EDMONTON — The pre-season began with criticism surrounding the hiring of Mike Babcock and the addition of Alex Formenton. What became clear was, if you’re going to work for the Edmonton Oilers this season, you’d better have a thick skin.
Four games later, they look like a team whose game may do their talking for them.
The Oilers’ defensive game appeared regular-season ready, as Edmonton completed a perfect pre-season in a cakewalk — a 4-1 win over the rebuilding Calgary Flames. They allowed just five goals in four pre-season games — three at even strength.
Now, let’s see if they can carry that defensive game into the regular season, starting with a Tuesday-Thursday home and home against the Vancouver Canucks.
“Of course it gets harder,” said Kasperi Kapanen, one of the better players on the ice Saturday with a goal and an assist. “We have talented guys that can make plays and score goals. We’re not worried about that. But us letting in four or five, six goals a game, that’s not a winning mentality.”
The goaltending would best be described as so far so good, with both Tristan Jarry and Devon Levi enjoying pre-seasons that just aren’t going to get much better than what they showed us.
And the guys who are supposed to produce look ready to do so, as Connor McDavid (2-2-4), Evan Bouchard (0-5-5) each helped fill the net in their two pre-season outings. The power play went one-for-one Saturday, with Zach Hyman scoring from his office on Edmonton’s only attempt.
All in all, a tidy pre-season. Now, let’s get ‘er going for real.
Raise your hand if you thought Owen Michaels would still be hanging around this close to Opening Night. OK, Mrs. Michaels, you can put your hand down now.
Edmonton signed the centreman as an undrafted free agent out of Western Michigan last April, and he’s surprised everyone this fall. As Edmonton’s only right-shot centreman, Babcock gave him ample opportunity in the faceoff circle against Calgary, where he won nine of his 13 draws.
“He wasn’t even on the radar at all,” said Babcock. “Then he just keeps showing up in all the good clips, and then suddenly he wins these face-offs. He tracks (back defensively), he’s in the right spot…
“Then after he got going good, I started looking at his career. Scoring-wise, he’s never been the guy who led the league in scoring. But he’s the captain of the team that wins the (NCAA) national championship. Well, he must know how to play…”
With 3C Jason Dickinson hurt, there’s a spot open for a centre. Being the only righty only helps Michaels’ cause.
“Things have been going well, and you know I’ve been improving every day,” began the Detroit native, who knows that nobody in Oilers nation thought we’d be talking about him this close to Opening Night. “I’ve always believed in myself. Everyone has opinions, and they’re fair to do so. I just control what I can control.”
Whether he sticks or not, the fact that a 24-year-old is this close to being an NHL player bodes well for the veteran Oilers. Usually when a team has been in its championship window as long as the Oilers have, trading away first-round picks at every Trade Deadline, the cupboards can get pretty bare, pretty fast.
So give GM Stan Bowman some credit for acquiring some youth that actually has a chance to contribute.
The injured Matt Savoie (22) is a Top 6 winger. Ike Howard (22) will also start the year in the Top 9, perhaps on the second line with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Hyman. Colton Dach (23) looks to be the fourth-line centre coming out of camp, while 24-year-olds Josh Samanski and Shakir Mukhamadullin are both knocking on the door.
Connor Clatttenburg (21) was sent to Bakersfield this fall, but he looks very much like a future depth piece in Edmonton. And don’t forget about goalie Devon Levi — he’s just 24 years old.
Edmonton iced very close to its Opening Night lineup, minus the injured guys and starter Tristan Jarry:
Podkolzin-McDavid-Draisaitl
Howard-RNH-Hyman
Frederic-Michaels-Kapanen
Formenton-Dach-Joseph
Ekholm-Bouchard
Walman-Murphy
Shea-Mukhamadullin
Stastney-Emberson
Here is how the Flames lined up. Like the Oilers, Calgary had almost an identical set-up to the one that will open the season on Thursday at home to Seattle.
Gridin-Frost-Coronato
Honzek-Backlund-Farabee
Zary-Strome-Sharangovich
Tsyplakov-Pospisil-Klapka
Bahl-Nemec
Kuznetsov-Whitecloud
Middleton-Parekh
We expect Jarry to be the Oilers’ Opening Night starter, but Levi couldn’t have done any more to impress this training camp.
He stopped 23 of 24 shots Saturday, beaten only on a backdoor power play one-timer by Matt Coronato. He feels like he belongs here, much more than he did as a younger goalie trying to break into the Buffalo Sabres’ rotation.
“I feel more ready for sure. Just a little bit older, a little bit mature, a little bit more time to work on my game, on the ice, off the ice,” said Levi, who we expect to get the Thursday start in Vancouver, or at worst, Game 3 against Seattle. “I just feel like a more well-rounded individual coming into this year, and we’ve got a great team too. So it’s nice to be here.”
A huge part of the goaltending woes in Edmonton have been due to the play of the team in front of the goalie. When the team was tight, Stuart Skinner looked great. When they were loose, Skinner took too much of the blame.
That’s a major goal under Babcock, to give up less.
“I feel like the games we played really well in, (they were) super solid defensively,” Levi said. “I’m just getting used to the systems, getting used to seeing kind of how the game opens up. And I have to say, there wasn’t much.
“It was a pretty readable game tonight from the boys.”