Oilers 'have some homework to do' after opening-night loss to Jets

EDMONTON -- A new banner was unveiled at Rogers Place on Wednesday to commemorate the Edmonton Oilers winning the Western Conference last season.

Then the Winnipeg Jets promptly reminded the Oilers it's a new season.

Projected to be a Stanley Cup contender again, Edmonton fell flat in its 2024-25 season debut, losing 6-0, which illustrated it may not be that easy to turn the page from the disappointment of losing Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final 2-1 to the Florida Panthers.

"I think it's tough," Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch conceded after the game. "You obviously had an incredible year that finished with disappointment and it's tough to just say, 'Forget about it, let's think about now,' but there's a point where we need to do that. I think our hearts were into it, I liked the start of our game, the pace was good, and then some mistakes led into some trouble."

The theme throughout the preseason centered around moving on. The objective was to focus on the upcoming season and take another run at winning the Stanley Cup.

"I think everybody probably went through a lot of the same emotions after losing and through the summer, I think everybody dealt with it in their own way," Oilers forward Adam Henrique said during training camp. "It's something that never goes away. I've been there in the past and it never leaves you. It's always there and then you go back and play in that building and that feeling is that lost, no matter how many years ago that was.

"I think everybody understands that with a veteran group, I think even the guys that weren't here understand that and it's just something that with the maturity of the group has to be done. It's good to talk about, it's good to learn from the group, but everybody dealt with it differently throughout the offseason in their own way and you have to be able to move forward."

Oilers captain Connor McDavid went as far as to declare he no longer wanted to discuss last season, the disappointment of losing Game 7, and the outburst after Game 2 captured in the Amazon Prime docuseries "Faceoff: Inside the NHL."

"Enough about last year," McDavid said Friday. "It's about this year. We've talked a lot about last year, lot of questions about it, lot of different things about last year, I've answered all of them, done everything, but we're moving on. It's about this year, it's about this group in here.

"There's definitely lessons that you learn that we'll take from last year and remember this year, but last year is over and done with, and we're starting a new year."

Saying that, Edmonton's lopsided loss to Winnipeg was eerily similar to the 8-1 defeat at the Vancouver Canucks sustained in the 2023-24 season opener. It was part of a 2-9-1 start, which prompted a coaching change with Knoblauch replacing Jay Woodcroft on Nov. 12.

That experience could prove beneficial this season as the Oilers attempt to avoid a similar pitfall.

"It was just mistakes we know how to fix, and we obviously have to fix right away," forward Leon Draisaitl said. "It's the same as last year. We just have to learn from our mistakes and do better the next game and look for a better result."

Oilers goalie Stuart Skinner was pulled at 11:08 of the second period after giving up five goals on 13 shots. He had to win the starting job the past two seasons but owns it outright now and admitted not being at his best.

"I think the game was a little too quick for me and I probably wasn't up to speed," Skinner said. "That's on me and just the way that I was playing. Just maybe too much aggression on my part where I probably should have read the game a little bit better."

Skinner was replaced by Calvin Pickard, who made six saves on seven shots. Last season, it was Skinner who entered the season opener in relief of Jack Campbell. He was awarded the starting job less than a month later when Campbell was sent to Bakersfield of the American Hockey League.

Skinner is expected start again when the Oilers host the Chicago Blackhawks (10 p.m. ET; CBC, SNE, SNO, SNP, TVAS-D, CHSN) on Saturday.

"I feel terrible about what happened tonight," Skinner said. "It [stinks], especially when you do it two years in a row. You just don't want to believe you're going to have a crappy start again, and again it's one game here and we have some games where we can change that up and that's up to us and how we show up."

Defensively, the Oilers are working through several changes, and it was evident there are issues to resolve. Ty Emberson and Travis Dermott made their debuts and were a combined minus-3. Darnell Nurse is working his way back from an undisclosed injury sustained in the Cup Final and was minus-2.

"It's the same for everybody, I don't think any team is intact from last year completely," Oilers defenseman Mattias Ekholm said. "That's just more an excuse than anything. You can find a lot of those if you want, but this team doesn't do that a lot. We just look at ourselves and know that we have to be a better hockey team than we were tonight.

"The reality is that it's one game of 82 and we're not going to get too down on ourselves. Obviously, we have some homework to do."