Experience the highs and lows of Oilers hockey in their Battle of Alberta rival match

The Edmonton Oilers entered their Wednesday night season opener on a high. In just the last week or so, the club traded for goaltending depth in Connor Ingram, re-signed their head coach, and extended the contracts of key players like: Connor McDavid, Jake Walman, and Mattias Ekholm.

Heck, there was even multiple rookies making their National Hockey League (NHL) debut and multiple players making their debut with the club. There was even a mid-game signing, as it was announced the Oilers had agreed to terms on a contract with free agent forward Jack Roslovic.

There was plenty of room for optimism and that is how the game began. The Oilers were dominating in shots, scoring chances, and in goals mid-way through the game. The team had goals from Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Andrew Mangiapane, and Leon Draisaitl who tallied the 400th goal of his career. All before the 10:00 mark of the second period.

Then, the wheels started falling off and within 13 minutes of in-game time the Flames had tied the game 3-3. The Flames saw goals from rookie Matvei Gridin, Connor Zary, and Blake Coleman.

The score stayed this way until the eighth round of the shootout when Flames forward Nazem Kadri scored on the backhand against Oilers starter Stuart Skinner to win the game.

Takeaways

The biggest takeaway in this game was that the Oilers needed to be more clutch. It felt like once the team went up 3-0, they took a step back and allowed the Flames to attack.

Despite this, the Oilers were dominant almost the entire games, dictating scoring chances and shots, they had the better powerplay percentage and were just overall the better team.

It is just the first game and there will inevitably be some rust, especially as the club was forced to make multiple changes and saw plenty of turnover this past off-season. But, this likely will not help quiet the criticism for the Oilers goaltenders.

Skinner left the game having stopped 19 out of 22 shots, with a .864 save percentage.

Players of the game

Leon Draisaitl

Whenever you score a milestone, especially such a big milestone like Draisaitl, it is hard to not get recognition. Scoring 400 goals is no small feat, scoring 400 goals as a German before you are 30 years old? That is an even bigger feat.

David Tomasek

The same applies to Tomasek, he notched his first career NHL point and off of a nice backdoor feed to Draisaitl. On top of this, he looked lethal at many points of the night, driving play and making smart veteran passes. He looks like he is going to be a welcomed addition to the club's forward lines.