Mike Babcock pulls unexpected move as he walks away from media scrum

The Edmonton Oilers picked up their first win of the season on Thursday, but it came in the most chaotic way imaginable. A 9-7 victory over the Vancouver Canucks meant 16 combined goals, defensive breakdowns on both sides, and plenty of questions about what went wrong at the back end.

Not the start the Oilers nor new head coach Mike Babcock were looking for.

On Friday after practice, reporters asked Babcock how much of the goals against fell on the defence and how much was on the goaltending, he had a response nobody saw coming.

Babcock simply replied, "I think it's coaching," before walking away from the media scrum to a round of laughter.

It was a perfectly timed bit of self-deprecating humor from the Oilers bench boss, who clearly understood the absurdity of trying to assign blame after a game that featured that many goals. His team had surrendered seven, after all, despite holding a commanding 8-2 lead midway through the second period.

I mean, everyone sort of expects Babcock to get terribly upset, blame the players or even throw one without mercy under the bus, but that's not what he did. Perhaps there is a chance he has learned from past mistakes...

The wild scoreline was fueled by monster performances from Connor McDavid, who posted five points, and Evan Bouchard and Leon Draisaitl, who each tallied four. Owen Michaels also chipped in with his first career NHL goal. But it was the defensive chaos that defined the evening, as the Canucks rattled off four consecutive goals in the third period to make things uncomfortably close.

Babcock does not want the spotlight on his players or who is to blame and on Friday, he showed how the Oilers will take the two points and the laughs. Edmonton returns home Saturday to host the Seattle Kraken, where Babcock will presumably try to keep the goal total on both sides a little more reasonable.