Canucks enjoy season-opening win over Oilers

EDMONTON – The Manny Malhotra era for the Vancouver Canucks is off to a positive start, even if it was a lot closer than it looked like it was going to be.

Paul Cotter had a pair of goals, including the overtime winner, as the Canucks got off to a much better start to this season than the way they closed out the last, holding on to defeat the Edmonton Oilers 6-5 on Tuesday.

“It’s the first game, so maybe not the cleanest game but I think we were resilient,” said Canucks defenceman Jamie Oleksiak. “I think as the game went on, we handled the pressure well and we responded when they had their push. I think there are some good things to take away, and a couple things we can clean up as well.

“It’s a great feeling in the room. I think we’re going to enjoy tonight and then get back at it tomorrow. That’s the key to good teams, you can’t get too high or too low. You want to stay consistent, you want to stay level-headed.”

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Marco Rossi, Jonathan Lekkerimaki, Max Sasson and Elias Pettersson also scored for the Canucks (1-0-0) who are coming off a last-place finish in the NHL last season with a paltry 25-49-8 record.

Tied 2-2 after 40 minutes, the Canucks piled in three goals in four minutes to start the third. However, the Oilers battled back and got a goal with 43 seconds left to force overtime, where Cotter scored 1:59 into extra time.

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“There’s definitely some areas we want to clean up,” said Pettersson. “If we’re up by a three-goal lead in the third, then we should definitely be able to win it. We won it, regardless, in overtime, but there’s some stuff we can clean up. But we’re very happy with the win.”

Cotter, who joined Vancouver as a free agent after the last two seasons in New Jersey, became the first player in Canucks history to score a short-handed goal in his debut with the team on the game’s opening goal as well as the first to score an overtime winner in his franchise debut. He is the sixth player in Canucks history to have a multi-goal performance in his initial game with the team.

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He also joined Brendan Shanahan as the only players in NHL history to score a short-handed goal and an OT goal in a season opener.

Kevin Lankinen made 32 stops to earn the win.

“Not the way we drew it up, for sure,” said Canucks head coach Malhotra. “Obviously, a lot of really good things to be able to score five goals in a game. Obviously, we don’t want to give up three in the third period, that’s something that we’ll definitely need to work on. But just the resiliency to stay with it for us was a huge factor in the game. And then guys stepping up in big ways.

“Lanks made some key saves, especially down the stretch there. And our (penalty) kill did the job throughout the course of the game against, obviously, an elite power play and limiting them as much as we did, was good. But just overall, the joy of winning a game takes precedent right now.”

Malhotra became the fourth person to represent the Canucks as both a player and head coach in his career, following in the footsteps of Marc Crawford, Pat Quinn and Orland Kurtenbach.

“There was a lot of momentum swings, energy swings on the bench,” said Malhotra. “Just the overall pace of the game, trying to make sure I was keeping an eye on who was on the ice when they were on the ice. There was a lot of moving parts, but it was definitely a fun one to coach.”

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The two teams have a rematch in Vancouver on Thursday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 29, 2026.