EDMONTON — Be careful what you wish for.
After two of the young season’s most entertaining games, a pair of hair-on-fire, ‘80s specials against the Vancouver Canucks, the Edmonton Oilers found their defensive game in a tidy — if a tad dreary — 3-1 win over Seattle.
“We didn’t give up a touchdown!” kidded head coach Mike Babcock, whose team locked ‘er down — and finally got some goaltending — in a rare 5 p.m. Saturday start at home. Edmonton gave up only 20 shots on goal.
Devon Levi was steady, and even acrobatic on a couple of saves. And a patient Oilers team got the break they’d earned on the game-winner.
“It was bound to happen, stringing one (together) that was quite low-event,” said Leon Draisaitl, who swatted home the game-winner, his third goal of the season. “I thought it was a good game for us. We played heavy for the most part and played structurally well and defended well.
In a game where Natural Stat Trick counted just 10 combined high danger scoring chances, this really should be a strategy that works for Edmonton:
The Oilers have more firepower than their opponent on most nights. So theoretically, they should be happy to split up a minimal number of scoring chances on any given night, and count on their ability to find one more goal than their opponent.
But low event also means boring, and it just isn’t in this team’s DNA to consistently play that way. If you watched the first two games, this one looked like it was a completely different roster.
“That was that was pretty tight (defensively), I have to say,” said Levi. “If we play like that every game, we have a good chance.”
The theory played out Saturday, as the Oilers stayed patient in a 1-1 game until their big break finally arrived, right on cue at 17:33 of the third period.
Defenceman Ryan Shea kept a puck in the zone, but instead of the puck getting deep as intended, he ripped it off of Connor McDavid along the left-wing wall. Darned if that puck didn’t carom all the way across the zone and right to Draisaitl, who was standing just outside of his office. He was there to one-time the “pass” home.
They say that when you play the right way you usually find a break along the way. Well, that old hockey script played out perfectly on Saturday, as the Oilers moved to 2-0-1 and an early lead in the Pacific Division.
“We got good goaltending tonight,” Babcock said. “You have to give him credit because we haven’t had that. That was really positive tonight.”
Positive. Necessary. A major relief… Pick your descriptor.
Levi coming in and giving this team NHL goaltending — after Edmonton entered the game with a league-worst .711 team save percentage — will go miles inside the Oilers dressing room.
After getting filleted for seven in his first start as an Oiler, Levi had a chat with injured Frederik Andersen, who found a way to help his new team without having even donned the pads yet.
“(I’ve had) some great conversations with him, a lot of support from him,” Levi said. “I've never really had a veteran goalie on my team, on the goalie team with me. So having his support — he's been through so much — and just hearing what he has to say and his leadership has been super helpful.”
Levi faced just 20 shots, but he gave his team the two or three big saves any teams needs to win. His best work came with 12:22 left in a 1-1 game when he came across the crease to stone Jordan Eberle with a glove save, one that stood up under video review.
Had the puck found the deepest part of the pocket in Levi’s glove, it may have been deemed to have crossed the line. Alas, it did not, and the biggest save of the young season was the foundation for a tidy regulation win.
“After some of the bounces in the last game, I was hoping we got this bounce in this game,” Levi said of the review.
He’s a pro, this 24-year-old. Babcock went back to him ahead of the veteran Jarry, and Levi rewarded him with an excellent start.
“I personally walk away from that Vancouver game just with the win. That's all I took from that game,” Levi said of the 9-7 victory on Thursday.
“It's not easy, but I've definitely been through harder. Just the past few years, there's definitely been some adversity that's really taught me it's one day, it's one game. The ups, the downs? They come, they go.
“Just knowing that the coaches trust me, the boys trust me, definitely improves confidence as a goalie, for sure.”
Rookie Owen Michaels scored his second NHL goal on just his second NHL shot. The last player to do that was Brandon Biro of the Buffalo Sabres in 2023-24. No Oiler has ever done it before.
With five regular forwards out of the lineup, Michaels is staking his claim to a a spot once they begin to return.
Spec’s Checks
The Oilers now have a 16-4 all-time record against Seattle — including an eight-game winning streak at Rogers Place. They went 3-0 vs. the Kraken last season … Edmonton’s team saves percentage of .711 was the lowest through two games in franchise history, just as their 13 goals against was an all-time franchise high. Levi’s night moved the team up to .816 … Draisaitl now has a nine-game points streak (6-14-19) against Seattle. He has now scored a game-winning goal against 29 other franchises.
