FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Is this a trend? Or was it just one game?
Did the Edmonton Oilers just come unglued in Game 3? Or by announcing a “day off for players” to the collective media on Wednesday — then holding a practice anyhow — are they still unglued?
Is the team’s focus simply not where it should be?
“Today’s pretty much a day off, away from hockey for the majority of the guys. That’s our plan today,” Kris Knoblauch said on Wednesday morning, before most of his team — including Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl — practised.
The Florida Panthers were in Edmonton’s heads in Game 3, and have outscored Edmonton 9-2 since they dropped the puck for Period 2 of Game 2.
You wonder what the Oilers are focused on here, and if they can regain the proper focus in time for Thursday’s Game 4, swinging the advantage to their court — a best-of-three series with two games played up North.
And if you are Knoblauch, did you spend Wednesday crafting a Hollywood-worthy speech, with excerpts from the movies Rudy, Hoosiers and the Mighty Ducks?
What can the message be, when the situation that Edmonton finds itself in is so apparent?
“It starts almost immediately after (Game 3),” Knoblauch said on a Zoom call Wednesday. “The players are always looking for answers about why things happen the way they did, what adjustments we can make.
“Then leading up to the game, having a message. Whether that’s a big speech or a big tactical strategy … finding out what the best message is to give to them,” he said. “But we’re in the Stanley Cup Finals, so (the need for) motivation isn’t quite the same level.”
What are the priorities for Knoblauch, who more than just hinted at a lineup change for Game 4?
If Troy Stecher comes in for John Klingberg, who went minus-3 in Game 3, it would give Darnell Nurse back the partner with which he played his best hockey this season. Stecher is an able defenceman but not a game-changer, signifying a move based on Klingberg’s declining play more than a need to inject something vastly different into Edmonton’s lineup.
“The one thing that we as coaching staff appreciate a lot from Troy is just how dependable he is,” Knoblauch said. “Anytime that we’ve needed him. He’s given us really good minutes —usually not making mistakes.
In goal, does putting backup Calvin Pickard into the biggest game of your season make sense?
Maybe you can pre-emptively decide that Skinner has entered a period where he’s worn down and requires a rest. Get ahead of that by giving Pickard the Game 4 start.
But to these eyes, Skinner was just being Skinner in Game 3: The team in front of him was awful, and he did not win a nearly unwinnable game with some heroic acrobatics that “goalied” the Panthers.
The Oilers were poor, and so was Skinner in Game 3. That’s kind of his M.O., isn’t it?
“A lot of the games that Stu maybe wasn’t on his ‘A’ game, our team wasn’t on it’s ‘A’ game in front of him,” Knoblauch agreed. “I don’t think there are any bad goals (from Game 3). Maybe an extra save, but it doesn’t matter how well Stu played — it wouldn’t have made any difference in the game most likely.
“I’m not holding anything against Stu on that performance.”
Until Skinner costs the Oilers a game in which they outplayed the opponent, and did not surrender an inordinate amount of high-quality chances, he stays between the pipes, in these books.
Sure, you’d like a guy who wins games all by himself. And other than the odd game over the years — Game 6 versus Dallas in last spring’s Western Conference Final — Skinner has not made a reputation of being that guy.
But we’ll repeat: when the Oilers roll out a team game worthy of winning a playoff game against a tough opponent, Skinner has consistently delivered a commensurate level of goaltending.
We bet he’ll start in Game 4.
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