Babcock magic? Edmonton Oilers having best start to season in years
Maybe there was some method to the madness of hiring Mike Babcock to coach the Edmonton Oilers.
When the Oilers announced that Babcock would be hired as the team’s next coach over the summer, there was a lot of skepticism in the hockey world. The veteran coach was plagued by past controversies, hadn’t coached an NHL game since 2019, and hadn’t won a playoff series in over a decade.
How could this be the guy that Edmonton hinges the final two years of Connor McDavid’s contract on? Well, the early returns have looked magnificent with Babcock behind the bench, and it has resulted in the Oilers’ best start to a season in years.
Despite injuries to top forwards like Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Zach Hyman, and Matt Savoie, the Oilers remain undefeated in regulation through four games with a 3-0-1 record, which makes them one of four NHL teams that haven’t been defeated in 60 minutes.
It’s also Edmonton’s best four-game stretch to start a season in five seasons, since they went 4-0 to begin the 2021-22 campaign.
The #Oilers are 3-0-1 to start the season… which is the best four-game stretch to begin a season since they went 4-0-0 in 2021-22
Previous years:
25-26: 2-1-1
24-25: 1-3-0
23-24: 1-3-0
22-23: 2-2-0— Preston Hodgkinson (@NHLHodgkinson) October 8, 2026
The Oilers have been under a bit of a curse when it comes to starting a season on time in recent years. For whatever reason, the months of October and November haven’t been kind to Edmonton, and it often winds up putting them behind the pack early on.
Luckily, the team has proven to be great at bouncing back in the second half of the season to prevent the slow start from being a real problem. For example, the team had identical 1-3-0 starts in 2024 and 2025, but managed to make it all the way to the Stanley Cup Final in back-to-back years.
During the 2021-22 season, in which Dave Tippett was head coach, the Oilers managed to win the first five games of the season and eventually wound up finishing October with a sparkling 6-1-0 record. With the Oilers yet to lose in regulation, they still have a chance to match that mark.
It’s all the more impressive when you consider how shorthanded the roster is. They don’t have half of their top-six, and Babcock has committed to loading up McDavid and Leon Draisaitl on a single line, leaving the remaining three lines without much reinforcement.
That top line has been amazing, and Evan Bouchard is having a generational start to the season, but Babcock has somehow managed to push the right buttons with the depth forwards as well.
There is still a lot of the season left to go in Babcock’s first tenure in Edmonton, but he’s so far found the remedy for the Oilers’ penchant for bad starts.