Pre-Scout: Oilers look to shake sloppiness against Seattle

Has there ever been such an enthralling, yet disorienting and disappointing win for a team that scored nine goals as the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday night?

Credit to you if you shut the game off after the first period. Heck, even at the midway point when the Oilers went up 8-2, you — a rational and reasonable hockey fan who wanted a head start on sleep probably flipped the game off.

But you missed a whole lot else. If the Canucks hadn’t punted on the game earlier, leaving poor Kevin Lankinen in net for eight goals, it could’ve been even scarier than a two-goal game with roughly 13 minutes left in regulation.

Never has a player tallied five points, with his team scoring nine goals, but looked so disappointed in his post-game scrum as Connor McDavid did. The guys know.

“No one’s in here saying ‘Way to go!’ We understand the game’s got to look a little bit different,” said McDavid afterwards. “But I thought the first 40 is what it could look like a lot of the time. What it should look like a lot of the time.”

The first period was as dominating as the Oilers have played in recent memory, and after renewed injury issues with Zach Hyman’s upper-body ailment announced earlier in the day, Edmonton is missing significant pieces from the forward group.

Not to fear, until there was much to fear.

Edmonton Oilers vs. Seattle Kraken

• Date: Saturday, Oct. 2, 2026
• Puck drop: 5:00 p.m. MT
• Location: Edmonton, Alta.
• Venue: Rogers Place
• How to watch: Sportsnet West

Making sense of it all…

There is a whole lot of work to do, and with the premise that Ridiculous Per 60 would be brought down in the Mike Babcock regime, it’s only been ratcheted up to 11 through the first two outings.

Sure, there is unavoidable adversity with the injuries, but the coaching staff might be creating more than necessary with lineup decisions.

The Colton Dach-centred lines are struggling and were hemorrhaging goals against in the third period. Josh Samanski was recalled but played the fewest minutes among Oilers forwards, despite the need for some quiet in the game.

Max Jones, God love him, is out of his depth if played too often. Isaac Howard’s place is puzzling. The defensive pairs are looking for chemistry, especially when Jake Walman is out there. He seems a bit lost, slow, and not with the program, and paired with Shakir Mukhamadullin, they struggled mightily.

There are some quick fixes, or at least some things that have worked in the past that could be worth repeating, but this is where we reside in the Babcock era. He is learning what he has, but it’s his very nature to have strong opinions on what he wants to see, and that’s been reflected in some of the lineup decisions.

Plus, overall, there’s the emotional component, where the Oilers were so completely dialled in after 20 minutes, and yet twice in a row, to begin third periods have been flatter than Kyrie Irving’s Earth.

You can’t rule out the feeling that this is an extension of the pre-season. There have been several lopsided box scores across the NHL in its first few days. Maybe it’s the veteran cap of two pre-season games, or the number of personnel and coaching changes, but as I expected, there’s a lot of sloppiness in starting the season sooner and reducing the ramp-up time.

The Edmonton-Vancouver mini-series finished 14-13 in favour of the Oilers. Whether it was 1980s nostalgia night, or their body clocks haven’t adjusted and now will get going with the usual 82 games to go, it’s been chaotic.

Babcock told his locker room that he’s never met a bad win, but that doesn’t absolve the second half of the game, either.

“What I saw tonight was a group that could play right and knew what they were doing, and then I saw a group that didn’t do it,” said Babcock. “The main thing is if you know you can do it now, you got to find a way to just repeat, repeat, rinse, repeat, do it again.”

With that said, it’s three out of a possible four points thus far, and that isn’t inconsequential. There are seeds of good performance.

Seattle starts hot

Vince Dunn scored a goal and two assists, Jared McCann supplied three helpers, and the Seattle Kraken rolled over the Calgary Flames 6-1 on Thursday night.

A tidy start to the season for the Kraken, who finished 27th in the league last year and went out with a whimper down the stretch, winning just two of their final 10 games.

The off-season was similarly uninspiring.

They spent a first- and second-round pick to acquire Mackie Samoskevich from the Florida Panthers. They locked up Bobby McMann to a long-term contract.

