\/p>\n<p>Even in a loss, the guy put up five points. Give him his flowers.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>2. Paul Cotter<\/p>\n<p>Two goals is a hell of a way to make a debut.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>3. Max Sasson<\/p>\n<p>And a goal and an assist is a hell of a way to stay in the NHL.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Best quote:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat was ridiculous.\u201d &#8211; Oilers head coach Mike Babcock.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Get the best of Vancouver in your inbox, every Tuesday and Thursday.\u00a0Sign up for our free newsletter. Well,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":915211,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194298],"tags":[76,49,48,8497,569,16291,75,1048,1187,1554,2998,890,341,13117,3560,404,348,55],"class_list":["post-915210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-vancouver","tag-arts","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-city","tag-culture","tag-dining","tag-entertainment","tag-events","tag-fashion","tag-film","tag-food","tag-lifestyle","tag-music","tag-nightlife","tag-restaurants","tag-shopping","tag-tv","tag-vancouver"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/915210","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=915210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/915210\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/915211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=915210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=915210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=915210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}