Oilers not satisfied with start to season

EDMONTON – It hasn’t felt like it at times, but the Edmonton Oilers are off to their best start in the last three years.

Edmonton won a wild one on Thursday as Vasily Podkolzin scored the game winner with just over a minute remaining and added an assist as the Oilers mounted a third-period comeback to defeat the Montreal Canadiens 6-5.

David Tomasek, Adam Henrique, Andrew Mangiapane, Leon Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins also scored for the Oilers (4-3-1) who have won two in a row.

By contrast, through their first eight games of 2023, the Oilers were 2-5-1, and in 2024 they were 3-4-1. Both seasons ended with trips to the Stanley Cup final.

“We’re sitting here at 4-3-1, there have been some seasons with a lot tougher trekking from game eight,” said Oilers defenceman Darnell Nurse, who picked up a pair of assists Thursday.

“With that said, I think our group knows we have to be a lot better. We came with an emphasis in camp and the start of the year that we want to have a good start. Fortunately, we are in a position here where we do have a winning record here and we can build on it. It’s grabbing it now as a group.”

The Oilers seemed fortunate to gain the win over the Habs.

Despite seemingly being outplayed, Edmonton grabbed a 3-1 lead midway through the second period.

The lacklustre play caught up with the Oilers late in the second as Montreal came storming back with three goals in less than two minutes to knot it up, including a pair by Cole Caufield.

Montreal took a 5-3 lead before Edmonton mounted their own quick comeback, scoring a pair of power play markers in a span of 58 seconds just past the midway mark of the third.

Podkolzin then played hero, sending a backhanded shot in while falling to his knees for his first goal of the season with just 1:09 remaining on the game clock.

“We’ve been there a million times, and the guys have been there a million times,” Podkolzin said. “Down by two for the Oilers is nothing, I guess. And the guys have proved it a million times. It wasn’t a great feeling, we didn’t play well defensively and we’ve got to play much better as a top team. But finding a way to get two points was good.”

Edmonton’s second power-play goal came on an unsportsmanlike conduct call to Josh Anderson right after Draisaitl scored on the man advantage. Temperatures were high in the Montreal dressing room about the call.

“I’m still trying to figure that out,” Caufield said. “I think the refs kind of took over the game there and kudos to them for winning it.”

Despite the victory, the Oilers know they still have a lot of work to do.

“It just wasn’t good enough,” said Nugent-Hopkins. “We took advantage of some power plays at the end that we scored on, and then a really big one there by Podz. It was a good battle. I thought we started to push at the end, but I would say for most of the game it was not our standard.”

Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch echoed the sentiment.

“Maybe the last 10 minutes of the game, it looked like we were a team,” he said. “We played well. But the first 50 it was disorganized, it was a lack of work. It didn’t look very good.

“We’ve got a lot of things to clean up. We can only get better right now.”

Oilers captain Connor McDavid picked up three assists in the contest and Tomasek recorded his first career NHL goal in his seventh game.

The 29-year-old native of Prague previously played for Farjestads BK Karlstad in the Swedish Elite League, and led that league in points with 57 in 47 games last season.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 23, 2025.

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