Tick tock, tick talk about blowing a shot at overtime.
Throughout their playoff history, the Edmonton Oilers had never lost a game this late in regulation time, but it happened Saturday when Reilly Smith’s last shot was rolling wide, after he pump-faked and slid around goalie Stuart Skinner. The shot, after a feed from William Karlsson, went off Leon Draisaitl’s stick and in with 0.4 of a second left.
That last Vegas Golden Knights goal, when everybody seemed to be in desperation mode, when it never should have gotten that far with the time left on the clock, saddled Skinner with the 4-3 loss. If you were grading his performance, maybe give him a C. He had some very good moments for sure, including robbing Ivan Barbashev with his glove in alone in the third period, and a circus paddle save as he dove backwards to stuff Tomas Hertl’s wraparound in the second period.
But overall it wasn’t enough in his first outing in two weeks, replacing the injured Calvin Pickard.
Stick With Pick had become the storyline as he won six in a row. But with Pickard not even dressing as the backup Saturday — likely out with a left leg issue from Game 2 — Skinner was thrown into the fire and was as good as Adin Hill in the Vegas net until the last second soiled it. The loss wasn’t on him but it was still a L, giving up four goals. Pickard also gave up four in Game 2 in Vegas, but he won because the Oilers scored five.
Bottom line: The Oilers’ No. 1 goalie who got them to the Stanley Cup final last June in Florida is a gut-punch 0-3 in the playoffs. Pickard is 6-0.
The Edmonton Oilers’ goalie Stuart Skinner (74) makes a pad save as Brett Kulak (27) battles the Vegas Golden Knights’ Pavel Dorofeyev (16) during second period NHL playoff action at Rogers Place in Edmonton on Saturday.
‘Put him in difficult situations’
What did Skinner see on the last goal? He was concentrating on Smith, but if we’re being honest everybody else saw a fair bit of panic from the home side.
“Karlsson just threw it out there (from behind the net), which I knew he’d do. I thought he (Smith) would shoot it right away because he didn’t have much time. I sprawled, got out there, stayed with him another half-second and he catches us with 0.4 seconds left. Yeah, devastating,” said Skinner, who was looking toward OT like the other 18,500 fans at Rogers Place.
But, really, Vegas deserved to win. It just took them that long to officially do it.
“Stuff happens, good bounces, bad bounces. Happens for everybody,” said Skinner, who watched Connor McDavid’s pass to Zach Hyman rip off the blade of Brayden McNabb and past Hill to tie it 3-3 with three minutes left.
“For me it felt like the game was pretty quick, especially in the first five minutes until I settled down. Obviously I had lots of energy, lots of excitement, first game in awhile, first (playoff) game at home,” said Skinner, who faced 24 shots, including at least half a dozen in the high-danger category. “Nice to go back in there but not the result we wanted, obviously.”
Whether Pickard is back in net for this series is a story for another day. It’s about how fast he heals after Hertl fell on the back of his leg in Vegas. He’s out day-to-day, according to head coach Kris Knoblauch.
For what it’s worth, Knoblauch didn’t feel there were any bad goals on Skinner.
“We just put him in difficult situations to defend,” he said. And he’s right.
The Edmonton Oilers’ Connor McDavid (97) and Leon Draisaitl (29) celebrate the team’s second goal against the Vegas Golden Knights during first period NHL playoff action at Rogers Place in Edmonton on Saturday.
‘Got in under the wire’
It was the second time the Oilers have lost in the last 30 seconds in the playoffs. It happened in Los Angeles in Game 1 after McDavid willed them to a 5-5 tie late, only to have Phillip Danault beat Skinner late on a 3-on-2 break.
The last-second goal by Smith on Saturday was unforgivable, really. Karlsson, who scored the 3-2 goal in the second period on some shoddy defensive work, had the puck in the Vegas end with 10 seconds left.
And he went 1-on-3 into the Oiler zone and still got the pass out to Smith.
“I’ve seen Karl use that play a few times where he forechecks and spins it out in front of the net. He’s so good at hunting down pucks. Jumping off the bench I think there was seven seconds left,” said Smith. “When he got it to me, I thought there might be a chance and I saw a lot of (Oilers) sell out and I hoped I had enough time to pump fake and find a lane. It worked out.”
Karlsson, who may have been the Golden Knights best player in the most important game of the season, made the play. And Smith finished it off, keeping his wits about him.
“I think if I try and shoot there it’s getting stopped at least by the first or second (checker) or the goalie. Sometimes you just hope for the best,” he said.
Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy wasn’t happy when McDavid tied it 3-3, bouncing one off McNabb. But as Cassidy said, “sometimes the gods even things out.”
“You don’t see too many finishes like that. Didn’t see it coming to be perfectly honest,” said Cassidy. When Karlie (Karlsson) disappeared (behind the net), from the bench you can’t see what’s going on. All of a sudden, the puck’s in the slot and the referee is waving the goal off (time expired) but it got in under the wire,” said Cassidy.
The building went deathly quiet when the puck went in off Draisaitl’s stick as he was trying to save it. It did appear that time had run out and OT was coming. But no. Cassidy’s players knew they had beaten the buzzer.
“We have the monitor (behind the bench) and it’s in real time. Our video coach (in the dressing room) said it was in, 0.4 seconds left. Everybody’s excited. You leave everything out there and the fractions of a second can break your heart or do the opposite,” said Cassidy.
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