First Period

• The Real Deal! @James Neal gets to the High Danger area to the left of @Eric Comrie and rips home his first official-but-unofficial-but-still-official-but-really-unoffical (are pre-season goals official?) from a slick @Joel Persson pass.
• @Stuart Skinner starts the game and faces ten shots, though doesn’t get tested all too hard.
• The Klefbom-Persson looks solid together in the first period, creating chances and looking like they already have chemistry.

Second Period

• Jack Michaels and Bob Stauffer start the second period with some old-school WWF talk, with Jack referring to Bob as a wrestler he’s never heard of, so that makes for interesting content.
• Skinner actually ends up making a really nice left-toe save to start the period, looking sharp to start the frame.
• Jack then casually rags on the city of Winnipeg, putting Edmonton over with it’s beautiful sunshine while just burying the ‘Pegg by implying that it’s dark and murky there. The preseason is for the commentators too, everyone.
• @Evan Bouchard takes a slashing penalty and the Oilers’ PK goes to work for the first time, with @Riley Sheahan and @Colby Cave as the forwards on the top unit.
• The second-worst PK from last season kills off the penalty without too much trouble.
• The Neal-Nuge-Gagner and Klefbom-Persson unit continues to buzz whenever they’re on the ice, making life difficult for goalie Comrie.
• Skinner makes his eighteenth save at the 6:24 mark of the period, and is then replaced with @Dylan Wells to give him the rest of the game.
• Benson gets a nice chance off the rush, forcing Comrie to make a tough save.
• Ooh, Nuge tucks away a nice little goal in the last minute of the period after a nice slap-pass from Klefbom. Nuge’s hands look slick and his heart pure. What a fantastic human being.

Third Period

• @Alex Chiasson gets a nice partial-breakaway but can only muster a bit of a back-hander on Comrie.
• The top line gets another flurry of chances, this time with Bouchard getting a great look
• Jack mentions that Bob doesn’t have enough time in his life anymore to attend all 30 Golden Bears anymore. This is actually the second subtle dig that Jack’s taken at Bob’s interest in Canadian collegiate hockey.
• Jack tells us that @Gaetan Haas’ first language is French. As if the man wasn’t intriguing enough…
• At the 10:43 mark of the period, Organ Guy jams out a wicked version of “Don’t Stop Believing.” If you weren’t fired up for the season yet, that’ll do it.
• Colby takes a penalty, and this time Nuge and @Jujhar Khaira run the first PK unit. Khaira almost hits Nuge with a long outlet pass.
• Oilers kill off the penalty again without much trouble.
• @Tyler Benson and @Patrick Russell get a nice 2-on-1, with Benson feeding Russell to the left face-off circle, but Rusell doesn’t get fully into the shot and Comrie makes the save.
• Not much else happens to close out the period, and the Oilers’ goaltenders earn a combined shutout.

Final Thought