Skinner pulled in Oilers' opener: 'It is just not ideal'
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The Edmonton Oilers first game since losing Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final did not go as planned on Wednesday.
The Oilers were blown out 6-0 on home ice as the team opened their season against the Winnipeg Jets. Goaltender Stuart Skinner was pulled midway through the second period after allowing five goals on 13 shots.
"It is very frustrating to start like this. It is just not ideal, I don’t feel great, but I can’t do much about what happened tonight so I’m going to go back to a couple sheets and draw up some new stuff for me to work on and just get better from this," Skinner said postgame, per NHL.com. "I have been pulled before, I have let in five goals in a game before, obviously you just don’t want to do it the first game.
"You don’t want to do it ever. I’ll just get better from this and move on."
Skinner went 36-16-5 last season with a .905 save percentage and a 2.62 goals-against average. He was 14-9 in the playoffs, posting .901 save percentage and a 2.45 GAA and was pulled once during the team's run to the Stanley Cup Final.
The Oilers outshot the Jets 30-20 on the night, including 23-15 over the first two periods, but could not overcome the avalanche of goals scored by Winnipeg. All five goals allowed by Skinner came in a stretch of less than 15 minutes, with Adam Lowry opening the scoring at 14:56 of the first period and Kyle Connor scoring the fifth goal of the night at 9:33 of the second. Rasmus Kupari and Dylan Samberg scored just 20 seconds apart four minutes into the second frame to double the Jets lead to 4-0. Calvin Pickard stopped six of seven shots in relief over the second half of the game.
Head coach Kris Knoblauch, who took over after the Oilers started 3-9-1 under Jay Woodcroft last season, shifted the focus to Game 2 with the Oilers set to host the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday.
"It’s tough to rebound against this team, last year they were the best defensive team in the league, so when you’re giving them goals it’s tough to get them back," Knoblauch said. "We got punched pretty good tonight but we’ve always been able to respond. Last year, I was happy with our guys, when we did have a bad game we usually responded really well.
"We’ll see this weekend. It’s one game. After this weekend, definitely that will be a tell of where we are at."