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Oilers host Avalanche in season opener at home

Oct 12, 2008 - 1:37 PM Colorado (0-1-0) at Edmonton (0-0-0), 8:00 pm EDT

EDMONTON, Alberta (Ticker) -- After a longer wait than every other team in the league, the promising Edmonton Oilers can begin their quest to pick up where they left off last season.

The Oilers will become the last NHL team to their start 2008-09 campaign on Sunday, when they host the Northwest Division rival Colorado Avalanche.

Edmonton went 41-35-6 and finished three points shy of the Nashville Predators for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference, despite winning 14 of its last 20 contests down the stretch.

Goaltender Mathieu Garon, who spent most of last season as Dwayne Roloson's backup, is now the team's starter. The 30-year-old went 26-18-1 and posted a 2.66 goals-against average in 47 games in 2007-08.

Erik Cole tallied 51 points (22 goals, 29 assists) last season and will join Shawn Horcoff and Ales Hemsky on the team's top line. Horcoff and Hemsky also registered 20-plus goals for the Oilers, who are 15-9-4 in their regular-season openers.

The Boston Bruins defeated Colorado, 5-4, on Thursday to spoil Tony Granato's return as Avalanche coach.

In his 20th season opener, Joe Sakic had an assist, tying him with Wayne Gretzky for the most points in season openers. Sakic also became just the ninth player in NHL history to play 20 or more regular seasons with the same franchise.

Avalanche defenseman Adam Foote is expected to play in his 1,000th NHL contest in this one and will also tie Hall of Famer Michel Goulet for second place in franchise games played with 813.

Foote has made more regular season (812) and post-season appearances (164) than any other defenseman in franchise history. He will become the 40th active player to reach this milestone, and the 14th current defenseman.