The injury list is long for the Edmonton Oilers, but don’t tell that to the 20 who laced them up on Sunday night.
Not long after Rory McIlroy completed the golf Grand Slam securing his fourth major championship win with a nail biter at Augusta National Golf Course, the Oilers put up four goals against the Winnipeg Jets.
And while McIlroy’s four wins all came at different courses, the Oilers had four different goalscorers, as Connor Brown, Adam Henrique, Corey Perry and Viktor Arvidsson all tickled twine in the 4-1 win.
“Everyone knows about our injury problems and guys not being in the lineup, and we needed guys to step up,” said Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch after the game. “Everyone played a real solid game. Whether it was our first or fourth line, all six defence. Stu had a solid game.
“It was nice to see and then we get some key goals. Henrique has been putting a lot of points up lately, Perry’s been just scoring at a great rate throughout the season. We needed that and like I said, I thought it was a good team effort.”
The Oilers depth came up big for them, even against a Jets side who sat some of their top players for rest purposes. But what might be the biggest story for Edmonton out of it was the stellar play of Stuart Skinner in the crease, earning the first star honours as he turned aside 17 of 18 shots he faced for a .944 save percentage.
“(He was) really solid,” said Knoblauch. “I think we defended really well in front of him. The goal that he let in, absolutely no chance. He made a heckuva save on the glove and the rebounds there, no chance for that.
“And then the rest of the night, he kept everything else out.
Knoblauch was non-committal this week when asked by local scribes about who his Game 1 starter would be against the Los Angeles Kings when the playoffs get underway. Skinner, of course, had been out of the lineup for three weeks after getting injured when Mikko Rantanen kneed him in the head on March 26th.
Calvin Pickard entered the crease playing well, going 5-2 in seven starts with a .903 save percentage and a 2.71 goals against average, but one things for certain: Skinner’s teammates were happy to see him back.
“He looked poised in there, I think that was the biggest thing,” said Brown. “He looked calm, square to everything, wasn’t scrambling at all. He kind of made it look easy. Such a talented goaltender, it’s nice to have him back.”
Henrique, meanwhile, echoed it was great to see him back.
“It’s great to see him back between the pipes and doing his thing,” he said. “Again, another one of those guys we missed and guys did a good job stepping up when somebody was out.”
The Oilers didn’t get off scot-free when it came to the injury bug, however, as Troy Stecher left the game in the third period after an awkward fall and didn’t return.
“Hopefully it’s just equipment, we’ll find out more later,” said Knoblauch.
Next up for the Oilers will be a pivotal game tonight against the Los Angeles Kings before they close out their regular season games Wednesday night.
Zach Laing is Oilersnation’s associate editor, senior columnist, and The Nation Network’s news director. He also makes up one-half of the DFO DFS Report. He can be followed on Twitter, currently known as X, at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach.laing@bettercollective.com.
