It took Jake Virtanen ten minutes to become hated in Edmonton

Jake Virtanen hasn’t even played a shift of meaningful NHL hockey, but is already enemy number one in Edmonton, with both their fans and their players.

Braden Christoffer opened the scoring for the Oilers in Vancouver’s first game of the Penticton Young Stars tournament. Naturally, Virtanen was looking for anything he could do to shift the momentum back in his team’s favour. A goal was the preferred option, but when Connor McDavid left himself exposed, he saw an opportunity to welcome him to the professional game.

Needless to say, the Oilers weren’t amused. Players began coming at him left and right, whistle after whistle, and within a minute or so, Darnell Nurse challenged him to a fight.

Virtanen was down to drop the gloves, but the referees decided that they weren’t going to let the game get out of control right away. After all, he has about two more decades worth of Oiler-bullying left in him – you don’t want to burn everybody out in the first hour!

The game remains 1-0 Edmonton after twenty minutes.