Yesterday the Oilers lost a 5-3 bout against the Vancouver Canucks in a game in which every terrible mistake that Edmonton made seemed to go in the back of their net and wow there were some bad ones.

Defensive coverage was non existent during many parts of the game. Adam Larsson went to lay a hit on a player that Kassian was already covering leaving Bo Horvat wide open to score. Time after time, the Oilers were left scrambling to recover and credit to the Canucks for taking advantage.

I'm not going to harp too much on the game though. This was the first game and there was bound to be some rust. Edmonton was not the only team last night to struggle. The Avalanche weren't able to muster much against the St Louis Blues either. It's a short season and losing hurts more but it is still one game. Last season after a poor outing, the Edmonton Oilers were almost always able to rebound and put on a better performance. That chance comes today.

A few thoughts on specific player performance

- The Kahun-Draisaitl-Yamamoto line was the Oilers best line with Kahun fitting in quickly alongside the duo from last season. This was the only line that posted a postive CF% (51.85%) and GF% (66.67%)

- Jesse Puljujarvi had a good outing showing engagement on both sides of the puck. Puljujarvi had one great scoring chance and more impressively by my books, made a great defensive play outskating Quinn Hughes at one point and stripping him of the puck. JP was the best player on his line.

- The Darnell Nurse and Ethan Bear pair continued where they left off last season, performing decent at 5 on 5 while also acting a bit too chaotic in their own end. Nurse had a beauty of a goal.

- The McDavid line struggled and not only because Zack Kassian was fairly inconsequential for most of the night but Ryan Nugent Hopkins was invisible. It's rare to not see RNH and McDavid connect on a goal so for now I am willing to chalk this up as a one time issue. Certainly bears watching tonight.

- Slater Koekkoek had a great first outing. The defenseman came completely as advertised and made good plays in his own end but I was surprised on his offensive instincts as well.

- It's rare for a goalie to allow 5 goals but say he played well. Ideally you hope Koskinen stops one of those goals to keep his team in it but each goal was a high end grade A chance where he was hung out to dry.

- Adam Larsson and Caleb Jones did not have good nights that is supposed to be the Oilers shutdown pairing and they were directly responsible for several goals against.

- Jujhar Khaira is bad..... so bad. The fourth line brought no intensity and Khaira was particularly bad on the fourth goal against, outworked by his man.

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The good news is we don't have to wait long to find out how this team rebounds as they are right back to it.

OILERS LINE COMBINATIONS

RNH-McDavid-Kassian
Kahun-Draisaitl-Yamamoto
Archibald-Turris-Puljujarvi
Ennis-Khaira-Chiasson

Nurse-Bear
Jones-Larsson
Koekkoek-Barrie

Smith

- I will try to update when we have official confirmation.

CANUCKS LINE COMBINATIONS

Boeser-Pettersson-Virtanen
Pearson-Horvat-Hoglander
Rousel-Gaudette-Macewen
Motte-Beagle-Sutter

Edler-Schmidt
Hughes-Hamonic
Juolevi-Myers

Demko

4 THINGS TO WATCH FOR

1.) Defensive Coverage: As stated repeatedly above, the Edmonton Oilers missed assignments last night and it cost them. If there is one thing Dave Tippett will be working on in practice today prior to the game, it will be that.

2.) McNuge Rebound: It's rare for the Oilers second dynamic duo to have an off night. RNH in particular looked disengaged and a step behind all last game. The Draisaitl line was sharp most of last game and this team needs it's second top six line to produce.

3.) Mike Smith: I never thought I would have to type these words again... Mike Smith starts tonight for the Edmonton Oilers. We have dreaded it all off-season and tonight we will all be watching with white knuckles on how he will fair.

4.) A More Direct Powerplay: The first powerplay attempt by the Oilers was just bad, chalk it up to rust but the following attempts saw the Oilers cycle the puck as we saw numerous times last season however not nearly enough shots made it to the net. Edmonton can out pass the best teams in the league but there needs to be more urgency getting pucks on net, especially if it is Demko trying to work into game action.

THE OILERS WIN IF...

They tighten up defensively and are aware of all areas of the ice.

THE CANUCKS WIN IF...

Demko is sharp early and the Canucks can execute the same plan as last night.

Thanks for reading!

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