Stan Bowman’s comments this week about the Oilers goaltending not being an are of concern took all of one period against the Colorado Avalanche to blow up in his face.
For those who missed it, Bowman spoke with The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun on Thursday for an article released Friday, hours before his Edmonton Oilers hosted Nathan MacKinnon and co.
Bowman defended the Oilers’ goaltending duo of Stuart Skinner and Calvin Pickard amid calls for the general manager to upgrade at the position. “Our goalies have been great,” were his exact words, and the ones that blew up in his face like Acme Dynamite.
Because Friday night was far from a banner performance as Edmonton fell 5-4.
Stuart Skinner got the start, but lasted only one period before he was pulled. Three goals against — all ones he could’ve made saves — on 11 shots will do that. First was MacKinnon with a long wrist shot on the power play, then it was Cale Makar with a similar shot. While Oilers goals followed those pair quickly, as Leon Draisaitl and Corey Perry each scored, Artturi Lehkonen would convert on a quick play leading to two Avalanche players beating three Oilers defenders.
Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch kept it simple when asked after the game what led to the goaltending change, pulling Skinner for the first time since Game 1 of the season when he let in five goals on 13 shots.
“I don’t think he much opportunity on the third one, but made a nice save at the end of the period,” he said. “But the first two, I felt like he could’ve had.
“Picks has been winning us a lot of games, and we needed a little boost for our team. He has a pretty good record of late, and felt he could come in and do the job.”
At least early on, Mr. Hyde remained in the crease. Evan Bouchard coughed up an egregious puck to Parker Kelly on a power play just over six minutes into the second, allowing a speedy Makar to fly into the zone and pick the top corner.
But Dr. Jekkyl returned to calm things down, as Pickard managed to tighten things up in the crease and the Oilers to get back into it. Boy, did they ever, as Perry and Draisaitl would each score to even up the game at four.
The Oilers, however, were doomed. Even killing off a 5-on-3 early in the third couldn’t give them the momentum to come back, and Martin Necas scored a key third-period goal for the second night in a row for the Avalanche to secure the win.
“I didn’t love our game the last couple nights,” said Draisaitl, who became the third active player to record four straight 40-goal seasons. “Maybe it’s a little bit of fatigue kicking in, or mentally we weren’t as sharp as we needed to be, but I think the break comes at a right time for once and obviously get back to playing collective good hockey when we get back.”
There’s been an illness running circles around the Oilers locker room for weeks now, and its effects were on full display Friday night. This last month has been far from easy for the team because of it.
One way it’s played out is poor starts for the Oilers. In their 17 games since the new year, they’ve given up the first goal nine different times. They’ve still managed a 12-5-1 record in that time, one of the league’s best, mind you, but chasing games early is never a key to long-term success.
“Ideally you’re scoring the first one and never looking back,” said Knoblauch. “We’ve won games in different ways. We’ve been unbelievable coming from behind. I think our guys handle that adversity better than I’ve ever seen a team handle it, continuing their business, keep playing hockey.
“Tonight, same thing. We’re down one late and I think there was still a lot of belief we could still get that equalizer before 60 minutes ran up.”
Only three Oilers will represent their countries at the upcoming 4-Nations Face-Off: Connor McDavid, Mattias Ekholm, and Viktor Arvidsson. For the rest, they’ll have a chance to do that — rest.
Edmonton’s regular season schedule will pick back up on Feb. 22 when the Oilers visit the Philadelphia Flyers, kicking off a five-game road trip that will see them pay visit to the Washington Capitals, Tampa Bay Lightning, Florida Panthers, and Carolina Hurricanes.
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.
