Oilers getting separation from Kings with Skinner’s calm and squeaky wins

EDMONTON — You can see how it works now, that a team that went three rounds and two rounds, respectively, in the past two playoff seasons has a different set of tools with which to approach run No. 3.

How Tampa figured it out. How Colorado found the secret sauce.

It’s not to say that the Edmonton Oilers should plan the parade. But up against a team like Los Angeles, the growing separation is clear.

Each year, the Oilers have more answers and the Kings more questions.

Some notes on a travel day home from Los Angeles.

Soup and Stu

Stuart Skinner has had to play catch-up in Edmonton on a team that found itself right in the prime of its two superstar players’ careers without a goalie who could support their success.

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It’s why Jack Campbell was signed: GM Ken Holland, two summers ago, was under immense pressure to find a goalie, and not only was Skinner not the guy yet, we had no idea if he would ever be.

The Campbell signing — specifically the five-year term — was misguided, but we know from whence it came. After a conference finals appearance with Mike Smith and Mikko Koskinen in ’22, they were gone and Holland needed a goalie — stat.

When Campbell faltered, Skinner gave the Oilers all they could ask for in his rookie season. He was a Calder Trophy finalist — and now he’s taken the next step.

In a 33-save Game 4 shutout, Skinner showed that he can stop enough pucks — behind quality team defence — to win a big-boys’ playoff game on the road.

“He has shown that he’s taken steps as a goaltender,” said Oilers defenceman Mattias Ekholm. “He’s way calmer. He’s positionally very sound, and you have to really make a good play to beat him. It’s a great feeling for us knowing that.

“He’s the backbone of our team. As soon as he gripped onto it and kind of realized, ‘OK, I’m the guy.’ He’s just been running with it all year.”

Fans want perfection every single night, but inside an NHL dressing room, you’re judged on how you play when things didn’t go well the night prior. Everyone has a bad game — it’s the players who don’t have two in a row who have the ultimate respect of their peers.

“His biggest strength is the way he rebounds after those (bad) nights,” said Ekholm. “That, in my opinion, is a sign of a really, really good goaltender. You can’t always control 82 games and playoffs, and be on top of your game every night. But you can always control how you rebound and how you respond to those games.”

This interview with Chris Simpson is must-see for anyone who wants a look into a player who is perhaps the most mature, mentally level NHL sophomore we’ve ever covered.

Kings For A Day

We’re not sure where the Los Angeles Kings go from here — both in this series and in the big picture — if they can’t pull off the miracle and claw back from a 3-1 deficit in this series. Frankly, the gap between these two divisional foes is widening, as Edmonton fixes to close out this series in five games — after winning in six and seven games the previous two springs.

We’re not saying we doubt anyone’s word here — that Game 4 win was hard-fought and well-earned — but hearing the Oilers praise L.A. in defeat year after year is beginning to remind of all those kind words Dallas Stars head coach Ken Hitchcock used to have for the Oilers — as his Stars pounded another nail in their collective coffin in another spring, series after series, spring after spring.

“Coming in and taking two here? It’s a good feeling,” Corey Perry said after Game 4. “It’s not an easy building to play in, let alone get two wins here. They’re very good and stingy at home.”

How about allowing one goal in 120 minutes of road hockey in the NHL playoffs? After a whacky start to this series, with three or four fluky Kings goals finding their way in, the Oilers are at 2.50 goals allowed per game — fifth in the playoffs.

Skinner’s save percentage (.919) is suddenly fourth among playoff starters.

Sunday night was a master class, with Edmonton getting outshot 33-13 but leading in slot shots (8-6), chances off the rush (6-1) and tying the Kings in high-danger scoring chances (4-4) on 20 less shots on goal. (Per sportlogiq.)

Skinner was excellent, but he was more a cog in the machine than a goalie who saved his team’s bacon. He was rock solid, yet not asked to be spectacular.

“Give L.A. credit,” said Oilers centre Connor McDavid. “They had a lot of juice. They were fast. They were physical. They were everywhere. You know, sometimes you got to find a way to win a game like that, where maybe you’re second best, but you just gut one out.”

The Viking Diaries

Before this series began, Ekholm relayed some lessons he’d learned as a Nashville Predator, where they made it all the way to a Stanley Cup Final after years of trying, only to lose to in six games to Pittsburgh.

“The biggest lesson I’ve learned from the playoffs is,” said the veteran defenceman, “if you’re going to go all the way … you’re going to have to win games that you don’t deserve. You can’t always (outplay) the opponent.

“I can go back to (Nashville) when we clinched to go to the Final against Anaheim,” he reminisced. “We had 18 shots that game but we scored six goals. Now, that doesn’t happen every night, but we got there — and nobody talks about that game today.”

Game 4 at The Crypt in L.A. was one of those games. L.A. may have been better, but that’s the booby prize. Edmonton took home the ‘W,’ exactly the way it said it had to.

“Smart guy, eh?” said Ekholm, joking. “That’s exactly what that is, right? This is one of those (wins). You’ve got to squeak ‘em out.”

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