OilersNation has reported:

The Edmonton Oilers are the National Hockey League’s only team without a regulation loss after the Florida Panthers lost their home opener Saturday night. Edmonton’s 3-1 win over the San Jose Sharks gave the Oilers a 4-0-1 record, including a 2-0 mark this week, a 4-0-1 record against Pacific Division opponents and a 3-0 road record.

The Oilers held San Jose to two high-danger chances at five-on-five. They have conceded only four goals over their past three games, a stretch in which Tristan Jarry has had more opportunity to settle in after an 11-day gap between starts.

Edmonton has scored 17 goals at five-on-five and allowed 10, a plus-7 differential that ranks among the league’s top five, alongside Colorado, Seattle, Boston and Dallas. The team has done so without Zach Hyman, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Matt Savoie, all sidelined by injuries.

Hyman could return Tuesday against the Los Angeles Kings, according to the source, but the team does not need to rush him. The Oilers are scheduled to play in Los Angeles on Tuesday, host Utah on Thursday and visit Utah on Saturday.

Vasily Podkolzin has scored five goals and added seven points in five games to start the season. He reached the 50-goal mark for his NHL career Saturday, with those five recent goals accounting for 10 per cent of his career total. He has complemented Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, and a regular place on their wing could make projections of 20 or 25 goals seem conservative, even when injured teammates return.

Mattias Ekholm scored his first goal since recording a hat trick in January. He has continued to take most of his shifts from the defensive zone and leads the Oilers in penalty-kill time, averaging 11:39 so far, three minutes more than Connor Murphy.

Centre Owen Michaels won 11 of 17 faceoffs against the Anaheim Ducks, then went 11 for 13 against San Jose. His line has been outshot more often recently, though staying even in goals or scoring, as Alex Formenton did, can reduce the effect of that pressure. The source compared the instinct to cheer for Michaels with the support once given to Rem Murray, and noted that his first name is spelled Owen, with an “e” before the “n.”

Through five games, Edmonton’s power play has scored only one more goal than its penalty kill. The early results have also left the club weighing how to use Isaac Howard, a question sharpened by the returns of injured players and the team’s current lineup.

Mike Babcock started new acquisition Filip Hallander on the second line ahead of Howard. It was not the first time Howard had been passed over for a spot higher in the lineup. The organization needs to determine whether Howard can be a top-six player this season or next, or whether he is better viewed as a trade asset.

More playing time could help answer whether the Oilers should keep or trade him. Howard skated with Nugent-Hopkins and Hyman during training camp, but injuries that began on the eve of the season opener disrupted those plans. The source said Howard has not made the most of the shifts he has received and will need to remind the team of his value; there is no guarantee he will remain with Edmonton once players return.

The column also questioned whether the Oilers could be disappointed if they try to make a Ferrari into an SUV. It described the week’s games as unflashy but a sound foundation for Edmonton’s 2026-27 ambitions, contrasting the image of Ferraris with “Chevy Avalanches” moving from A to B. San Jose managed just one high-danger chance in one of the team’s three recent games, with the exception attributed to “Macklin Magic.”

The writer turned to the workload of broadcasters and junior hockey. Jack Michaels had a seven-day road trip in California to call three games, travelling by private jet. The Bonnyville Pontiacs, by contrast, played five games in eight days on what the column called the Grand Alberta Tour, stopping in Drumheller, Calgary, Lloydminster, Whitecourt and Grande Prairie.

The team covered 2,710 kilometres, while the writer travelled about 2,000 kilometres and got off at the Namao Transit Centre. The column described that schedule as part of paying dues and said Michaels could enjoy his current trips after working through the grind in Alaska and the ECHL. It recalled a quote attributed to Hall of Famer Mike Dikta: “What’s the difference between a three-week-old puppy and a sportswriter?” Dikta continued, “In six weeks, the puppy stops whining.” The writer added, “Well said, Mike. Rest in peace.”

A Thursday game between the Vegas Golden Knights and Toronto Maple Leafs marked the first time in Golden Knights history that the club did not record a sellout, according to the column. SinBin Vegas predicted that the trend would continue, with attendance also falling below the sellout mark for Saturday’s game against Los Angeles, and published a column laying out its explanations.

SinBin wrote: “It has never been harder to be a Golden Knights fan because the organization has shifted from building a community around hockey to operating like any other billion-dollar corporation, with profit as its defining priority.” The source said that view could be easy to dismiss, but pointed to discussion of the organization’s “ruthlessness,” rising costs and less community engagement. It suggested that some fans may be pushing back for the first time, possibly amid fatigue with Kelly McCrimmon, and said comments beneath the SinBin article included anecdotes from season-ticket holders about what had changed. The column’s conclusion was that a win-at-all-costs approach can carry a cost.

The writer also praised the broadcast of the Vegas-Toronto game, saying that at 61, Gord Miller remains the world’s best hockey play-by-play caller and that Mike Johnson is the best colour analyst currently working. In Western Canada, viewers rarely hear them outside the World Juniors because TSN assigns them to regional broadcasts, the column said.

Three teams remained winless: the Philadelphia Flyers, Calgary Flames and Los Angeles Kings. The writer thought Calgary was the likeliest to remain winless the longest. The Flames had only two games scheduled that week, compared with four each for Philadelphia and Los Angeles, and the column cited their talent-poor offensive core and Dustin Wolf’s pronounced struggles.

Calgary was set to rematch the Ducks, visit Vegas, then host Carolina and Minnesota. The writer floated Oct. 24 against Detroit as a possible night for the Flames to earn a win; it would be their 10th game of the season. Philadelphia had been outscored 24-7. General manager Daniel Briere suspected the Flyers were a long way off when he signed Carlsson to an offer sheet, the source said, and the team’s struggles fit a pattern it associated with Rick Tocchet-coached teams after unexpectedly good seasons and with Philadelphia’s tendency over the past decade-plus to have one playoff year followed by difficult seasons.

Brady Tkachuk had not recorded a point in four games in a Panthers uniform. The column questioned who would drive play for him to capitalize on and recalled Ottawa fans saying, “he ain’t the play driver you think he is.” Montreal Canadiens fans chanted for Dylan Larkin on Saturday night, but the writer did not expect a trade for him soon. The same was said of Hellebuyck, who was losing $38,600 each day during his holdout.

Igor Shesterkin was out for the season. Although the column said his absence would normally accelerate a Hellebuyck-related trade, it saw no connection likely to affect the situation and questioned whether Drury was desperate enough to acquire Hellebuyck as a rental. The writer added that the family had long celebrated Thanksgiving on Sunday and was marking turkey day, with a wish for readers to enjoy family time.

Michael Menzies is an OilersNation columnist and co-host of Pregaming and Postgaming. He has been the Bonnyville Pontiacs’ play-by-play voice in the AJHL since 2019 and has seven years of news experience as Editor-at-Large of Lakeland Connect in Bonnyville. Menzies collects vinyl, books and stomach issues, and can be followed on X at Menzies_4.

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