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This in from Oilers insider Bob Stauffer, his suggestion that the Edmonton Oilers will stick with goalie Stuart Skinner for Game Two of the Stanley Cup quarter-finals against the Los Angeles. Stauffer also said if Evander Kane and John Klingberg are cleared to play, they will be in for Jeff Skinner and Josh Brown respectively.
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“Let’s get to the (line-up) changes,” Stauffer said on Monday. “Let’s get to Klingberg potentially coming in for Brown, because I think it’s going to happen. It’s probably easier to come back if yhou get behind if you’ve got Klingberg in there. And I’m not sure that you really think Brtown is a shutdown guy if you’re only playing him five minutes a game. And then Evander Kane. They have both got to get cleared to play. But Jeff Skinner waited a long time to play. And he was on the ice for three goals against and he was on the ice for one for. And I can foresee a scenario where Kane comes in for Jeff Skinner and Klingberg potentially for Josh Brown.”
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In that same discussion, I suggested to Stauffer that I’d like to see Calvin Pickard in for Skinner, that Pickard had earned the start, but Stauffer shot down that notion.
“Well I don’t think you’re going to see Pickard. I think Stuart Skinner is going to get the start (in Game Two). But I think the other two guys if they get cleared, they coming in.”
My take
1. The Oilers need the physicality that Evander Kane brings, even as he’s been out a full year. The Oilers could also use Klingberg’s puck-moving, even he was out for much of the last year as well. It’s asking a lot for these two players to be difference makers, but if Kane forechecks hard and Klingberg briskly moves the puck, that will be an improvement.
2. I didn’t hate either Skinners’ play in Game One, certainly not Jeff Skinner’s play. He helped to create three Grade A shots and made a mistake on just one Grade A, but that shot ended up in the Edmonton net. It was the third L.A. goal where the primary culprit was Evan Bouchard’s early turnover. The other candidate to sit would be Mattias Janmark. Janmark is a prime penalty killer, though he was late to cover off Kevin Fiala’s power play pass on the first Kings goal. But Janmark also scored a goal of his own in the game and was otherwise solid on defence.
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3. As for Stuart Skinner, he looked slow in the nets, especially on the second Los Angeles goal. The winning goal — a knucklepuck through a heavy screen from Warren Foegele — also got past him, mainly due to Foegele’s screen and Skinner anticipating the shot would go in a different direction. Should he have had it? I never saw a TV angle that definitively demonstrated how effectively he was screened. Maybe he saw nothing of the shot. Or maybe he should have fought through the screen to see it. But I’m not sure either way.
Skinner did face 16 Grade A shots, while the Oilers only had 12. If the Oil’s defence doesn’t tighten up, nothing else much matters.
I’ll also suggest that the primary culprit on that goal against was coach Kris Knoblauch, who had had Leon Draisaitl out on the ice almost non-stop for the final six minutes. Draisaitl was too gassed to make the backcheck on Philip Danault. Danault came into the play late — it was a 2-on-2 at that point — to take a pass shoot and score. Draisaitl was too spent to get back fast on the play. That’s on the coach, not on Draisaitl.
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