Oilers find ‘a lot to learn’ following shootout loss to Flames

EDMONTON -- Through the first half of the opening game of the season at Rogers Place on Wednesday, the Edmonton Oilers looked like a Stanley Cup contender against the Calgary Flames, dominating play and building a three-goal lead.

Connor McDavid was flying after receiving a standing ovation on his introduction in a pre-game ceremony to kick off the season. Leon Draisaitl scored his 400th career goal and the power play was clicking.

Then Edmonton got a stern reminder that it’s going to be a long road back to the Stanley Cup Final and it will have to put in the work for entire games regardless of the opposition.

A bad bounce, a close call, and mistake by Oilers goalie Stuart Skinner allowed the Flames back in the game and they were able to pull out a 4-3 win in an eight-round shootout.

After the game, Edmonton was lamenting one that got away.

“We just kind of got sloppy with it and turned the puck over too much, which started to give them life,” said Oilers forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, who had a goal and two assists. “They capitalized on one and then the power play and then they started to get the momentum there. But it started with 10 minutes of being sloppy and just turning the puck over.”

Calgary deserves its share of credit for not giving up.

The Flames were counted out last season more often than a punch-drunk boxer but hung around the playoff race until they were eventually eliminated by a tiebreaker.

“It’s a big win; it galvanizes the team,” Flames forward Blake Coleman said. “You’re down 3-0 and you show it as a group that you’re willing to stick with it and start playing the right way. We’ve shown in the past we can win games coming from behind. A lot of third-period goals. You don’t want to start that way, but our team showed a lot of resilience tonight.”

Calgary looked overwhelmed early on, giving up a first-period, power-play goal to Nugent-Hopkins on a setup from Draisaitl and McDavid, then going down 2-0 as Andrew Mangiapane scored with his new team against his former team.

When Draisaitl made it 3-0 on the power play, converting a behind-the-back pass from David Tomasek at 8:32 of the second period, it appeared the Oilers would cruise to victory and get off to the good start they longed for the last couple of seasons.

“I thought when we were playing on top of them, when we were playing fast and simple there was a lot of things to like,” Nugent-Hopkins said. “But obviously the first one, you’d like to close that one out. There’s lots to like but also a lot to learn.”

It took an unlucky bounce to get the Flames started as rookie Matvei Gridin, making his NHL debut, banked a centering pass in off the skate of Oilers forward Noah Philp 12:40 into the second period.

Connor Zary then cut the deficit to one goal on the power play, knocking a puck out of the air on a scramble in front of the Edmonton net.

The play was reviewed for a possible high stick, but the goal stood.

Neither goal could be blamed on Skinner, who had played well to that point.

Yet the goal scored 40 seconds into the third was all on the goalie, as he misplayed a puck flipped to him from center, allowing Coleman to poke it in.

“I think I just had to make a quicker decision, the game happens fast down there,” Skinner said. “It was just kind of a miscommunication, and I was slow to react to Coleman behind [Evan Bouchard] and it’s a goal.”

To his credit, Skinner did make a number of big saves to get the game into overtime. His counterpart Dustin Wolf, at the other end, was outstanding.

Wolf shut the door on Edmonton, making 32 saves in the game and turning away seven of the eight shooters in the shootout.

“It was a great (goalie) battle. [Wolf] made some spectacular saves, he’s so athletic,” Skinner said. “It really is fun to watch. I thought he played a great game, I thought I was able to battle and make some good stops too. I think that was one of my better shootouts that I’ve had and I feel that I’ve gotten better in that aspect. And it’s the Battle of Alberta, going eight, nine shooters (each), it was a fun game.”

Fun and educational for Edmonton.

As a team that is looking to finish the job this season after getting to the Stanley Cup Final the past two seasons, it wasn’t a polished performance and left something to be desired.

“For sure, it doesn’t matter what time of the year it is, teams are going to have their pushes and we have to manage it better,” Nugent-Hopkins said. “Tonight, we let them off the hook a little bit and we kind of sat back and didn’t play the way we were playing in the last 10 minutes of the second period and they took advantage there.”