But they were rebuffed by Jason Robertson, who turned down their alleged $14 million offer, and their once high-prized draft pick Shane Wright wants out, but without a dance partner, has elected to stick around.

A 6-1 win to start the season? Especially as the Flames host their last home opener in the Saddledome? A beautiful start to embarrass their hosts.

“It was a great win,” said Matt Beniers, who had one of the six markers, plus an assist. “A lot of fun to play in there. It was kind of rocking, so it’s always fun to play in a packed building that’s loud and passionate. Fun for us, but I thought we played a good 60 minutes, so I think we were all happy with that.”

Seattle was hot and cold last season, finishing 34-37-11, fifth-worst in goals for, and 10th-worst in goals against.

They have a well-rounded roster in one sense, but little pop. No stars. It’s easy to see why they were interested in Robertson’s services, but from a league-wide perspective, the franchise’s initial excitement has been severely dampened.

Jared McCann plays a lot into their hopes, and he missed 30 games last season with lower-body injuries and chronic pain.

He feels better now and chipped in three assists to turn the page. Although Jordan Eberle is the captain and led the team in points with 55 in 2025-26, McCann has been the engine driving the franchise since its inception. Questions will loom about him with one season left on his $5 million contract.

As they enter Edmonton on Saturday night, they will look awfully similar to the team that struggled against the Oilers a year ago, but represent a step up in class from the Canucks.

Let’s see Jarry again

Devon Levi’s debut is hard to evaluate. On the one hand, he was not sharp and struggled with rebounds and reading plays, but it was also a strange night where he saw two shots in the first hour of real time, then odd flurries of chances.

I’m sure he was disappointed by how the night went, knowing there is legitimate opportunity and runway in the NHL with a new team. But it did not go well.

He’s young in NHL terms, getting his first start in the league in over two years, and it won’t happen overnight. But with him and Tristan Jarry starting this way, neither has inspired confidence in their teammates or the fanbase so far.

To me, it makes all the sense in the world to go back to Jarry. Call it somewhat of a wash in the first two games, reset, and allow Levi to recalibrate while Jarry won’t stew on Tuesday’s performance.

With the upcoming schedule, that could give six days between starts if Levi is kicking in Anaheim on Wednesday, and a week between starts for Jarry if they continue to alternate. At this point, I think it’s the right call, but we’ll see how Babcock is feeling. Levi did get a win, after all, but had the best run support you’ll ever see.

Oilers Notes:

• New Evan Bouchard record: his eight points to begin the season surpassed Harry Cameron back in 1917-18 for the most in two games by a defenceman to start a season. That is also a franchise record, surpassing starts by Wayne Gretzky (1987-88) and McDavid (2016-17). McDavid has seven.
• Bouchard has been terrific, no doubt, and has provided stability and great puck touches to anchor the backend. Trying to find other pairs is the trick right now, particularly for Jake Walman and Connor Murphy. Murphy’s partner in Darnell Nurse is gone, and Walman is missing the stability of Ty Emberson on his right side. To bolster the defensive corps, Emberson playing makes the most sense, and Spencer Stastney may also be considered.
• Thursday was McDavid’s 15th five-point game in the NHL, tying him for the seventh most in NHL history, and now in sole possession of second in Oilers history. Gretzky had 79 five-point games. McDavid will also surpass Shawn Horcoff tonight for the eighth most games played in franchise history.
• Bobby McMann produced a career-high 29-goal season last year. After being acquired by Seattle, he scored 10 goals and 14 points in 18 games. However, he was one of just four Kraken forwards not to register a point on Thursday.
• There will be a few days to exhale and practice for the Oilers after this one, as they’ll embark on a three-game SoCal road trip that doesn’t begin until Wednesday. It’s an odd trip with multiple days between each game. Meanwhile, Seattle will head back home quickly for their home opener on Sunday night against the Flames.
• Since Seattle entered the league, Edmonton has owned this head-to-head. The Oilers went 3-1 last year, are 8-1 at home, and 15-4 all-time.