With his haters cursing the turn of events that returned Stuart Skinner to the Edmonton Oilers net, the embattled keeper fired back with some blankety-blanks of his own.
A 3-0 shutout win in Game 4 followed by a 1-0 shutout win in a series-clinching Game 5. In all, he kept the desperate former Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights off the board for 127 minutes and 19 seconds and moved his team into another Western Conference final.
Pretty bleeping good considering the circumstances.
“Hopefully it shuts a lot of people up who were talking about him,” said Oilers captain Connor McDavid, who loves how Skinner came in at a critical moment, won the series and destroyed his critics at the same time.
“We’ve always had belief in him. He comes in and pitches two shutouts. You can’t say enough good things.”
Oilers defenceman Darnell Nurse has also been a target of the online mob, so he knows what it’s like to be on the receiving end of the virtual pitchforks and torches.
He also knows the satisfaction of shrugging it off and playing your best hockey when it matters most.
“He’s got to be feeling good,” grinned Nurse. “There is not much better than quieting people when they’re talking crap about you.
“We don’t win the series if he doesn’t step up and play the way that he does. He’s a goaltender who took us to the Stanley Cup Finals last year. He showed up again for us huge in this series. He’s a special goaltender in this league, I truly believe that.”
Skinner steadied himself extremely well after losing the crease two games into the Los Angeles series, but this is as much about the Oilers tightening up defensively as it is about him.
Goalies are always at the mercy of the team in front of them and that is very much the case here. It’s funny how much better he looks when his own defencemen aren’t getting primary assists on opposition goals.
“The way that we’ve competed, the amount of blocked shots,” the 26-year-old said after closing out the Knights. “In the first three minutes we had five blocked shots. Those are the things that it takes to win games. All the credit goes to the guys in front of me.”
With a pair of Art Ross and Hart Trophy winners in the lineup, the Oilers have always had a reputation for high-powered offence, but when they want to they can lock it down as well as anyone in the league.
And they want to now.
“If you want to have success in this league you don’t win in the playoff unless you defend,” said Nurse. “You may be able to outscore your mistakes in one or two games in a whole run, but you’re not going to be able to do that on a nightly basis.
“For our group, the more we’ve gone through that, the more we’ve recognized that.”
The Oilers held Vegas to nine goals in five games and kept their five leading goal scorers from the regular season off the scoresheet entirely. It was a master class in playoff hockey, a lot like the stuff that got them to last year’s Cup final.
“I said this last year during the run in the playoffs and this year, too, I don’t think our guys get enough credit on how we can defend,” Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said. “We can make some plays and we don’t give up very much. I saw it in the series, there weren’t many scoring chances.”
E-mail: rtychkowski@postmedia.com