When the Edmonton Oilers played their last game at Rogers Place in late June, the building was loud and proud in a rollicking Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final.
Three months later? Not so much.
There wasn’t a single Oilers player from that 5-1 win over the Florida Panthers that dressed for Sunday’s far-less-tense exhibition fixture with the Winnipeg Jets, with both teams in heavy audition mode with draft picks and farmhands.
First, the facts in a 3-2 Oiler win in the OT.
Cam Dineen got the winner in the 3-on-3 after a crushing hit by Vasily Podkolzin deep in the Oiler end, then the set-up to the farmhand D. The other Oiler goals came from 2024 first-round draft centre Sam O’Reilly (breakaway pass from Dineen) and farmhand Raphael Lavoie on a power play ripper from 30 feet that beat Eric Comrie, pretty much Lavoie’s playground after 14 of his 28 goals in Bakersfield last season came on the PP for the Oilers farm club.
Olivier Rodrigue, who will share Bakersfield goalie duties with Collin Delia, had a shake-your-head start, giving up a goal on the first shot of the game, 17 seconds in, when David Gustafsson tipped Logan Stanley’s shot home. Delia surrendered a quick shot by Dominic Toninato, shortly after Lavoie’s goal in the third period.
Now the takeaways:
(1) Right-shot centre Noah Philp, who had 19 goals in his first pro season in 2022-23, then took last year off for a personal leave, looks like he will be sticking around for a while. He was dynamite in the face-off circle (9-3), drew a penalty on Lavoie’s goal, and was robbed by Comrie’s leg on a rebound of James Stefan’s shot.
(2) O’Reilly, whom the Oilers drafted with the 32nd pick in June after trading their 2025 first-rounder to Philadelphia, looks like a dog-on-a-bone player. He’ll be going back to his London Knights junior club but he’s around the puck, a lot, and snapped one past Comrie on the Oilers first shot of the game.
(3) Apart from his assist on Dineen’s goal, Podkolzin threw his weight around, something the Oilers definitely need as a fourth-line physical force in the corners.
Philp will probably start in Bakersfield but he’s going to make things interesting.
“As the game wore on, I think I got more comfortable. Definitely had to work some kinks out, not playing for so long but I thought it progressed in a positive way,” said Philp, 26. “It was a big learning curve (going from U of Alberta to the AHL) when I first got to Bakersfield, the pace of the game, and I thought it was the same today. Games are the best way to improve, the more I can get in the better. I have no idea (how many) to be honest.”
Does he think he can make the NHL, now?
“That’s the goal for everybody. It would be short-sided of me if I didn’t think that,” said Philp, who thought he had the winning goal late in the third but for Comrie.
“Surprised me, I thought it (net) was more open,” said Philp.
He definitely has an early booster in Oiler coach Kris Knoblauch.
“What we want from Philp is what he provided today…face-offs are a huge part of it being a right-handed centreman. We’ve got lots of left-shot guys throughout our lineup who can win key face-offs and Derek Ryan was a big part of that (draws) as our right-shot centre but we need more depth there,” said Knoblauch..
“I have a lot of respect for him not playing a game for 16, 17 months, and to come into an NHL exhibition game and play as well as he did today, that’s a good first step,” said Knoblauch.
O’Reilly made it look easy on his goal, against a veteran Comrie, who could be Connor Hellebuyck’s backup this season. “The way he scored that first goal, really gifted offensively. For a young player, he looked like he belonged, he was on the puck, strong,” said Lavoie.
Does Lavoie remember his first camp?
“Yeah I do. Didn’t go as well (as O’Reilly),” he laughed.
O’Reilly, 19, admitted to a small net of butterflies to start the game before a much bigger audience than in junior (13,133), but didn’t miss on his first shot.
“Thankfully,” he said.
“The game slowed down (after the goal),” said O’Reilly, who was solid at both ends, unusual for a teenager, dipping his toes into the NHL pool. “I feel good in the D zone, obviously you’re going against bigger, stronger guys but the structure here is really good and it works.”
Knoblauch liked both Matt Savoie, in on Dineen’s winner, and O’Reilly. “I saw both players in Penticton (Young Stars tournament) and they were good but didn’t stand out. But lots of times, players are better when the level of play gets higher,” he said. “It’s more structured, faster. I thought both elevated their games, were more noticeable, and made more plays. You can tell they’re smart players and the physical game isn’t threatening to them.”
The coach gave Podkolzin his props, too.
“Podkolzin had a good game, especially starting the overtime goal. He made some defensive plays, drove the net (winner) and he got his stick on a lot of pucks, breaking up plays and wasn’t shy to play the body,” said Knoblauch.
When will Kane be able?
Left-winger Evander Kane, who had surgery in New York last Friday to repair two sports hernias and four tears (hip and abdominal), will be out of the lineup for months. Who knows, maybe past the trade deadline on March 7. There was an awful lot of bodywork done. There will be a more definitive timeline when GM Stan Bowman gets an update from the Oiler medical staff.
If Kane isn’t back until after the trade deadline, the Oilers could add his $5.125 million (cap hit) to pick up a player or two if a team would eat part of a contract.
They would probably be looking for a shutdown right-shot D, more than a forward.
Kane will likely start the season on the roster, even hurt, but theoretically could go on LTIR just before the trade deadline, unless there’s a run of injuries before then and they need to call players up and he would go on earlier.
This ‘n that
- The Oilers only dressed three players who should be on the opening night roster on Oct. 9 against these same Jets. Podkolzin and defenceman Ty Emberson and Josh Brown…
- The Oilers are having split-squad games with the Flames on Monday, with the Bakersfield coaching staff behind their bench in Calgary. Darnell Nurse, Mattias Janmark, Connor Brown, Brett Kulak, Emberson, Stu Skinner, and James Hamblin won’t be playing either here or in Calgary…
- Bakersfield’s new assistant coach Adam Krug is the brother of Blues’ Torey Krug.
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