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I Watched This Game: Canucks and Oilers combine for 16 goals in chaotic contest

Daniel Wagner
Daniel Wagner
|
Oct 2 2026, 7:27 am
I Watched This Game: Canucks and Oilers combine for 16 goals in chaotic contest
Bob Frid/Imagn Images

How do you even begin to make sense of a game like that?

The Vancouver Canucks took the ice for their home opener and promptly showed their home fans what a projected last-place team looks like, falling behind 4-0 to the Edmonton Oilers through the opening 20 minutes.

You wanted a rebuild; you’re getting a rebuild.

At some point — probably right around when the Oilers made it 5-0 less than a minute into the second period — this game became less about trying to win and more about who was going to keep showing up for their teammates.

Who was going to keep giving a full effort even with the game fully out of reach? Who was going to continue committing to the details of the system? Who was going to keep taking a hit to make a play?

“There’s a lot of lessons to be learned here about our team, about individuals — there’s a lot to take away from it,” said head coach Manny Malhotra. “You get a sense of how guys respond in tough situations.”

As the Oilers’ lead extended to 8-2, you had to give the Canucks credit: they were still working, still finishing hits, still trying. As much as they can’t have been happy with how they started the game, the Canucks could still take some small amount of pride in their resiliency.

And then they scored. Then they scored again. And again. And again.

The Canucks couldn’t complete the comeback, but they came close enough that they got in the Oilers’ heads. With 11 seconds left and up 9-to-7, Oilers head coach Mike Babcock felt the need to call a timeout, just to make sure his players didn’t give up two goals in 11 seconds.

At the very least, this game was an absolute thrill ride, a rollercoaster that repeatedly blew right through the station and went around again and again. If the Canucks are going to lose a lot of games as they rebuild, at least let them be half as fun as these first two games have been.

I wanted Elias Pettersson to stand at centre ice and scream, “Are you not entertained?!” at the crowd when I watched this game.

  • Madness. Mayhem. Tomfoolery. What a hockey game.
  • The Oilers have taken three out of four points through their first two games, but it must feel like they lost both games. They were facing the presumed worst team in the league in the Canucks, and they needed a bogus power play in the first game just to get a single point, and they nearly coughed up a six-goal lead in the second game. Mike Babcock is going to break his jaw from gritting his teeth too hard.
  • The really hilarious thing is that even in a 9-7 loss, the Canucks actually outscored the Oilers at even strength, 6-to-5. The Oilers are special teams merchants already.
  • The number of goals in this game has me feeling like Inigo Montoya: “Let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up.” So, we’re going to speed past some of the goals.
  • Suffice it to say, the Oilers absolutely dominated the opening period, outshooting the Canucks 14-to-2. Even crediting the Canucks with two shots felt generous. The Canucks’ first “shot” was from 162 feet away. So, like Cyber Monday, it was a clearance on net.
  • “They were just way hungrier than us in the first,” said Brock Boeser bluntly. “They were winning their puck battles, and we weren’t ready for that. We’ve got to learn from that.”
  • Even when the Canucks had chances to attack up ice, they fizzled in the most disappointing fashion. The line of Linus Karlsson, Max Sasson, and Drew O’Connor had a fun rush with a between-the-legs move, a great zone entry, and feathery soft pass into space for what should have been a glorious chance, if only Sasson realized it before handing the puck to the only Oiler defender.

  • Along the way, the first period added injury to insult, as Luke Schenn accidentally high-sticked Elias “OG” Pettersson in the face, cutting him open and forcing him to leave the ice for stitches. It’s okay: chicks dig scars, and it allowed Pettersson to activate his ultra-rare SuperSwedeBattleDamaged™ exclusive skin.
  • “What we came out with in the third, that’s what we’ve got to start with,” said a clearly dissatisfied Pettersson. “We won the first game against Edmonton; they were gonna come out to play, and we didn’t, and it showed on the scoreboard. It’s learning for us that we’ve got to come out better from the start.”
  • Kevin Lankinen gave up eight goals on 20 shots, which is less than ideal. Or, rather, more than ideal. But I’m going to follow Eric Idle’s advice and look on the bright side of life, highlighting the fantastic glove save he made on Leon Draisaitl.

