Clearly, it was not the Edmonton Oilers‘ night.
For a team with Stanley Cup aspirations and unfinished business following their Game 7 loss last season, their quest to return to the pinnacle of hockey got off to a rough start, to put it mildly.
So rough, in fact, that their No. 1 goaltender, Stuart Skinner, had his night cut short after the Winnipeg Jets slipped five unanswered goals past the fourth-year Oiler. Calvin Pickard, 32, stepped in between the pipes in relief.
The Nino Niederreiter-Adam Lowry-Mason Appleton line gave Skinner trouble early on, combining for the Jets’ two first-period goals.
The game was still in reach for the Oilers, however, before back-to-back goals from Rasmus Kupari and Dylan Samberg extended the lead to four goals.
Despite allowing two goals in 20 seconds in the second period alone, the net was still Skinner’s to lose. That is, until Kyle Connor sent a tidy wrister over the right pad of the 25-year-old goaltender to seal his fate.
This was the seventh consecutive year that the 27-year-old Jet scored in their season opener — a new NHL record.
Skinner is in his third year acting as a starting goaltender for the Oilers. He weathered the majority of the starts in both 2022-23 and 2023-24 amidst struggles by former Edmonton netminder Jack Campbell.
Though his save percentage fell from a career-high .914 in 50 starts in 2022-23 to .905 in 59 starts during the 2023-24 season, he still managed to backstop his team to 23 wins.
Despite the lacklustre start, worry not, Oilers fans. Remember, the team began their 2023-24 campaign with an 8-2 thumping at the hands of the Vancouver Canucks, then progressed all the way to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final. There are still 81 games remaining and, with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl at the helm, don’t expect this to become a pattern.