Evan Bouchard put up a five-point hat trick in a season opener and the Edmonton Oilers still walked out of Rogers Place with a loss, because talent cannot paper over six goals forever. Mike Babcock’s regular-season return ended 6-5 in overtime to the Vancouver Canucks, and the only honest read of that score is that the stars did their job while the structure he was hired to install spent two periods on vacation.
Bouchard became the third defenseman in NHL history to score a hat trick in a season opener, after Mark Howe and Bert Cobeau. He also became the first defenseman ever with a five-point night in one. Two goals from Vasily Podkolzin, including the 6-on-4 equalizer with 43 seconds left off a Leon Draisaitl feed. Connor McDavid with two assists. The Oilers erased a 5-2 hole in the third. None of that changes the tape Babcock will run tomorrow.
“We started good, then we started turning over the puck, stayed out too long on the ice, made poor decisions,” Babcock said. “We gave up six tonight and I don’t know how many did we give up in exhibition? Five goals. Just think about that.” He called the night an indication of serious work ahead and said they were fortunate to get a point. That is the correct temperature. A point stolen from chaos against a Canucks club that went 25-49-8 last season is not a moral victory. It is a free diagnostic.
Bouchard Carried the Building. The System Did Not Show Up.
The sequence in the third tells the whole story. Jonathan Lekkerimäki made it 3-2 after an Isaac Howard giveaway. Max Sasson pushed it to 4-2 on a give-and-go. Elias Pettersson redirected a Filip Hronek shot-pass on the power play for 5-2. Pettersson was blunt about it: “I always try to give (Hronek) a blade to shoot at, and he shot. The puck goes in the net and they didn’t have time to react to it. He made that play. It was all him.”
Then Bouchard and Podkolzin went nuclear. Podkolzin jammed one at the crease. Bouchard completed the hat trick 24 seconds later. Podkolzin ripped the equalizer from the left circle with the goalie pulled. Pure skill. Pure will. Pure absence of the detail Babcock keeps preaching.
Bouchard owned the other half without flinching. “You can tell it was our first regular-season game,” he said. “We have to be a lot more detailed than that. Giving up odd-man rushes, giving up five or six (goals), isn’t going to cut it.” He went further: the little things were not the system’s fault. Bad pinches. Odd-man rushes. Decisions that belong to the players wearing the sweater. That is the adult version of the night. The kids version is the highlight package of his three goals and the comeback graphics. Adults notice Tristan Jarry stopping 17 of 23 and a defense that kept handing Vancouver breakaways and two-on-ones like it was still September exhibition.
Paul Cotter opened the scoring short-handed in the first and finished it in overtime at 1:59 after a forced turnover on Ryan Shea. Marco Rossi beat Jarry on a breakaway in the second. The Canucks did not invent a new system. They took what Edmonton kept giving them.
Babcock Got the Exact Warning He Needed
Manny Malhotra, in his own head-coaching debut, called it a fun one with momentum swings and moving parts. Fair. His group blew a three-goal lead and still found a way. Babcock’s group started fine, then quit the details, then needed a historic individual night and an empty-net power play just to force overtime, then surrendered three more chances in a minute and a half of three-on-three.
The Oilers went undefeated in a short preseason under Babcock. Veterans were limited. The 84-game schedule compressed camp. None of that is an alibi for six goals allowed at home in the opener against a club that finished last a year ago. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins was out. That is real. It does not explain the perimeter play Bouchard described, or the soft pinches, or the decision-making that left Jarry hung out to dry.
Babcock’s entire pitch is standard and detail. He told the room the night was unacceptable if they want to stop chasing games. Bouchard said the coach is direct about what he sees and how he wants it played. Good. Direct is useless if the buy-in arrives after the third period starts. The comeback proved the Oilers still have the horses. The final score proved the horses are not enough when the structure leaks.
Thursday is the rematch in Vancouver. Same two teams, same two new coaches, zero buffer. If Edmonton keeps turning pucks over and staying out too long, Cotter and company will do it again. If they keep it simple, put it in, and forecheck like Bouchard said works, the slot opens and the stars get to finish instead of rescue.
Bouchard’s five-point opener deserved a win. The Oilers’ defensive night deserved exactly what it got. Six goals allowed in Babcock’s first regular-season game back is the real result. The point is a temporary stay of execution, not a foundation.
