Edmonton Oilers: Top 3 heroes in season opening win over Canucks

The Edmonton Oilers got a much-needed season-opening win over the Vancouver Canucks, besting them 3-2. Who stood out as their best players?

Recently, the Edmonton Oilers have been prone to starting their seasons slow. They tend to dig themselves into a hole so deep, they can’t dig themselves out. The Oilers went against tradition on Wednesday against the Vancouver Canucks, beating them 3-2.

It certainly wasn’t pretty. The Oilers got outshot and outplayed at home. However, they still managed to come away with a win, even if they probably didn’t deserve to get the two points that they got.

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The Oilers managed to come away with the win because of some impressive efforts. Let’s take a look at the top three stars from the Oilers opening night win.

Honorable Mentions

Connor McDavid picked up the game-winning goal. That’s a good night for just about anyone. However, McDavid has very high standards. Excellence is expected from him. McDavid had a good night by everyone else’s standards, but not by his standards. He only had a few moments of his trademark jaw-dropping dominance, but that was good enough to get the game-winning goal.

Oscar Klefbom was remarkably steady on the blue line for the Oilers. He didn’t get any points, but he helped shut down Brock Boeser, limiting him to just three five-on-five shot attempts in over seven minutes. Klefbom had six shot attempts during all situations and three of them were shots on goal. His offense wasn’t quite there on Wednesday, but he did a beautiful job defensively.

3. Zack Kassian

Zack Kassian had a very strong night for the Oilers. He had a goal and a primary assist. Kassian’s third-period goal was clutch. It came just over a minute after the Canucks grabbed the lead. Momentum was shifting in Vancouver’s direction. Kassian’s goal helped get it back towards Edmonton.

His play away from the puck was impressive as well. Kassian was a net positive in underlying stats across the board. While a lot of that can be attributed to playing most of his minutes with Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid, Kassian was a huge reason why the Oilers were able to grind out a win.

2. Mike Smith

When the Oilers signed veteran goaltender Mike Smith this summer, people were understandably skeptical. After all, the 37-year-old goalie had just posted an .898% save percentage, the lowest of his career, with the Calgary Flames. In 40 starts, Smith had just 20 quality starts and he failed to stop 85% of the shots he faced in nine of those 40 starts.

He silenced a lot of his critics, at least for the time being, against the Canucks. Smith stole the game for the Oilers, stopping 30 of the 32 shots on goal he saw. He saw eight high-danger shots against and only let one of them in.

The Oilers committed a lot of penalties. They say your best penalty killer needs to be your goaltender, and Smith certainly was their best penalty killer against the Canucks. He stopped all seven of the shots he faced while shorthanded.

It’ll be curious to see how Edmonton handles their goaltending, as they have two guys who probably aren’t starting goalies at this point. The Oilers are hoping having both Smith and Mikko Koskinen will allow them to simply ride the hot hand. It’s hard to argue the former doesn’t have a hot hand after Wednesday night.

1. Leon Draisaitl

The Oilers scored three goals against the Canucks and Draisaitl played a pivotal role in all of them, picking up three points (a goal and two assists). With him on the ice, the Oilers had a 61.21% expected goals for percentage. McDavid had a rare off night, so it was up to Draisaitl to pick up the slack. He was up to the task.

That’s why it’s wonderful to have as many good players as possible. Some nights, even your best player isn’t going to have anything going for them. You need the rest of your players to step up and replace them. The Canucks had no answer for Draisaitl on Wednesday night, and it sure wasn’t from a lack of effort.

Draisaitl seemed motivated to prove last season wasn’t a fluke. I’m still fairly certain he won’t score 50 goals again. But if his performance against the Canucks is the new norm, Draisaitl has a good shot at proving me wrong.