It was a split-squad game. The first of eight pre-season obligations for the Edmonton Oilers. Non-televised. Sparsely attended. Devoid of any star power.

Just the minimum number of veterans required by the NHL, playing at 50 per cent intensity, and a bunch of rookies still trying to get a feel for their new surroundings.

On Sunday night, no less.

It was basically one of those games that, as a sportswriter, they have to pay you to watch. Such is life in the early stages of a training camp.

But there was one guy who had butterflies in his stomach all day thinking about half of the Oilers training camp roster taking on half the Calgary Flames training camp roster. Couldn’t sleep. Couldn’t shake the nerves.

“I thought I wouldn’t be (nervous), because I’ve seen quite a bit of hockey, internationally and stuff like that,” David Tomasek said after his first game in an Oilers sweater. “But the national anthem and stuff, it kind of gets to you.”

Here’s a guy who’s 29-years old, who’s played almost 500 pro games, who’s played in the KHL, played in the World Junior Championships and won a gold medal at the 2024 World Hockey Championships.

And there he is, all stressed and jittery, over the Sunday night split squad game.

“I was more nervous throughout the day,” he said, adding he couldn’t even fall asleep for his pre-game nap. “That kind of surprised me.”

Edmonton’s biggest off-season free agent signing, the top player from the top Swedish League, was the central focus of Sunday’s 3-2 overtime loss to the Flames B squad. He is supposed to be a major piece of the new look Oilers, after all. A linemate for Connor McDavid, perhaps.

So how was it?

Tomasek didn’t stand out offensively on a line with Mattias Janmark and American Leaguer Seth Griffith, but came away generally satisfied with his North American pro debut.

“There was a lot of good stuff,” he said. “I think there were some solid defensive plays, which I tried to focus on, too, as a centre. Try to get the system a little bit and get used to the size of the rink and the pace.

“There was one (goal) I should have put in but I didn’t get the spot I wanted.”

The organization has high hopes, if not expectations for the 6-foot-2, 210-pound right shot centre/winger. So does he, but he also knows it’s important to set realistic expectations and a realistic schedule.

He’s not going to walk into the NHL and average 1.2 points per game (like he did in Sweden). He knows that. And he won’t be a top six centre here (like he was in Sweden), feasting on power play time, since the top two centre spots and all five first unit PP positions are spoken for.

“Of course,” he said. “You have to be smart. You’re coming to a team that has the two best offensive players in the world, right? I know I had (an offensive) role back home in Europe, but I need to be good on both sides of the ice, faceoffs, things like that.”

Overall, Sunday night was a good first step. No goals, no assists, in 16:24 of ice time, but Tomasek believes he can see where this thing is heading.

“You want to score, but I’m really happy I got into those positions and had those chances,” he said. “That’s what you want as a player coming over here and playing your first game in a long, long time and at a whole different level.

“It’s a step-by-step process. You can’t score every night here. You obviously want to, but the process is important.”

Does Tomasek, five months way from his 30th birthday, still have to prove to himself, and everyone else, that he can do this? Or did he see anything in that nervous first game that suggests he’s going to be fine, it’s just a matter of going through the adjustment process?

“I think it showed me something, it gave me confidence that I can play,” he said. “But it’s still a small sample, it’s the first game. The first game for a lot of us. I played my last game in April. And I haven’t played on NHL sized ice for quit a bit of time.

“I’m happy with (game one) but I’m trying to be balanced. Not too high, not too low.”

Head coach Kris Knoblauch, for one, is excited about how this signing could pay off.

“There’s a transition period for those guys coming over, whether you’re coming from Junior or college or wherever,” he said.

“Mostly it’s the pace of play — you don’t have as much time to make plays. But he definitely has a shooter mentality, which is good because of the guys we had on our team the last couple of years, he’s probably one of the better shooters.

“Very few guys can score from distance and I would say the way he shoots he can probably do that once in a while.”

E-mail: rtychkowski@postmedia.com

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