Top 3 Oilers duds in home opener versus Canucks

3) Cody Ceci and Evander Kane

Okay, we’re ‘cheating’ a little bit here. We wanted to adhere to the ‘three duds’ article structure, but in truth just couldn’t decide between Cody Ceci and Evander Kane.

Starting with Ceci, he’s had a similarly impact as Nurse so far this season, which is obviously not a positive. He’s not been quite as bad as his teammate, but this isn’t an endorsement of any kind.

Still on the subject of similarities between the two, the 29-year-old also had a crucial mistake on the Canuck’s breakaway goal which made it 3-2. He actually drifted forward from a defensive position first, before being caught out and leaving just Nurse behind him to deal with the counter-attack. (Or not, as the case turned out.)

Ceci is only one of many Oilers who’ve had defensive lapses throughout the first two games. However, he just so happened to make one of the more bone-headed ones so far in 2023-24, with only Nurse’s being worse.

As for Kane, we continue the theme of similarities, although this time with Brown. Also initially placed on the first line with McDavid, he is another player who has yet to record a single point through two games.

The 2009 fourth overall draft pick just doesn’t look at the races so far and offered essentially nothing on Saturday night, save for some excellent hits. Perhaps most damning of all — overall — he is last on the team with a -5 plus/minus rating.

Kane has too much talent to be struggling like he did during the home opener. Fans will be hoping it’s just a case of needing to settle in again especially with him previously showing the Oilers what he’s capable of.

Overall, at least there weren’t as many viable candidates to be on of the top three duds, when compared to the embarrassing 8-1 loss in the season opener. (That’s a positive right?) However, more players need to perform better, in order to finally pick up a point — or preferably — two on Tuesday night in Nashville.