VANCOUVER — Neither the Vancouver Canucks nor the Edmonton Oilers were entirely happy with their first two games of the season. The high-scoring affairs between the two sides provided hockey fans ample entertainment, while players and coaches got ample lessons for the long NHL season ahead. “No one is in here (saying), you know, ‘Way to go!’” Oilers captain Connor McDavid said Thursday after his team outlasted the Canucks for a 9-7 win in Vancouver. “Obviously we understand the game has got to look a little bit different. But I thought the first 40 (minutes) is what it could look like a lot of the time, and what it should look like a lot of the time.” The result came after the Canucks took a 6-5 overtime victory in Edmonton on Tuesday. Oilers head coach Mike Babcock said he liked the way his group gave up fewer odd-man rushes in the rematch. “We didn’t give a ton of chance, but the puck ended up in our net,” he said. “So, I’m happy for the guys, happy for myself. We got three out of a possible four points (over the two games), and we got tons of examples of where we’ve got to get better. “I really liked our game in the first (period). I liked it for half the second, and then I didn’t like it at all. So we’ve got to learn to play a whole 60, not just 30.” The Oilers (1-0-1) and Canucks (1-1-0) head into the new NHL season in much different positions. Edmonton aspires to get back to the Stanley Cup final for the third time in four years. Vancouver is in rebuild mode, with a new front office and head coach, and a focus on building a foundation for the future. Yet the two teams shared similarities over the home-and-home series that opened the campaign, from defensive struggles to multi-point performances from star players. “We know we can be way better,” Babcock said. “What I saw tonight was a group that could play right and knew what they were doing, and then I saw a group that didn’t do it. “If you know you can do it, now you’ve got to find a way to just repeat. (Lather), rinse, repeat, do it again.” Edmonton jumped to a 4-0 lead in the first period Thursday and boosted their advantage to 8-2 midway through the second before the Canucks scored four straight goals and cut their deficit to two. The Oilers’ stars powered the offensive onslaught, with McDavid recording a goal and four assists. Leon Draisaitl added two goals and a helper, while Evan Bouchard put up three points (one goal, two assists). When a game gets tough, teams need to simplify, Canucks centre Paul Cotter said. “When they pot a couple early, it’s like, ‘Alright, well, you know they have a lot of guys who are there with elite skill,’” he said. “But we should be putting them through the glass into next week every single chance we get. “This should be a building where guys hate to come play. Whether they win or lose, they should be like, ‘Ah man, like I hate playing in that arena.’ And we didn’t do that tonight.” Arshdeep Bains sparked Vancouver’s offensive outburst with a literal last-second goal in the middle frame, diving to swat a rebound in behind Edmonton goalie Devon Levi with 0.1 seconds left on the clock. The tally cut the Canucks’ deficit to 8-3 heading into the third period. “They were just way hungrier than us in the first, and they came out and they were winning their puck battles, and we weren’t ready for that, so we’ve got to learn from that,” said Vancouver winger Brock Boeser. “But I’m happy with the way we fought back. And there’s no quit in this room, and we just can’t let it get to that point.” There are things players can do when an opponent pours on the offence, said Vancouver head coach Manny Malhotra. “We have to have that mindset and that ability to shift the momentum of the game by just doing something better, being more physical, getting more aggressive, moving our feet, applying pressure in their end of the rink,” he said. “There’s a number of things that would come out of that. But that’s part of the growing process for us.” This report by Gemma Karstens-Smith, The Canadian Press, was first published Oct. 2, 2026.
