EDMONTON — The pre-season began with criticism surrounding the hiring of Mike Babcock and the addition of Alex Formenton. What became clear was, if you’re going to work for the Edmonton Oilers this season, you’d better have a thick skin.

Four games later, they look like a team whose game may do their talking for them.

The Oilers' defensive game appeared regular-season ready, as Edmonton completed a perfect pre-season in a cakewalk — a 4-1 win over the rebuilding Calgary Flames. They allowed just five goals in four pre-season games — three at even strength.

Now, let’s see if they can carry that defensive game into the regular season, starting with a Tuesday-Thursday home and home against the Vancouver Canucks.

“Of course it gets harder,” said Kasperi Kapanen, one of the better players on the ice Saturday with a goal and an assist. “We have talented guys that can make plays and score goals. We're not worried about that. But us letting in four or five, six goals a game, that's not a winning mentality.”

The goaltending would best be described as so far so good, with both Tristan Jarry and Devon Levi enjoying pre-seasons that just aren’t going to get much better than what they showed us.

And the guys who are supposed to produce look ready to do so, as Connor McDavid (2-2-4), Evan Bouchard (0-5-5) each helped fill the net in their two pre-season outings. The power play went one-for-one Saturday, with........

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