The Edmonton Oilers are coming off a run to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final, proving themselves one of the most elite clubs in hockey. They’re favoured to win Edmonton’s first NHL championship in 35 years, picked by most league analysts as the team to beat in 2025. And they endured a nightmarish start last season, the likes of which no competitor would ever want to experience again.
With that in mind, the sellout crowd of 18,347 expected a fantastic performance from Connor McDavid and company at Rogers Place on Wednesday (Oct. 9), when the Oilers took to the ice for the first game of their 2024-25 regular season schedule against the Winnipeg Jets.
Instead, what those fans got was the worst effort in a home-opening game by the Oilers since Edmonton joined the NHL in 1979: they were defeated 6-0 by Winnipeg, tying their record for the largest margin of defeat in a home-opener, while also suffering their first-ever shutout in a home-opening contest.
Game Got Away From Oilers
Things started poorly and just got worse for the Oilers, who trailed 2-0 at the end of the first period and 5-0 after 40 minutes. Edmonton netminder Stuart Skinner allowed five goals on 13 shots before being replaced by Calvin Pickard midway through the game.
Six different Jets skaters scored, including Mason Appleton, who added two assists for a game-high three points. Longtime Oilers nemesis Connor Hellebuyck was perfect between the pipes for Winnipeg.
While the Oilers substantially outshot the visitors, 30-20, they had little in the way of quality scoring opportunities. Meanwhile, they had all kinds of breakdowns defensively, making life difficult for Skinner, who couldn’t come up with a save to save his life.
Oilers Have Bad Case of Deja Vu
Edmonton’s all-around wretched performance was eerily similar to its season-opening game of 2023-24, a humiliating 8-1 loss to the Vancouver Canucks on Oct. 11 of last year. But at least that game was on the road. On Wednesday, Oilers fans paid average ticket prices well over $100 for the right to witness a historic debacle.
The only comparable loss in a home-opener in Edmonton’s NHL history happened on Oct. 3, 1997, when the Oilers got blitzed 8-2 by the defending champion Detroit Red Wings in front of 17,099 fans at Skyreach Centre. Other than that, they had never lost by more than three goals in their first home game of a season.
Considering the Oilers are less than four months removed from coming within one goal of capturing hockey’s greatest trophy, and they boast a lineup that includes seven of the top 60 active career NHL goal leaders, no one should be panicking in Edmonton.
But Oil Country is hyper-sensitive to early-season struggles, and rightly so, after Edmonton began 2023-24 with just two wins in its first 12 games and dropped to 10 points back of a playoff spot by American Thanksgiving before the Oilers woke from their slumber to go 44-15-5 over the last 64 games.
Poor Preseason Play Carries Over for Oilers
Compounding matters is the fact that Edmonton had a dreadful preseason, for whatever that’s worth, going 3-5-0 and getting outscored 36-19, the third-worst goal differential in a single NHL preseason during the salary cap era. Prior to that, the Oilers rookies lost all three of their games while managing to score just one goal at the 2024 Young Stars Classic.
Related: Oilers’ Fans Hope Poor Preseason Is Not a Sign of Things to Come
Thus, fans have yet to see anything remotely resembling a Stanley Cup contender from the Oilers this fall, whether that be in exhibition play or now in the first game that actually counts.
Yes, there are 81 games left. Yes, last season’s Oilers proved that even several weeks of poor play doesn’t necessarily spell doom for one’s championship hopes. But there is one critical question that can be fairly asked about the Oilers after their Game 1 stinker, and that’s why, given everything, they no-showed on Wednesday night.
After the game, Oilers alternate captain Leon Draisaitl was asked by media about, essentially, preventing a repeat of the early-season spiral from 12 months ago. The forward responded, “It’s the same as last year: learn from our mistakes, do it better next game and look for a better result.”
Draisaitl, for his part, didn’t seem the slightest bit worried. Nor should he be. But Oilers fans would be much more reassured if his words are put to action when Edmonton returns to the ice for Game 2 of 2024-25, at Rogers Place against the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday (Oct. 12).
