Perry on Rantanen's collision with Skinner: 'I should never let that happen'
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Edmonton Oilers forward Corey Perry was unhappy with his own reaction after Dallas Stars winger Mikko Rantanen collided with Oilers goaltender Stuart Skinner in third period of Wednesday's 4-3 loss.
Rantanen was driving to the net chasing the puck when he collided with Skinner, leaving the Oilers goaltender face down on the ice. Skinner was pulled from the game by the concussion spotter.
“I was pissed at myself. I didn’t see what happened,” Perry said. “I was on the ice when Rantanen hit Skinner and that’s on me. I should never let that happen.
"I didn’t see what happened. I saw Stu go down and everyone was standing around. I didn’t see it until afterwards, and I was pretty pissed at myself I didn’t see it.”
Skinner was also knocked out of last Thursday's overtime loss to the Winnipeg Jets after a collision with Gabriel Vilardi, who also went unchallenged by the Oilers.
“We’ll talk about that internally,” Perry said of the lack of reaction becoming a trend.
“I’m not sure what we can do without taking a major penalty,” head coach Kris Knoblauch countered.
Skinner made 17 of 21 saves before leaving the contest. He was replaced by Calvin Pickard at the 6:34 mark of the third period.
While Knoblauch did not have an update on Skinner's status post-game, he said the goaltender was not expected to join the team on their trip to face the Seattle Kraken on Thursday.
The Edmonton native has appeared in 48 games this season for the Oilers and has posted a 24-17-4 mark with a 2.87 goals-against average and a .895 save percentage.
Losing Skinner adds to Edmonton's long list of injured players, which already includes star forwards Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, along with trade-deadline addition Trent Frederic.