“What noise?” Oilers bounce back, play complete game

Last week the Edmonton Oilers could proudly wear the “yah, we can’t keep pucks out, be we can sure put em in” label.

And it worked (most of the time).

When the depth players were producing and Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl were doing Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl things, a 6-5 game was not unexpected.

A 3-0 game, like the one seen in Rogers Place on Monday night, though? A little harder to believe.

Perhaps that centred around the glaring lack of confidence in goaltending since Calvin Pickard was injured, and the starter-turned-backup was tasked with manning the net — again.

“Numbers don’t really matter, especially in playoffs,” according to Stuart Skinner, everyone’s favourite punching bag.

He’s got a minor point.

“I mean, if you let in five, and it’s a 5-5 game going into OT, you’re giving your team a chance to win.”

At the same time, the numbers said Skinner was 0-3 in playoff games heading into a 3-0 game four.

So maybe the numbers do matter, but memories are short and a critic one game is your fan the next — just pick a side already.

“Honestly, (the noise) doesn’t really bother me.”

Actually, it was more like “what outside noise? I have no idea, no clue what’s going on.”

“I decided to play this position, so it’s completely my fault,” joked Skinner. “But being in situations like this (losing slumps), I’ve been in them many times before and I’m going to be in them again.”

It’s part of the game that, unlike unexplainable goaltending and mismatched defensive pairings, we can accept.

Unlike Paul Coffey who has the misfortune of trying to navigate the Oilers’ backend, particularly the rotation of the defensive units. In the sense that there is none.

On paper, Darnell Nurse has been a steady D-partner to Evan Bouchard and Jake Walman to John Klingberg. Watch an Oilers game though, and you’ll seldom see the same rotation twice.

It wasn’t working, and like goaltending in game four, the code was cracked.

Paul Coffey will sleep well knowing that while only one Oilers line produced — again, on paper — his defensive core delivered everywhere they were needed.

They limited the Vegas Golden Knights to only 24 shots on goal.

Shut down a healthy amount of high-danger chances.

Kept the puck alive in the neutral and offensive zone.

Backchecked.

Check. Check. Check. And one more for sticking with the same pairings for a full 60 minutes.

“This is probably the first game that we’ve done that,” agreed Walman while playing a key piece in maintaining a rare playoff lead despite so many given up. “I think that’s the most important thing. We can forget about the scores and play our game.”

“Put our work boots (and) our hard hats on, and just going to work the way that we’ve competed over a number of games,” added Skinner.

Oh, and get a little aggressive. That makes a difference too.

It squashes the “Oilers are soft” rumours and it makes them difficult to play against.

It adds value to certain players and it just does something to opposing goaltenders — cough, cough Adin Hill, who is probably still thinking about Evander Kane’s roll over him and failed attempt at a fight.

Who does he think he is, Jordan Binnington?

“I mean, sometimes that happens, sometimes you gotta push guys around,” commented Skinner who didn’t try to get in a fight, but did skate around one. “But I mean, then it gives our fans a chance to kind of go after him.”

In all seriousness though, the Oilers stepped it up in that regard.

Kasperi Kapanen showed up to his first playoff game of the season. Didn’t score any goals, but proved why he should be there.

Trent Frederic got into a fight, and lost, but the momentum swing remained the same.

Not ruthless, but not reckless either.

Much like how the Oilers modelled game four into a 3-1 series lead.