The Edmonton Oilers can not get on track after their cup loss

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The Edmonton Oilers had a few goals as they began the 2024-25 season, including a pretty conservative one: Get off to a better start than last year.

But two games in?

They are 0-2 and have been outscored 11-2.

What is going on?

That and more in this edition of…

9 Things

9. Congratulations to Brett Kulak on his 500^th career NHL regular season game. How appropriate that the local guy who grew up watching the Oilers hit that milestone while playing for them?

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8. Two notables to pass on from my world of radio that are related to the Oilers. First, the Oilers rightsholder CHED has moved from its legendary 660 position on the AM dial to 880. Second, Sports 1440 has added a pre- and post-game show to its lineup, hosted by Andrew Walker.

7. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins registered his 700^th career NHL point against the Chicago Black Hawks on Saturday. That is good for seventh in franchise history. Wayne Gretzky had 1,669. From there: Jari Kurri at 1,043, Mark Messier with 1,034, Glen Anderson piled up 906. And Leon Draisaitl’s goal Saturday was career point #851for him.

6. The Oilers penalty kill was money during the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The club only surrendered four power play goals in twenty-five post season games. But they have regressed sharply in the first two games of 2024-25 (1/6). Yes, Ryan McLeod and Warren Foegele are gone but they replaced them with equally good PK guys. I am not as sure about the guys filling the roles vacated by Cody Ceci and Vincent Desharnais. More on that in a minute…

5. Friday was the anniversary of the Alberta Oilers first game in both franchise and WHA history. October 11^th, 1972, the Oilers played the Ottawa Nationals and won 7-4. Red Deer’s Ron Anderson scored the very first goal. I loved the WHA. In fact, I clearly remember snipping photos of my favorite players from The Hockey News and taping them to slips of cardboard from Shredded Wheat cereal boxes to make my own WHA hockey cards. I still have a couple!

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4. As long as the present Oilers blueline struggles even the tiniest bit, there will be talk about who else they could bring in. The name Kevin Shattenkirk resurfaced again this past week. I wrote about Shattenkirk two weeks ago, as well as former Oiler Justin Schultz who was offered a PTO in Edmonton but was looking for a contract (and still is). I am cautious of Shattenkirk. He has had a good NHL career but does not skate well anymore, never was a terrific defender and saw primarily sheltered minutes in Boston last year. I am more inclined to consider Schultz.

3. It is unfortunate what Raphael Lavoie went through on the waiver wire this week. The whole idea of waivers is to give a young player a chance at playing NHL games in another organization when he cannot crack the lineup of his present team. But in the short term, Lavoie is not getting that with Vegas, either. As for the Oilers, this player had four seasons with this franchise to prove he was as NHL player and could not. I wish Lavoie well in his future. But if I had been in Stan Bowman’s shoes, I would have waived him, too…like 30 other NHL teams did. I have said it before…it is a tough damn business.

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2. A couple of weeks back in this space I talked about whether Ty Emberson was a “4” or a “5”, in terms of the Oilers Defence pairings. Game one is evidence enough to explain why the question is being asked and he made a critical error in Game two as well. But in my next breath I would say that we need to give him a chance. Two games is an absurdly small sample to judge Emberson on. Remember: He is on a new team, in a new town, with a new partner(s) and with new systems, Etc. Emberson posted solid numbers against good competition for a bad team last season. Give the kid some runway. I like that Paul Coffey has (at least temporarily) nudged him back to the third pairing. Putting young players in positions where they can succeed is a smart development.

1.No one should be surprised that there was a lull for the Edmonton Oilers coming off the Game 7 loss in the Stanley Cup Final. That is an emotional gut punch that takes a while to recover from. Think of your own career and what it did to you when you came oh-so-close to a lifelong goal, but it somehow just slipped through your fingers. We saw evidence of that in the Oilers pre-season, although that did not bother me much. Working out just those kinds of kinks is partly what those exhibition games are for. But call a spade a spade: The results in Games one and two of the regular season have been most disappointing.

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So, what gives?

Well, there was a lot of roster turnover for a club that was a goal away from being a Stanley Cup Champion. It is going to take a while for all of the parts to mesh on the ice the way they might have on paper. Any club would have to contend with that. And then there is the fact that not all moves a General Manager makes will work exactly as planned. For any team. And it is still early.

But we also need to address the elephant in the room: This club is not quite as good as last year’s edition. Not yet at least. They are also slower. And for all of those brilliant Cody Ceci critics, I do not believe their blueline is as good, in particular.

I am not dismissing entirely the whole “Game 7 hangover” thing. It is an emotional sport. It is a legitimate thing. But I do think that is a bit too easy. These guys are professionals. They have been self-motivating their entire lives.

But they do need to get going and figure all this out, before “get off to a better start” becomes the new “cup of bust.”

Now on Threads @kleavins. Also, find me on Twitter @KurtLeavins, Instagram at LeavinsOnHockey, and Mastodon at [email protected]. This article is not AI generated.

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