Lots of justifiable blame will be laid at Stuart Skinner’s feet for Wednesday night’s loss to the Vegas Golden Knights.
After all, the Edmonton Oilers had a two-one lead until halfway through the third period, before Noah Hanifin tied it up with a power-play shot from the point that Skinner should’ve, and needed to, make a save on. A seam pass found its way to the point, and suddenly the Oilers went into full-on panic mode.
The same can be said for Hanifin’s second goal of that period when there was just under a minute left in the game, which was one where there needed to be a save made. It was a four-to-two advantage in terms of players in the Oilers zone, yet Ivan Barbashev was able to find Hanifin on the opposite side, walking down and wiring a shot home.
The issue of the 3-2 loss goes beyond that, though, as the Oilers got doubled up in shots, including getting outshot 10-6, in what was a pedestrian period. They took their foot off the gas just two games after doing the opposite against another division rival in the Calgary Flames in another game where they couldn’t score enough goals to make the difference.
Edmonton found themself in an easy deficit in the game when the Golden Knights caught them puck-watching, making moves around pedestrian Oilers as Jack Eichel got sprung on a breakaway, making a move to beat Skinner. They had to fight to get back into it but were successful. Brett Kulak tipped home a Darnell Nurse shot while in the slot — not the most common thing you’d see from a defenceman — while Zach Hyman finally got a bounce to go his way, when a puck bounced off a stanchion, letting him tuck a puck short side on Adin Hill.
But then the third period happened.
Kulak, however, didn’t feel as if their game got away from them.
“I don’t think the third felt too much different than the rest of the game, but maybe it did for other guys, I don’t know,” he said. “I think we liked our game, pretty much a full sixty minutes.
“There’s a couple times you wish you had the coverage better and they’re sniping shots. They’re a good team over there, they know how to win, hang around there, and not give up a whole lot. It was just a case of that. I don’t think we folded or got away from our game plan at all tonight, it was just they ended up scoring more than we did.”
It’s easy to blame Skinner for the loss. He needed to make some saves for the team in those moments, something he himself would surely admit, but the truth is the blame goes well beyond him. One of the league’s most potent offences in recent years, it’s been anything but for the Oilers this season.
They’ve scored just 33 goals, the fourth-fewest in the entire NHL, despite taking the most shots on goal of any team, with 463 — 17 more than the closest team. And while lots of shots should lead to lots of goals, that hasn’t happened, with them finding the back of the net on just 7.13 percent of the time, the second-worst number in the league, with that percentage dropping even lower to 5.82 percent at five-on-five.
As said best by defenceman Mattias Ekholm after Wednesday’s loss, the Oilers need to put themselves in better positions to convert on their chances.
“You have to put yourselves in positions to score,” he said. “It’s a hard thing to score five-on-five in this league, it really is, so we got some work to do. I know we got the pieces in here, and I know we’ll get it together.”
Edmonton won’t play on Thursday or Friday, preparing for the Vancouver Canucks, after having played three games in their last four days, and four in their last six, before another pair of days off Sunday and Monday. The New York Islanders will visit Edmonton next Tuesday.
