Stuart Skinner (Jerome Miron-Imagn Images)EDMONTON – Well, that was less than ideal.
Anybody who expected the Edmonton Oilers to go into Texas and sweep the Dallas Stars in four games needs to give their head a shake.
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And send all penalty kill tips to the Oilers coaching staff (kidding, kind of).
Stuart Skinner fell victim to five goals on 27 shots. That earned him a .815 save percentage on the night. But he's not the reason the Oilers lost. That blame falls on the lack of discipline and penalty kill prowess.
The real story was the Stars powerplay going 3-for-4.
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Three Different Powerplay Goals, Three Different Oilers At Fault
Miro Heiskanen got the ball rolling for the Stars – but Darnell Nurse was too passive in protecting the net and couldn't prevent the screen.
On the second powerplay goal, Jake Walman gave Mikael Granlund all the time in the world to shoot the puck. When he is the only player in the vicinity of the puck carrier, he needs to be more assertive and force the shooter to make a play.
The third goal was…a mess. Troy Stecher gets tripped up moments before the cross seam pass to Skinner's glove side. Once he recovers, he goes to block the shot from Matt Duchene. In an effort to not block Skinner's view, he stays low to the ground.
His half-hearted attempt results in Duchene collecting the puck and putting it past Skinner, who had both Stecher and Vasily Podkolzin in his line of sight.
Like it or not, none of these goals are truly Skinner's fault. The penalty kill needs to be a lot better for the Oilers to come back to Edmonton with a split.
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