Few stories have been as well documented in Edmonton this season as Jeff Skinner’s.
After the Buffalo Sabres bought out the final three years of his contract this summer, Skinner was quick to sign a one-year deal with the Oilers. He was pencilled into the top six seemingly right away, and that’s where he got his first look early in the season.
As quickly as he was given that opportunity, he lost it, demoted into the Oilers bottom-six and at times, into the press box. Never known for his 200-foot game, that’s exactly what Kris Knoblauch and his staff wanted to see more of from the 32-year-old.
He’s since put in the work, with Tuesday’s game against the St. Louis Blues one of his best, making noticeable plays all over the ice, including in the defensive zone. So when the Oilers hop, skipped and jumped over to Chicago for the second half of a back-to-back against the Blackhawks, Skinner got elevated up the lineup, slotting alongside Leon Draisaitl and Vasily Podkolzin on the Oilers’ second line.
And boy, did he make the most of it, scoring a goal, adding an assist and taking three shots on goal in the Oilers’ 4-3 overtime win.
It’s easy to look at the goal he scored early in the third, making a silky move in front of the Blackhawks net to flip a backhander past Arvid Soderblom, extending the Oilers lead to 2-1.
But that’s not the one that caught the eye of Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch, as some excellent defensive positioning in the offensive zone forced a turnover that helped Draisaitl make it 3-1.
“I believe it was the third goal, absolutely a result (of his work),” he said. “He gets the assist on it, but just being in the right place to break up that play to get the puck down.
“If he’s not in the right place defensively, they’re probably on a rush against and we have to defend, but he’s able to break that play up and it leads to the scoring chance.”
The culmination of work comes at a key time for the Oilers, and Skinner, too. With the depth scoring being an issue for this club, Edmonton has had a six-time 30-goal scorer and 10-time 20-goal scorer waiting for his moment.
“Jeff’s been playing really well,” said Knoblauch of his game over the last month. “His details have been good, he’s been checking hard, he’s been getting on the forecheck, he’s been in the right position defensively.”
Wednesday’s game was far from an easy one for the team, playing the second half of a back-to-back with travel against a team who had the previous three days off — and it showed.
While Edmonton got a 1-0 lead in thanks to a short-side snipe from Viktor Arvidsson, also elevated in the line playing alongside Zach Hyman and Connor McDavid, nine minutes into the second, Chicago would tie it up late that frame. Skinner and Draisaitl’s goals came before the eight-and-a-half-minute mark of the third before a well-rested Chicago team pushed back.
Ryan Donato and Alec Martinez would score in the final eight minutes of the frame, and this game would be sent to overtime, where for the second night in a row, the Oilers would come out on top. Zach Hyman would deflect home a Connor McDavid pass to seal the victory.
“We’re playing back-to-back, so they had the jump,” said Knoblauch. “They were much quicker than we were for most of the night. I thought we had a good push in the first 10 minutes of the third period, then as soon as we made it 3-1, they came at us and forced us to turn the pucks over a couple of times on the breakouts that led to some scoring chances.
“It’s a long season. It’s not fair to think we’re going to be 100 percent every night, but I’m happy we got our two points and we’ll leave town with them.”
Next up for the Oilers is a flight back home where they’ll host the Colorado Avalanche Friday night before the 4-Nations Face-Off break.

Quotes

Jeff Skinner on playing with Draisaitl:
“He’s an easy guy to play with. He wins a lot of battles, makes a lot of great plays. I missed one there in the first, he kind of set me up with a wide open net there. I thought Podzy played great, too. He’s really disruptive on the forecheck, he makes a lot of plays that go unnoticed. Felt pretty good with those guys.”
Jeff Skinner on his goal:
“It was nice vision by him, obviously. I was just coming through there and there’s not much time to get it on my stick in the slot there. He finds me at the right time and I just tried to pull it to my backhand, find a hole and it sneaked under his glove.”
Kris Knoblauch on back-to-back OT wins:
“Three on three play, we’re obviously built for it. We got some players that would excel at that situation. It’s unfortunate we were in that situation both night,s but they found a way, which was nice. We just got away from a lot of things we’ve got to clean up.”
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@thenationnetwork.com.

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