Edmonton Oilers thumped in season-opener a second straight year

EDMONTON — It was a familiar start to the NHL season for the Edmonton Oilers.

The Oilers were trounced 6-0 in their home-opener Wednesday by the Winnipeg Jets, after starting the 2023-2024 campaign in similar fashion when they were stomped 8-1 by the Vancouver Canucks.

"It sucks, especially when you do it two years in a row,” Oilers goalie Stuart Skinner said.

"You just don’t want to believe that you are going to have a crappy start again.”

Skinner made his first opening-night start in his three seasons in Edmonton, and it was one he will likely want to forget.

He allowed five goals on 13 shots and was pulled just past the mid-mark in favour of backup netminder Calvin Pickard.

“I feel terrible about what happened tonight,” he said. “It is very frustrating to start like this. It is just not ideal, I don’t feel great. But I can’t do much about what happened tonight so I’m going to go back to a couple sheets and draw up some new stuff for me to work on and just get better from this.

"I have been pulled before, I have let in five goals in a game before. You just don’t want to do it the first game. You don’t want to do it ever. I’ll just get better from this and move on.”

Last season the Oilers got off to a dreadful 2-9-1 start that ended up costing coach Jay Woodcroft his job.

The Oilers overcame their early-season woes to reach Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final. Edmonton lost 2-1 in that game to to the Florida Panthers.

Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch said it's necessary to move on from that heartbreak as soon as possible.

“You had an incredible year that finished with disappointment and it’s tough to just say ‘Forget about it, let’s think about now,’” he said. “But there is a point where we need to do that.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 10, 2024.

Shane Jones, The Canadian Press