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Final pre-season tune up sees Oilers fall in overtime to Canucks: Recap, Highlights, and Reaction
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Photo credit: Bob Frid-Imagn Images
Zach Laing
Oct 4, 2025, 00:45 EDTUpdated: Oct 4, 2025, 00:48 EDT
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Congratulations! You’ve made it through another NHL pre-season.
Now, you get to watch 82 regular-season games, and if you’re lucky, a few dozen playoff games that will either leave you in pure elation or absolute heartbreak.
Ah, the beautiful game.
The good news is that this will be the last time, at least for a while, that we have to watch eight pre-season games. The Edmonton Oilers, of course, could’ve chosen to play fewer games, but they like getting to see as many of the players in their system as possible.
It all came to a close Friday night in Vancouver, when the Oilers fell 3-2 to the Vancouver Canucks in overtime.
Jonathan Lekkerimaki was the star for the Canucks, scoring two goals including the first of the game with 9.3 seconds left in the first frame.
The Oilers fourth line would get to work late in the second period, as Kasperi Kapanen would let a similar shot to Lekkerimaki’s go, beating Thatcher Demko.
One bright spot was the Oilers power play capitalizing. With Tom Willander in the box for holding Noah Philp, Evan Bouchard blasted a shot that was partially blocked by Teddy Blueger, only to deflect off Demko and right to Leon Draisaitl.
You can guess what happened next.
Lekkerimaki’s second of the game looked a lot like the first, showing off a great one-timer that Pickard had no shot at.
And then there was the overtime winner. Conor Garland took the charge into the offensive zone, driving through three Oilers and beating Pickard.

Takeaways…

  • The Oilers really struggled to stay out of the penalty box, especially in the third period, spending much of the third period on the kill. Ekholm’s holding call saw Lekkerimaki score his second, while Andrew Mangiapane and Leon Draisaitl continued the parade with roughing calls. This pre-season, the Oilers have spent the fifth most time on the penalty kill. It’s an area they’ll need to clean up when the games start to matter.
  • Kris Knoblauch rolled four lines well all night long, with the top line leading the charge — as to be expected — generating five scoring chances in a little over 13 minutes of five-on-five ice-time.
  • Calvin Pickard looked better between the pipes than Wednesday’s game against the Seattle Kraken, but there wasn’t much effort on Garland’s game-winner. Can you blame him?
  • Here’s hoping the Oilers get healthy by next Wednesday. The team has been dealing with some kind of bug running through the room, prompting Pickard to start the last two games.
Zach Laing is Oilersnation’s associate editor, senior columnist, and The Nation Network’s news director. He also makes up one-half of the DFO DFS Report. He can be followed on X at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach.laing@bettercollective.com.

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