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The Day After 1.0: Shaky start for Oilers but new life to be injected soon
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Photo credit: Perry Nelson-Imagn Images
Zach Laing
Oct 9, 2025, 09:00 EDTUpdated: Oct 9, 2025, 11:07 EDT
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There was a lot of good from Wednesday’s season-opener for the Edmonton Oilers.
Connor McDavid got the loudest cheer, as to be expected, during player introductions, and the captain got to work with a two-assist night in the Oilers’ 4-3 shootout loss to the Calgary Flames.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had himself a night, scoring a goal and two points, chipping in on all of the Oilers’ regulation scoring. Andrew Mangiapane got a goal, and so too did Leon Draisaitl, who added an assist of his own.
The newcomers, like Mangiapane, didn’t look out of place. David Tomasek built on a strong pre-season with a great performance in Game 1, getting on the scoresheet with a brilliant backhand pass to set up Draisaitl’s goal.
But there was a lot to build on, too.
Edmonton put together a 3-0 lead through the first 28 and a half minutes of the game, but by the time 40 seconds burned off the clock in the third period, the game was all tied up at three. Flames winger Matvei Gridin would get them on the board when a puck bounced off Noah Philp and in 12:40 into the second, then minutes later, Connor Zary would bat a puck out of the air and into the Oilers’ net.
The killer, however, was Blake Coleman’s third-period, game-tying goal. Flames forward Connor Zary flipped a puck into the Oilers’ end, landing right on Stuart Skinner, who seemingly froze like a deer in headlights, as Blake Coleman was able to poke the loose puck between his legs.
“I won’t be thinking about it, it happens,” said Skinner. “It’s probably the easiest fix I’ll probably make this year. Quick decision, throw it in the corner. That’s that.”
The three-point man Nugent-Hopkins summed up what went wrong for the Oilers well.
“(We) just kind of got sloppy with it, turned the puck over too much, which started to give them life,” he said. “They capitalized on one and then obviously on the power play and they started to get some momentum there. But I mean, it started with 10 minutes of just being sloppy and turning the puck over.”
While everyone will be quick to jump on the team for squandering the lead and ultimately the game, fear not: there are 81 more regular-season games left, and this roster will surely look different by the time the March 6th trade deadline comes and goes. The Oilers have already gotten a start at making tweaks.
They picked up Connor Ingram from the Utah Mammoth, affording him the chance to head to the AHL and get his legs underneath him after missing training camp and the pre-season. Then, after the first period of Wednesday’s game, the Oilers signed free agent winger Jack Roslovic to a one-year, $1.5-million deal.
Roslovic, a player general manager Stan Bowman says they “love,” won’t get the same chance to get his legs underneath him as Ingram has, however, as the Oilers face a tough travel schedule. The forward is expected to practice with the team on Friday, one of the last the team will have for a while.
“After Friday, we don’t have very many practices,” said Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch. “We practice Friday, play Saturday, we’ll practice on Sunday, and then we’re traveling out east, so our schedule doesn’t really allow him to get some practices under his belt and fitting with the team, so it’ll probably be sooner than later.”
Saturday’s game, of course, will see the Vancouver Canucks roll into town before embarking on a five-game road trip. It will kick off next Tuesday, visiting the New York Rangers, Thursday against the New York Islanders, before the team visits the New Jersey Devils, Detroit Red Wings, and Ottawa Senators.
For more post-game reaction, check out Oilersnation After Dark:
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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