After finishing with an NHL-worst 58 points last season, the Vancouver Canucks pulled off the biggest surprise on the league’s opening night with a 6-5 overtime road victory against the perennial Western Conference powerhouse Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday.
In their home opener on Thursday, the Canucks will try to ride the momentum and make it two straight over superstar Connor McDavid and company.
Fourth-line forward Paul Cotter, who signed a one-year, $2.15 million free agent contract with Vancouver on July 1, enjoyed a memorable team debut. He produced a short-handed goal to open the scoring and added the game-winner at 1:59 of overtime.
“I couldn’t have drawn it up better than that,” said Cotter, 26. “That’s a dream come true to start the year individually, and obviously for us to beat a team of that caliber. I don’t know if I could think of a better way to start the season.”
In overtime, Cotter won a puck battle along the left boards against Ryan Shea, then slid the puck while lying on the ice to Max Sasson. Cotter got up, rushed the net and received a pass from Sasson, then deked goalie Tristan Jarry and put in a backhand shot for the game-winner.
“Really excited for him,” said Vancouver coach Manny Malhotra, who picked up a win in his NHL coaching debut. “Obviously, a short-handed goal and an OT winner (are) two pretty big moments for him.”
The decisive goal came after the Canucks blew a 5-2 lead in the final 11:04 of regulation.
“The resiliency to stay with it for us was a huge factor in the game, and then guys stepping up in big ways,” Malhotra said.
The result spoiled Mike Babcock’s Edmonton coaching debut and overshadowed a historic night by defenseman Evan Bouchard, who finished with five points and a hat trick.
Bouchard became the first defenseman in NHL history to score five points in a season opener, and just the third defenseman to collect a hat trick in a season opener, joining Mark Howe (Oct. 9, 1980) and Bert Corbeau (Dec. 24, 1919).
“You could tell it was our first regular-season game,” Bouchard said. “We’ve got to be more detailed than that. Giving up odd-man rushes, giving up five, six (goals) isn’t going to cut it.”
Babcock, brought in to help fix a chronic leaky defense, called the loss “ridiculous. We have to set a better standard for ourselves. … You can’t have a guy with five points and lose the hockey game.”
McDavid (two assists) and fellow star Leon Draisaitl (one assist) failed to score a goal, but the Oilers still entered the third period tied at 2-2 before allowing three goals in the next five-plus minutes.
Vasily Podkolzin started Edmonton’s comeback with a goal at the 8:56 mark. Bouchard got his hat trick 24 seconds later, and then Podkolzin forced overtime with a power-play tally with 43 seconds left in regulation.
“I thought we started the game good and then we didn’t do things right,” Babcock said. “We turned the puck over, we stayed out too long on the ice, we made poor decisions.
“The bottom line is, if we want to work and we want to do things right, we’re going to have a lot of success. If we want to play like that, we’re going to be chasing the game. To be honest with you, I feel fortunate we got a point.”