  • It seemed like the Oilers stamped out any hope of a comeback with the 5-0 goal 27 seconds into the second period. What made it worse is that it was practically a trick shot: from below the goal line, Draisaitl banked the puck off Lankinen’s mask and in. The Oilers were so casually dominant they were stunting on the Canucks.
  • As might be expected when the Canucks were getting so thoroughly crushed, Malhotra shook up the lines like James Bond’s martini heading into the second period, then shook them up again in the third.
  • “Just trying to get any life out of them,” said Malhotra about the line blender. “Find new chemistries, find a spark from somebody or some line — that was the main reasoning behind it. Shuffling them up in the third, found a little bit of momentum with a couple of the units, but at that point in the game, it’s too late.”
  • One change was that Paul Cotter, who scored twice in the season opener, got an elevated role between Liam Öhgren and Brock Boeser. It paid off. Öhgren hustled on the forecheck and forced a turnover, then slid a pass inside to Cotter, who faked a shot, stepped into the slot, and wired the puck like it was $315,000 to John Stewart for his third goal of the season.

  • The song remains the same. The goal song, that is. While some suggested that the Canucks needed a new goal song to herald a new era, the team evidently didn’t take that suggestion to heart, as “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” by Simple Minds rang out in Rogers Arena.
  • The Oilers responded less than 30 seconds later to make it 6-1, but less than a minute later, Boeser scored his first of the year. The transition was crisp: Jamie Oleksiak hit Cotter at the far blue line, and he one-touched the puck to a streaking Boeser. He dragged the puck inside to change the angle, using Jake Walman as a screen, then ripped a wrist shot past Devon Levi, off the post, and in.
  • Shortly after, the momentum seemingly kept going the Canucks’ way, as Oleksiak kept his feet moving to draw a penalty. But maybe he should have kept his feet still, as the Oilers scored two shorthanded goals on the Canucks’ power play. First, Connor McDavid jumped on a brutal drop pass by Boeser and beat Lankinen, then Kasperi Kapanen chipped the puck past a flat-footed Zeev Buium for a breakaway to make it 8-2.

  • “The power play let us down in the second — myself included, I made a bad play there,” said Boeser. “It’s unfortunate; we were really trying to get our momentum going, and they took it to us.”
  • “All of us have got to be better with the puck,” said Pettersson. “I’ve got to win [the faceoffs]. If I win a faceoff clean, we start with the puck. We were chasing it.”
  • “I think our 5-on-5 play bled into those two power plays,” said Malhotra, pointing out that the Canucks other power play in the second period wasn’t much better. “Everything was extremely casual, zero attention to detail, no pace on it. When you give elite offensive players chances going the other way, they’re going to make good.”
  • Malhotra might have wanted to give Leevi Meriläinen a better opportunity to make his debut for the Canucks, but eight goals appeared to be the straw that broke the camel’s back. Lankinen came out of the game and Meriläinen stepped in, still wearing his Ottawa Senators mask.
  • The Canucks at least got a little boost before the end of the second period. With the seconds ticking down, Levi made a save on a long Filip Hronek shot, then stopped Elias Pettersson on the rebound, but Arshdeep Bains was waiting in the weeds to fire in the loose puck with 0.1 seconds remaining.

  • Still, it was 8-3 with only the third period remaining. There’s no chance the Canucks could come back from that deficit, right? Right?
  • Right. But they came close. Marco Rossi got things going in the third by banging in a Jonathan Lekkerimäki rebound. Then Rossi scored again, this time in bizarre fashion. Bains tipped a Luke Schenn point shot, and it went off Rossi’s shoulder and in.

  • The Canucks power play looked significantly better in the third period, with some strong puck movement that culminated in Rossi sending a cross-seam pass into Pettersson’s wheelhouse. Pettersson then sent it flying out of that wheelhouse in vintage Petterssonian fashion to make it 8-6.

  • “We were moving it quick,” said Pettersson, then brought it back to the faceoffs. “It helped that we started with the puck and set up instead of chasing it 200 feet.”
  • The Canucks seemed to have the momentum of a champion downhill cheese-chaser, but that momentum came to an abrupt halt like that of a non-champion cheese-chaser breaking a bone when Draisaitl restored the three-goal lead with a cheeky five-hole goal on an Oilers power play. Spoilsport.
  • It still wasn’t over. A Hronek pass into the slot deflected out to Oleksiak, who fired a snap shot into the top shelf where Grandpa hides his cigars to score his first goal as a Canuck.

  • That’s as close as the Canucks would come, but it was still hilarious to see how worried the Oilers seemed to be. The timeout with 11 seconds left was wild to see. You have to wonder how the Oilers will fare when they face a team that isn’t projected to finish in last place.
  • “I obviously don’t like the situation we were in, but I definitely like the push. Everybody gave it their all,” said Pettersson. “We scored seven goals; we should win the game. We’ve got to be better everywhere.”
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