Optimism met by immediate crashing doubt, cursing replaced with cheering, then cursing again, a resting heartbeat sent racing for the first time in months — the Edmonton Oilers and their specific brand of emotional manipulation were back in full force in Tuesday’s home opener. 

Six goals allowed on just eight high-danger chances against in a little over 60 minutes? It was good the fans were wearing their orange vests, as Rogers Place returned to an active construction site.

“It’s the first game, but you have to learn, you have to grow from every experience, and I think that’s something that we’ll do today,” said Tristan Jarry afterward. 

Nowhere but up, but to paraphrase coach Mike Babcock post-game, there’s some serious work to do. Every game won’t be against the Canucks.  

Maybe it’s better this way, so the Oilers aren’t lulled into some false sense of security where they defeat Vancouver and pretend everything is fine. Maybe it’s the all-too-common Slow Start. Maybe this, maybe that. 

The truth is Tuesday’s game could’ve been cut and pasted into the last several seasons for the Oilers with the dig-hole, dig-out-of-hole third period, but there are new wrinkles to begin 2026-27. 

The Oilers certainly want to play aggressively to match Babcock’s “no such thing as overaggressive” mantra, particularly on the penalty kill, which left Mattias Ekholm to fend alone in front of the net on the Elias Pettersson slot redirect 5-2 goal.

But that game can be the reason you worry about such an overaggressive style, especially with a good pro like Ryan Nugent-Hopkins added to the infirmary the day of the game, Colton Dach playing a new-ish position at centre, Alex Formenton playing his first NHL game in over four years on Connor McDavid’s wing, and Owen Michaels playing his first professional game of any kind.

It’s easy to say that Tristan Jarry was the reason the Oilers lost — and it would be misleading to suggest he played well, or nearly good enough, particularly on the 3-2 iceburner, five-hole goal against — but evaluating the skaters in front of him, there’s a lot of learning to do.

“You could tell it was our first regular-season game,” said Evan Bouchard, who was in mid-season form with his hat-trick and five-point outing. “We’ve got to be a lot more detailed........

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