That was ultimately the catalyst in the Oilers\u2019 win, but it\u2019s the work the team put in for the preceding 57 minutes that set them up for success \u2014 beyond a sloppy second period, Oilers head coach Mike Babcock said during his post-game press conference, which began with him walking into the media room, pumping his fist, saying, \u201cWe didn\u2019t give up a touchdown.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow about that second again?\u201d he said. \u201cWe got a little roadblock with the second here. We can turn over the puck like I\u2019ve never seen before.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I actually liked our third, I liked our first. The second, we\u2019re getting in our own way, so we got to figure that out.\u201d<\/p>\n
The sloppy second saw the Kraken tie the game on a power play snipe by Bobby McMann, but the whole game got started off on the right foot for the Oilers when Owen Michaels, in his second NHL game, gave Edmonton a 1-0 lead.<\/p>\n
Just minutes into the game and with the Oilers\u2019 third line on the ice, Mathieu Joseph rimmed a puck around the boards that was stopped, bobbled, and corralled by Alex Formenton, who slid the puck down to Michaels below the left faceoff dot. Seemingly as quickly as it was on the rookie\u2019s stick, it was off and into the back of the net.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe goals are great, that\u2019s the cherry on top\u2026 but it\u2019s all the little things around the game that he does really well,\u201d said Draisaitl after the game. \u201cIt\u2019s the reason why he\u2019s still here, and he made our team. I\u2019ve been very impressed with his game.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just something I\u2019ve always taken a lot of pride in, trying to play the game the right way, play a hard 200-foot game and try to be consistent in that regard,\u201d said Michaels.<\/p>\n
Those details in his game are paying off, and so too are the details for Devon Levi<\/a>, who turned aside 19 of 20 shots for a .950 save percentage, including one in which he robbed Jordan Eberle with eight minutes left in the third period.<\/p>\n \u201cI personally walk away from that Vancouver game with just the win \u2014 that\u2019s all I took from that game,\u201d said Levi. \u201cTurn the page and get to work the next day.\u201d<\/p>\n And, credit where it\u2019s due, he did, having found out he would get the start last night against Seattle after that win in Vancouver.<\/p>\n Part of that work he put in was with another one of the newest Oilers, Frederik Andersen, who is still working his way back from a knee injury suffered in the Stanley Cup final. Babcock said the two talked about tightness, sharing some of the experiences Andersen has had throughout his 13-year NHL career.<\/p>\n It was a unique experience for Levi.<\/p>\n \u201cFreddie\u2019s been awesome so far, a lot of support from him,\u201d said Levi. \u201cI\u2019ve never really had a veteran goalie on my team. He\u2019s been through so much, and just hearing what he has to say, his leadership has been super helpful.\u201d<\/p>\n And after such a strong performance, it might be hard for the Oilers to take him out of the net Wednesday night when they begin a three-game Southern California road trip<\/a> against the Anaheim Ducks.Zach Laing is the managing editor at Daily Faceoff Edmonton and news director at The Nation Network. He can be followed on X at @zjlaing<\/a>, or reached by email at zach.laing@bettercollective.com.Letters to the Editor![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1791133572_822_image.webp\"\/)
Photoshop by Tom KostiukDaily Faceoff Edmonton wants to hear from you, the reader, in our new weekly \u201cLetters to the Editor\u201d segment. Letters can be emailed to Daily Faceoff Edmonton\u2019s managing editor Zach Laing (zach.laing@bettercollective.com<\/a>), titled \u201cLetters to the Editor.\u201d Please include a letter up to 200 words, including your name and place of residence (city, town, province, or state). Your letters may be edited for length and\/or clarity. Letters must be submitted by Sunday morning to be considered for that week\u2019s edition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hockey players are creatures of habit. Look no further than their pre-game routines. Some do visualization exercises, others…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":920510,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[49,48,23752],"class_list":["post-920509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edmonton","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-edmonton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/920509","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=920509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/920509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/920510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=920509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=920509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=920509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}