The Edmonton Oilers opened their pre-season with a 5-2 win over the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday night at Rogers Place, giving new head coach Mike Babcock a victory in his first game behind Edmonton’s bench.
Final: Oilers 5, Jets 2. Tristan Jarry allowed one goal on 16 shots before Matt Tomkins finished the game in relief, stopping four. Edmonton went 0-for-1 on the power play and killed its lone penalty of the night.
Ryan Shea, who signed a five-year contract with the Oilers over the summer, opened the scoring in the first period in his Edmonton debut and finished with a goal and two assists. Connor McDavid also scored in the opening frame. Leon Draisaitl and Alex Formenton each scored in the second period, with Formenton converting on a breakaway in his first NHL game action since April 29, 2022. Colton Dach added an empty-net goal in the third to close out the scoring for Edmonton.
Evan Bouchard did not score but set up four of the Oilers’ five goals, leading all skaters in points on the night, according to the team’s official game recap. Winnipeg’s goals came from Parker Ford in the first period and Jacob Julien in the third. Thomas Milic started in net for the Jets.
Formenton, making his return after more than four years away from the NHL, played 16 minutes 47 seconds on a line with Dach and Mathieu Joseph, a trio that drew praise from the coaching staff afterward. “Pace is a big one,” Formenton said, according to comments posted by the Oilers. “I was excited to get back out there and use my speed and my strength.”
Babcock singled out that same line when asked about it after the game. “I was so happy with that line,” he said. “That was my favorite line tonight by far.”
Shea, whose route to an NHL roster took longer than most, reflected on his first appearance in an Oilers sweater. “I’m proud of myself,” he said. “I’ve been through it a little bit … my path was a little longer than most, but I don’t take any day here for granted.”
Saturday’s win was Babcock’s first since Edmonton hired him over the summer to replace Kris Knoblauch, who was let go after the Oilers’ first-round playoff exit last spring. Edmonton lost to the Anaheim Ducks in six games despite winning Game 1, falling 5-2 in the deciding game on April 30 at Honda Center. It was Edmonton’s earliest playoff exit since being swept by Winnipeg in the first round in 2021, according to NHL.com. McDavid played through an ankle injury suffered in Game 2 of that series, and Draisaitl returned for the series opener after missing the final 14 games of the regular season with a lower-body injury; NHL.com reported neither was at full strength against Anaheim.
Saturday’s game was the first test for a training camp roster that opened Sept. 17 with 56 players, 31 forwards, 17 defencemen and eight goalies, under Babcock and associate coach D.J. Smith, according to the Oilers’ official release.
The Oilers continue their four-game pre-season schedule Tuesday in Winnipeg, where they face the Jets again at Canada Life Centre. Edmonton then travels to Vancouver on Thursday to face the Canucks before closing out its exhibition slate at home against the Calgary Flames on Saturday, Sept. 26, rounding out a stretch in which the club faces all three of its Western Canadian rivals over eight days. The regular-season opener follows Sept. 29 at Rogers Place against Vancouver, with the return match set for Oct. 1 in Vancouver.
Photo: generic ice hockey arena image via Unsplash, not from Saturday’s game. Credit: Klim Musalimov / Unsplash.
