It is September. The NHL regular season begins in 29 days, and the Edmonton Oilers need a strong start this season. They were sluggish to start the past three seasons, going 2-7-1, 4-5-1 and 4-5-1 in their first 10 games of the 2024, 2025, and 2026 seasons, but that shouldn’t happen this season.

They are fresh and rested.

Their core players had no off-season surgeries to recover from.

They are annoyed after losing meekly to Anaheim in round one last April.

They have a new head coach and a new associate coach and will want to impress them.

They have a favourable schedule to start the season.

Add those five things together, and I expect the Oilers to have a very good start. Here’s the Oilers’ early schedule:

Sept. 29 v. Vancouver
Oct. 1 @ Vancouver
Oct. 3 v. Seattle
Oct. 7 @ Anaheim
Oct. 10 @ San Jose
Oct. 13 @ Los Angeles
Oct. 15 v. Utah
Oct. 17 @ Utah
Oct. 20 v. Minnesota
Oct. 22 v. Carolina

They have no back-to-back games. They have two days between games three times, and three days between games once. Eight of their first 10 games involve teams below them in the standings last season, with only Minnesota and Carolina having more. Their first five games are against teams who ranked 32nd, 23rd, 29th and 30th in goals against/game last season. It would be difficult to find a more favourable early-season schedule.

They will start the season without Matt Savoie, Frederik Andersen and Mattias Janmark, but those injuries aren’t debilitating. Edmonton’s best forwards, top defencemen and starting goalie are healthy and rested. There is no excuse for not coming out of the gate flying.

We can’t overlook how this core group has responded when hiring a new coach. Jay Woodcroft replaced Dave Tippett on Feb. 10, 2022. The Oilers were 23-18-3 under Tippett but finished the season 26-9-3 with Woodcroft. They won their first five games with their new head coach. Fast forward to 2023 when Woodcroft was let go on Nov. 12, and Kris Knoblauch took over. The Oilers started the season 3-9-1, but when Knoblauch took over, they went 26-6 in his first 32 games and had the best record in the NHL from Nov. 13 on and went to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final.

They respond to a new coach. I don’t believe Woodcroft was infinitely smarter when he was hired than he was when he was fired. Same with Knoblauch. Both could have made better decisions in their final seasons, but the roster didn’t magically improve the moment a new coach took the bench. But the players played with more intensity and determination, and they thrived under the subtle tweaks both new coaches made. I expect the same with Mike Babcock.

Once again, the Oilers need to be better defensively. This has been the main underlying issue for the past decade. They’ve proven, at times, they can be consistent and committed defensively. They did it in 2017 under Todd McLellan. They did it in 2020 with Tippett, again in 2022 with Woodcroft and in 2024 with Knoblauch. But each time, eventually their attention to detail defensively and how they managed the puck in the offensive and neutral zones diminished.

It is easy to blame the coach, but having seen this movie repeat itself, the players must recognize that their on-ice decisions were an equal part of the problem. Be prepared to hear the core group discuss how they will be better defensively and manage the puck better when training camp begins. Babcock inherits a talented team that wants to win, and just like Woodcroft and Knoblauch, I expect early success for Babcock.

The Oilers need a good start. Despite downplaying their inability to win three games in a row until Game 74 last year, during their end-of-season interviews, the leaders did admit it was a problem as they never found any consistency in their game. I’d assume they will learn from that. They can’t expect to just flip a switch when the playoffs begin. Edmonton doesn’t need to win the Presidents’ Trophy to have a successful regular season, but they need to find a foundation in their play they can trust and revert to when they struggle. You need to know you can play solid defensive hockey and survive when the opposition takes over a game. The opposition will inevitably have strong stretches of play, and the Oilers can’t force things, turn over pucks at the offensive blue line and give up high-danger chances regularly. Learn to play patient and safe when needed. They’ve done it in previous seasons. They were unable to find any momentum last season, really at any point, and I guarantee the veterans will remind teammates of that when the preseason begins.

There is no excuse for a lethargic start. The Oilers are more talented than most teams in the NHL, but they need to match the work ethic and smarts of their opponents when the puck drops on Sept. 29. They need to be ready.

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