Oilers have 'serious work to do' under Babcock after season-opening OT loss

EDMONTON -- The Mike Babcock era did not get off to the start expected by the Edmonton Oilers.

Following a 6-5 overtime loss to the Vancouver Canucks at Rogers Place on Tuesday, it seems that the job of getting Edmonton to play a more structured, defensive game might be more difficult than some anticipated.

“I didn’t think for one second it was going to be easy,” Babcock said. “Tonight was an indication that we have serious work to do, and so we’re just going to have a look at it tomorrow and show the players and clear it up.

“But playing like that -- we started fine -- but playing like that and getting away from what we’re supposed to do is unacceptable for us, so we have to set a better standard for ourselves.”

Babcock, who was lured out of retirement to replace Kris Knoblauch on June 23, is ultimately expected to help the Oilers play in a more responsible manner defensively and limit the grade A chances against.

It started that way on Tuesday, but it wasn’t long before the Oilers found themselves scrambling in their own end, making ill-advised pinches at the opposition's blue line, and giving goalie Tristan Jarry very little help in front of the net.

Jarry, for his part, admitted he needed to be better after giving up six goals on 23 shots. But he faced breakaways, odd-man rushes and open men in front all game.

“I think for myself I have to be better in those aspects, too,” Jarry said. “Just talking about my game, I need one or two of those. I think that’s the game changer there and that puts us in a better place.”

With the score tied 2-2 heading into the third period, Vancouver seemingly put the game away when it scored three goals in the span of 4:05, culminating with Elias Pettersson's power-play goal at 5:15.

However, in typical Oilers fashion, their high-powered offense allowed them to battle back and force overtime.

Evan Bouchard was perhaps the biggest reason why, scoring a hat trick and adding two assists for a five-point night. Vasily Podkolzin also scored twice in the third, including tying the game with a power-play goal with 43 seconds left.

Yet the game-winning goal was conceded following another defensive lapse at 1:59 of overtime. Canucks forward Paul Cotter forced a turnover by Ryan Shea along the left boards, and he was then given an open lane to the net, where he received a pass from Max Sasson before lifting a backhand past Jarry.

“You can tell it was our first regular-season game,” Bouchard said. “We have to be a lot more detailed than that. Giving up odd-man rushes, giving up five or six (goals), isn’t going to cut it.”

Bouchard did not think it was a case of old habits being tough to break, even though it looked that way.  

“I think it’s just about buying in, kind of less thinking. Obviously, it is new and you’re going to have some hiccups, but there’s little things that aren’t the system’s fault,” he said. “Whether it was a bad pinch where you’re giving up odd-man rushes like we did tonight, it’s not going to go well.”

In fairness, there was not a lot of time for the Oilers to work out the kinks in Babcock’s new system.

Training camp was shortened this season to make way for an 84-game schedule, and veteran players were only allowed to play two preseason games.

Babcock is also a new voice players are still adjusting to hearing. He had not been behind an NHL bench since he was fired by the Toronto Maple Leafs 23 games into the 2019-20 season.

“He tells you what he sees, and that’s a good thing,” Bouchard said. “He tells you the way he wants things to be played and he’s very direct with it.”

It won't take long to see if the Oilers learned from Opening Night. They will close out a home-and-home set with the Canucks in Vancouver on Thursday (10 p.m. ET; SN1, SNP).

“If we're going to do things right we're going to have success. If we play like this we're going to be chasing the game," Babcock said. "To be honest with you, we're fortunate to get a point (tonight). Great comeback, but in the end we still gave up three chances in overtime in a minute and a half.”