Tag Archives: season opener

Beer League Hero, Edmonton Oilers, NHL

Edmonton Oilers: Memorable Season Openers

The 2018/19 journey for Lord Stanley’s cup begins in only a few hours for the Edmonton Oilers and I think there’s no better time to remember past season openers than now!

I have an atrocious memory for these sort of things and so I crowdsourced this one. I asked some people who I know have followed the Oilers a helluva lot closer than I have since they came into the league in the 1979/80 season for their favorite Oilers season opener memories and the following is what they so graciously provided me.

THE FIRST ONE

The first goal against Edmonton came from John Marks, a tally Oilers goalie Dave Dryden said shouldn’t have counted because Marks “kicked my pad over the line” thus beginning a 40-year love-hate relationship between Edmonton fans and NHL referees. Kevin Lowe scored the first goal in franchise history, scoring after a pass from Brett Callighen (via Wayne Gretzky) on the power play about 10 minutes into the team’s first NHL period. – Lowetide

This snippet is from LT’s latest post from The Athletic. It’s behind a pay-wall and I encourage all of you to subscribe as they’ve always got a deal going on to make it cheaper for everyone. You can subscribe here and full disclosure, if you do, The Athletic will let me have a $10 Amazon credit for helping them out.

THE FIRST GOAL AND A KO YOU’LL NEVER FORGET

2010 – Following the worst season in Oilers history at that time, Oilers fans felt that change was on the horizon. It was the debut of prized pick Taylor Hall, however, it was World Juniors hero Jordan Eberle who stole the show. I was sitting at Chili’s in Calgary Airport surrounded by Flames fans waiting for my flight home to Saskatoon from university for Thanksgiving break. Then, it happened. Eberle scored one of the most beautiful first goals in NHL history, which sent Rexall Place into a frenzy! Edmonton crushed the Flames 4-0 and Steve MacIntyre knocked a guy out in the third period, but it’s Eberle’s goal that we all remember. – Eric Friesen

CAN YOU REMEMBER A BETTER OPENING NIGHT HATTY?

2017 – The dominant performance in game 1 last year against the flames. Expectations were sky high and they proceed to shut the flames out. Talbot was fantastic and McDavid with a hattie including that crazy speed and power goal down the right side with a roof job. – Original Pouzar

A SIGN OF GREAT THINGS TO COME

2005 – It had been 17 or 18 months since I had seen the Oilers play (due to the lockout) and it was the first time in my life the Oilers had ADDED some star power to their team (Pronger and Peca). The team didn’t disappoint either as Horcoff scored a goal late in the third to give them a 4-3 victory over the Avs. Little did I know, it was a sign of great things to come that season. – Ryan Robinson

NOT A SEASON OPENER BUT A MESS OF A HOME OPENER

1979 – For Mark Messier, his first career goal and point was an unexpected moment in the spotlight, but he took to it rather well. By the time his career wound down a quarter century later, he had passed the greatest Red Wing of them all, “Mister Hockey” Gordie Howe, to rank second all-time on the NHL career scoring list, where he remains the only player to be within 1000 points of the incomparable Wayne Gretzky. Turns out the two youngest players on that Oiler team — and indeed, in the entire NHL — were both bound for what Peter Gzowski called “the pantheon” of greatness. For this hockey-starved young fan and thousands of others in the Coliseum that night, it was the start of a wild and unforgettable ride. – Bruce McCurdy

Watch the game in its entirety below! Also, Bruce wrote an entire article on this evening. You can check that our here.

A big thank you to LT, Bruce, Eric, OP, and Ryan for helping out! Be sure to follow them this season!

What are your favorite memories of Oilers season openers? Let us know in the comments below!

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Edmonton Oilers, Edmonton Oilers Post Game Report, Michael Sifeldeen

Post-Game Report: Oilers vs Calgary (10/12/2016)

Game result: Oilers 7-4 Calgary

Apparently it was “80s Night” over at Rogers Place for our first ever NHL game at the new barn. What a racket! 11 goals! What era even is this? So there were a whole lot of things to like about this game, and some head-scratchers. Let’s go through them in point-form because it’s too late to worry about complete sentences:

Things that were awesome:
– Chiefly, Captain Connor showing up for 2G-1A-3P in his first game of the year is a pretty damn good look at what’s to come for his sophomore season. CANNOT wait to see it unfold
– Maroon getting the first goal in Rogers Place was really cool. He was so stoked on it. Love this guy
– Kris Russell was really good. Guys. Can someone direct me to the nearest bakery serving humble pie? I was shitting on this guy as much as the rest of them because of how awful he is from a fancystats point of view, but he really shone tonight with 2 assists and several solid defensive plays that directly saved very likely Calgary goals. (In case you weren’t confused enough yet, his all-situations Corsi For on the night was 41.67%, and 5v5 was 48.28%. Apparently he is cursed on paper.)
– Larsson looked pretty good, too. Poised. Doesn’t panic. Klef needs to settle in a bit still, I think, but when he does, these two will be mint together
– Here are some more misleading stats since we’re on it: Larsson had a 34.38% all-situations Corsi For on the night, but could you tell by watching? I sure couldn’t. Could’ve been because he played 47% of his TOI against the Gaudreau/Monahan line, as per WheatNOil on Twitter (https://t.co/GqjIhEuD8r). He also started 75% of his shifts in the defensive zone. Leaning on him heavy already, I like it
– Poolparty got his 1st NHL goal on a beauty snipe under Elliott’s wide-open right arm. That’s nice. :] He also lead the team with a ridiculous 76.19% Corsi For rating in all situations, which came back down to earth a little bit at 5v5 with 58.33%, but still really good for the rookie’s first game in the bigs
– Brandon Davidson single-handedly saved, at least from what I saw, 3 sure Calgary goals. Some went off a well-positioned skate, some off his stick, some from getting his body in the way of a player in front of the net. BDavey is just so good and so solid, and that leads me into the other part of the night…

