Pre-season slog nearing its end as Oilers fall to Kraken

There’s a light at the end of the tunnel.

With seven pre-season games played, the Edmonton Oilers have only one more tune-up before they begin the 2025-26 NHL season.

The team’s penultimate exhibition match was on Wednesday night in Seattle against the Kraken. The Oilers had to call up a few recent cuts from AHL Bakersfield to fill out their roster because a bug is going around the dressing room.

The Kraken jumped out to a three-goal lead in the first period with two power-play markers and a shorthanded tally. Darnell Nurse made the score 3-1 with a goal of his own on the man advantage, then Matt Savoie brought the Oilers to within one early in the second frame, but Seattle scored again in the third to earn a 4-2 victory.

Though Edmonton doubled Seattle in shots on goal, goaltender Joey Daccord turned aside 32 of 34 shots for the win. Calvin Pickard had a difficult night for the Oilers, allowing four goals on 17 shots.

What they said

Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch on what went wrong in the loss…

“I think the overall difference in the game was the special teams. They had two power play goals and the one shorthanded, and we just had the one. But overall, I thought it was a pretty good effort from our guys.”

Edmonton winger Matt Savoie on his play in the pre-season…

“That’s my goal, just continuing to improve every single game,” Savoie said. “By the end of the year, I want to be a really big contributor here, and even at the start of the year. Game by game, I’m just working to get better and better and show that I belong.

“I think my game’s in a really good spot right now,” he added. “I’ve been working all summer, been working all camp to get to this spot, so I feel like I can be a contributor now and work towards that.”

Seattle forward Ryan Winterton on scoring two goals…

“It felt good to see some go in. On the second one, great wall play by Karts [Tye Kartye]. I kind of knew we had numbers since their deep man pinched on Karts. Freddy had guys all over him and somehow found a way to get it to me. And I was just walking down the center, just trying to get the puck up ice.”

Kraken head coach Lane Lambert on goaltender Joey Daccord…

“He’s really a professional guy who definitely hones his craft. One thing that Joey does very well is play the puck. That’s definitely a real advantage compared to a lot of other goaltenders in the league, helping our defense. But his professionalism strikes me the most.”

Up next

The Oilers will play their final pre-season game on Friday night in Vancouver against the Canucks. Edmonton’s regular-season home opener will be the following week on October 8 against the Calgary Flames.