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Oilers got stomped 6-0 by the Jets, prompting half of the Rogers Place crowd to leave early

Originally posted on Oilersnation | Last updated Oct 10, 2024 1:28 PM ET

After feeling the lowest of the lows from being so close yet so far away from a Stanley Cup win, all we can do is get back on the horse and hope for a better result when June rolls back around. And now that I think about it, last night’s game kinda looked like the Oilers were trying to skip ahead to the playoffs because they didn’t seem all that interested in making things happen, dropping the season opener by a 6-0 beatdown.

Before Wednesday’s season opener against the Winnipeg Jets, the last game I attended was Game 7 in Florida against the Panthers. I didn’t think an evening of Oilers hockey could ever be that painful again, but to their credit, they tried their best to make it hurt again. Yeah, I know I’m exaggerating, and nothing hurts as bad as that loss back in June, but my goodness, were the Oilers ever unprepared to play this hockey game.

From start to finish, the Oilers looked like they were off by a half-turn on basically everything. Passes were either too short or too long, shots either missed the net or hit Hellebuyck right in the chest, and before the second period was over, Kris Knoblauch had already reunited McDavid and Draisaitl to try and fish for signs of life. Unfortunately, not even our nuclear deterrent was enough to wash away the stink—the boys simply couldn’t execute.

At the end of the day, the Oilers were fantastically bad in their season opener for the second year in a row, and the result left a bad taste in all of our mouths. Put another way, I don’t think I would have ever believed you if you told me that more than half the crowd would be gone by the time the 10-minute mark of the third period, but that’s precisely what happened, and rightfully so. Despite the excitement in the building leading up to the opening draw, the Oilers fell flat on their face when it came to the details.

Even though it was “nice” to see the boys outshoot the Jets by a 30-20 margin — their 65.05 CF% indicated a dominant possession performance — it’s tough to win anything in this league when you don’t score and can’t get a stop to save your life. Shots on goal are nice, but do they matter when most of them are hitting the other team’s goalie right in the crest? From my spot in the stands, the Oilers looked like a team that was still snoozing their way through the pre-season, and that was incredibly disappointing to watch, given how excited we all were to be there.

I’m sure if you asked any Oilers fan, they’d tell you they can handle losses, provided the team gave it their all. I don’t think what we got last night was anywhere close to that. On the bright side, going 81-1 will still be pretty sweet, and I think I can speak for all of us when I say that this team had better get their s--- together before we reground back here on Saturday when Connor Bedard and the Blackhawks come to town. Anything less, and you’re going to have a mighty unhappy fanbase.

OTHER THINGS WORTH MENTIONING…

Need a lil Zen after that game @tyleryaremchuk @jsbmbaggedmilk @kennedystrash @itsWozzz pic.twitter.com/KbKzJBz19x

— Captain Feltan ‍✈️ (@Captain_Feltan) October 10, 2024

Adam Lowry opened the scoring (1-0) on a nice second effort play that saw him track down his own shot attempt and bang the rebound in off Skinner while he was trying to regain his position. What I didn’t know at the time was that this goal would end up being a pretty solid indicator for how the rest of the night would go.
Just under four minutes later, Mason Appleton extended Winnipeg’s lead (2-0) with a shot from the left circle that beat Skinner low on the glove-hand side. The whole play basically came together as a result of some poor defensive coverage by the Oilers, allowing Appleton all the time in the world to pick a spot and bury his shot.
The pain continued early in the second period when Rasmus Kupari beat his man to the far post and drained the cross-ice pass (3-0) through a sliding Stuart Skinner. Honestly, this was a pretty nice play by the Jets that was able to happen because the Oilers were once again lost in their own zone.
Only 20 seconds after Kupari put Winnipeg up by a field goal, Dylan Samberg joined in on the action (4-0) with a perfectly placed shot from the high slot that beat Skinner clean over the shoulder. By no means was this one Skinner’s fault, but at this stage of the game, it certainly felt like he didn’t even have a chance of accidentally stopping that puck.
Kyle Connor continued the onslaught with a power play goal (5-0) from the right circle that ended Skinner’s night and sent a bunch of the crowd heading for the exits. Connor has been an Oilers killer over the last handful of years, and his reign of terror continued last night as he became the first player in NHL history to score goals in seven straight season openers.
By the time Mark Scheifele scored (6-0) nearly the midway point of the third period, half the building was gone and no one seemed to care anymore. It’s kinda like that old saying, “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?”
I’m not going to lie to you, friends. This was not Stuart Skinner’s night. In fact, he was awful. Stu gave up five goals despite facing only 13 shots, and I don’t think I have to tell anyone reading this why that’s a problem. Need more? No problem. Five goals on only 13 shots is good for a .615 save%, which is slightly under what you’d expected from your starter. *wink*
There were only four Oilers that didn’t have a negative +/- last night. Could you guess who they are? If you said Derek Ryan, Mattias Janmark, Adam Henrique, and Connor Brown then you’d be right. Aren’t stats fun?
The Jets blocked 29 shots last night according to the NHL’s game recap, and I’m trying to decide if they were really good at it or if the Oilers just did a bad job with their shot selection. Little of both? It’s definitely both.
The 4th line of Podkolzin, Ryan, and Perry was undoubtedly the Oilers’ most effective trio, and that’s a big problem when you’re going up against a quality opponent like the Jets. I’m not trying to slag those three guys here at all, but rather to point out how lacklustre everyone else was.
Looking at the special teams, nothing went right for Edmonton. The power play didn’t get anywhere close to a goal on their lone opportunity with the man advantage, and the PK coughed up two goals on three shorthanded situations. Needless to say, there was nothing special going on here.
The real tragedy here is that I wasn’t even able to enjoy the fact that the Oilers won 59.2% of the faceoffs. For shame.