The Vancouver Canucks demolished the Edmonton Oilers 8-1 in the opening game of the 2023-24 NHL season on Wednesday night.
An incredible start to the season! pic.twitter.com/6Jt3EbHYus
— Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) October 12, 2023
It was smooth sailing for the Rick Tocchet’s men, who were in a dominant position throughout the entire game.
Brock Boeser shone for the Vancouver team with an unbelievable performance, which saw him notch a career-high 4 goals.
Conor Garland, Elias Pettersson, J.T. Miller and Dakota Joshua also scored for the Canucks, with Miller adding four assists and Pettersson three. Quinn Hughes also finished the game with three assists. Thatcher Demko made 21 saves, before being substituted for Casey DeSmith, who finished the game with 5 saves.
Leon Draisatl scored the lonely goal for Edmonton to extend his goal-scoring record against them to 19 games in a row. But that was a little consolation for him and his teammates, who were left devastated after an utterly shambolic display.
“We’re all in this one together and the bottom line is we were at a preseason level of work ethic and a preseason level of execution, all of us, and we got a lesson in regular-season work ethic and regular-season battle level.” Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft said.
Both teams will meet again on Saturday night in Edmonton.