Following each game in the first round between the Edmonton Oilers and Los Angeles Kings, we’ll be providing a quick synopsis of the clubs’ goaltending performances.
Stuart Skinner, Oilers
21/26 saves, .808 save percentage
Not his greatest outing, you say? What gave it away, the fact he allowed three goals on seven first-period shots? Yeah, vintage playoff Stuart Skinner, right? You remember, the rookie from a year ago who went all all-star in the regular season on the way to claiming the starting gig, only to find out the hard way the playoffs are an entirely different animal.
His 2.75 goals-against average and .914 save percentage tanked to 3.68 and .883 in the playoffs, as rest was ignored and the Oilers made a second-round exit.
This time will be different, though it might not have looked like it at first Wednesday. Still, Skinner kept his composure to hold down the fort long enough for the offence to get rolling and stop the bleeding long enough to even things up after 60 minutes.
Like in Game 1, where not one, but two passes bounced in off the skate blades of Oilers defencemen and a broken stick belonging to another allowed for a third goal, the Kings benefitted from the luckiest of bounces when a zone-clearing pass was redirected along the wall at center ice and happened to land on the tape of Anze Kopitar, in stride, for the overtime winner.
Not Skinner’s fault, but at least one of the earlier ones that definitely was his fault might not have allowed the Kings to even have an overtime to win.
Cam Talbot, Kings
27/31 saves, .831 save percentage
The goalie voted least likely to forget his own name in the opening round didn’t exactly stuff the highlight reel with his performance Wednesday either.
But amid the thunderous chants of, “Talbot, Talbot,” in Rogers Place, which he used to call home, the Kings netminder proved he was up for the task this series, and that those six goals-against from Game 1 were an anomaly. Well, some of them, anyway.
His biggest stop came against Leon Draisaitl, on a one-timer from the right dot that was nearly a carbon copy of the one the Oilers forward sniped past him on the power play a game earlier.
But he also had to come up big against Oilers goal machine Zach Hyman on the same whistle that led to Wednesday’s overtime winner.
A goaltending dual this is not. But that doesn’t mean it’s lacking in entertainment.
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