Things that sucked a little:

– So Tkachuk Jr is kind of a shithead, hey? He straight up slew-footed BDavey and he never returned for the 3rd. Still awaiting word on his condition/timeline for return. Fingers crossed it was precautionary. This kid just has no luck
– The Oilers allowed two pretty sloppy short-handed goals there in the 2nd, in what was just a classic #HereComeTheOilers 2nd period. I’d like to know the statistical metric that describes how we’re just so bad in the middle of games when we can start and end so strong
– Talbot was not the sharpest. He did stop 37 shots, but let 4 in for a .902 SV% in his first start of 2016-17. I mean, it’s no Brian Elliott .778 SV%, but we know he can be better. I chalk this up mostly to opening night/new building/don’t screw up this game of all game jitters
– Lucic played just okay. He sure made his presence felt early on when the Calgary goon squad figured they could throw McDavid around without repercussion, so that was good of him. But he gave up a really bad 2-on-1 opportunity and actually accidentally knocked one of those Calgary shorties in. So it’s just a matter of finesse at this point for him, I think. I hope.

Anyway. Numbers and analysis aside, we won 7-4 and start the year on a good note, and almost as importantly, Calgary starts the year on a lame note and that feels just as good if I’m honest.

Edmonton Oilers, Edmonton Oilers Post Game Report, Madison Moroz, NHL

BLH Post Gamer: G1 – Edmonton Oilers vs St. Louis Blues

Photo by Dilip Vishwanat

FINALLY!!! The hockey season is here and upon us, we have all waited months upon months especially since the drafting of Connor McDavid for this day.

Tonight’s game for the Edmonton Oilers started off a little shaky, a little slow it took the boys some time to get their feet underneath them and shake off the first game jitters and ring rust. Once they started going though they were able to sustain some pressure in the offensive zone and did a pretty good job defending a team in their own zone that has normally dominated them over the past few years.

There wasn’t too many quality chances in their own zone, they did a pretty good job of keeping shots to the outside and making sure Talbot was able to see them. They battled hard most of the night and didn’t shy away from any puck battles and took the hits when needed. I think they did a pretty good job for most the night doing what Todd McLellan calls “playing in the opposing teams equipment”  as they kept the pressure on every time they had the chance in the offensive zone and created some chances they just couldn’t finish.

It was a tough team to start out against that being a big, strong defensively Blues team that’s been together for a few years. But the younger, quicker Oilers didn’t back down, they stuck up for each other and I’ll say it again, their battle level was excellent today. It certainly wasn’t the Oilers of old.

The only goals that went in were just small break downs with a tired group of guys on the ice, but as Matt Hendricks said in his post game interview, they were hard working mistakes and those are tough to complain about.

The Debut of Connor Mcdavid was everything I believe everyone expected, his speed, skill and IQ were on display tonight. Making plays off the boards, trying to split the D using his speed, nad making smart simple passes. I was as impressed as I was going to be, unless he scored a Highlight reel goal, then I’d be going bananas over his first game, But we definitely saw why he’s being considered to be a generational player.

Every Game I’m going to give out the Three Beer League Heroes. Today’s Heroes are:

  1. Cam Talbot – Made 28 saves in his Edmonton Oilers debut, didnt look shaky and came as advertised: Calm, poised, and positionally sound with great rebound control. Talbot really kept the Oilers in the game and gave them confidence.
  2. Justin Schultz –  Is this the same guy from last year? He played aggressive and even physical at times. Jultz looked to be a lot smarter at picking and choosing went to jump into the play and to the shock of us all, he was blocking shots! He looked extremely confident tonight and had a heck of a game for the Oilers playing 22:15, playing both the PK and PP tonight.
  3. Robby Fabbri – Connor McDavid’s childhood friend scored his first NHL goal tonight off a great pass from Jori Lehtera which ended up being the game winner. He didn’t play much tonight but he made the most of his one chance.

https://twitter.com/myregularface/status/652310139974852610

To go along with the three heroes…comes the Golden Plunger Award and it goes to….*drum roll please*


It saddens me to give him the inaugural award because I have high hopes for him. He trained with Gary Roberts in the off season and you can see his skating has improved but tonight he was just useless. Not that he was killing the play but just more that he wasn’t doing much to create a play. Purcell was more or less trying to keep it status quo on the ice. Could have been because he was on the top line and he was afraid of making a mistake so he played it safe. But here’s to hoping Teddy doesn’t get this award again and he can show us that he’s got what it takes to play with skilled players like he did in Tampa.

Overall, I was pleased with the effort and general performance. Of course I wish the Oilers could have come out on top and battled their way to a win but tonight’s loss wasn’t a loss of normal like last year. This was a hard working, no quit, stick to the gameplan, tough luck loss.

The Oilers have to build off this as a positive and take it forward to Nashville which is going to be an even harder task, its another strong defensive team, that has depth and scoring ability with a world class goalie in net. I think next game they are going to have to throw more shots on net, and try to crash the net and get the gritty goals to go in. With that said, they also need to continue to use their speed and puck movement and open up their game a little bit more to see if they can create some more chances off the rush.

Thanks everyone for reading it, feel free to follow me on Twitter @madi39 and let me know what you think there or in the comments below!