After finishing just one win shy of hoisting the Stanley Cup for the sixth time in franchise history last spring, the Edmonton Oilers hope some minor re-tooling will get them back to the promised land.
Edmonton hosts the Winnipeg Jets on Wednesday night to open the teams’ respective 2024-25 regular season.
The Oilers took two of three meetings last season, winning 3-1 in Winnipeg in November and 4-3 in overtime at Winnipeg in March. The Jets won the series opener, in overtime, 3-2 in October.
Despite coming one win shy of the Cup in the Finals against the champion Florida Panthers, the Oilers struggled at the start of the 2023-24 season, going 3-9-1, leading to the firing of head coach Jay Woodcroft in favor of Kris Knoblauch.
“We want to just start on time. We don’t need to put on a show on Wednesday, but we need to play good hockey, we need to be compact, (and) we need to play our type of way,” forward Leon Draisaitl said. “Obviously, get off to a better start in terms of collecting wins.”
Newly hired Oilers general manager Stan Bowman added pieces to an already potent Edmonton offense which finished fourth in the league in goals (292), signing Jeff Skinner and Viktor Arvidsson.
The pair will join Zach Hyman, who scored a career-best 54 goals last season; captain Connor McDavid, who became one of five players in NHL history to reach the 100-assist plateau; and Draisaitl, who finished with 106 points in the regular season, then secured an eight-year contract extension.
On the back end, Edmonton, which finished second in the Pacific Division with 104 points, added Troy Stecher, Ty Emberson and Travis Dermott, who officially signed on Tuesday.
Wednesday is the first of three meetings between the two clubs. The Jets and Oilers meet next on March 20 in Edmonton before concluding the season series in Winnipeg on April 13.
The Jets enter the season with a new look behind the bench after assistant coach Scott Arniel took over from the retiring Rick Bowness last May.
“We’re going to have to play fast against (Edmonton),” Arniel said. “They’re quick, they’ve got some people that can close on you. We talked about when we’re coming out of our end or our neutral zone regroups; we’re not holding on to pucks or going d-to-d and trying to slow things down. We want to play fast; we want to make them defend.”
The Jets finished second in the Central Division last season with 110 points but were dispatched from the playoffs by the division rival Colorado Avalanche in the first round.
Winnipeg had depth in scoring, with 12 players hitting the 30-point mark, including center Mark Scheifele, who had a team-leading 72 points in 74 games. With forwards Sean Monahan and Tyler Toffoli departing in free agency, Winnipeg will need similar contributions this year.
The Jets led the league last season with the fewest goals against, thanks in part to goaltender Connor Hellebuyck’s Vezina performance. They will need a similar defensive performance this season in the competitive Central Division.
To help Hellebuyck, who signed a seven-year extension, the Jets added netminder Kaapo Kahkonen from the San Jose Sharks — one of the club’s key offseason acquisitions.
Hellebuyck, who missed multiple practices this week due to a family matter, is expected to get the start in Edmonton.
–Field Level Media
