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Connor McDavid, Edmonton Oilers (Amy Irvin / The Hockey Writers)

Oilers’ Keys to Defeating Golden Knights in Game 4

Originally posted on The Hockey Writers | By Brian Swane | Last updated May 12, 2025 11:05 AM ET

The Edmonton Oilers are looking to rebound when they host the Vegas Golden Knights for Game 4 of Round 2 in the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Rogers Place on Monday (May 11).

Edmonton’s lead in the best-of-seven series has been cut to 2-1 after Reilly Smith scored with 0.4 seconds remaining to lift Vegas to a 4-3 victory in Game 3 on Saturday (May 10).

For Edmonton to take a stranglehold on this series, the Oilers will need to play much better on Monday than they did two days earlier. Here are the keys to Edmonton defeating Vegas in Game 4.

Flush Game 3 Loss

Trailing 2-0 in the series, Vegas came into Game 3 faced with needing to win four of the next five games against an Oilers team that was on a six-game win streak. If the Golden Knights were going to rally, the series would have to take a dramatic swing. Saturday night, Vegas was gifted one of those momentum-changing moments.

With time ticking down, Smith drew Oilers goaltender Stuart Skinner out of the crease, then threw a shot on the net that was headed wide but deflected off Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl and just barely crossed the plane of the goalline before time expired.

It was an unfathomable way to lose — only two other times in Stanley Cup Playoff history had a winning goal been scored in the final second of regulation – and sucked the life of Rogers Place.

A younger, less experienced team might be broken by such a traumatic turn of events. But this is a veteran Edmonton squad that has been through the postseason wars. The Oilers need to leave their Game 3 defeat in the rearview mirror and not allow Vegas to use it as the catalyst for a comeback.

The Oilers have proven to be very good at compartmentalizing. Rarely does what happened in the past affect them in the present. Never has that capability been more important than now.

Shore Things Up

There’s a difference between flushing a loss and learning from defeat, and the Oilers need to do both as they prepare to play Game 4.

Saturday’s game was not a well-played one by Edmonton. The Oilers were guilty of making too many mistakes, right up to and including the final second, and appeared listless at times.

Much credit goes to the Golden Knights, who put on a defensive clinic in Game 3, suffocating the Oilers and preventing Edmonton’s dynamic duo of Draisaitl and captain Connor McDavid from really busting out. McDavid managed to score Edmonton’s third goal to tie the game late in the third period, but it came via a lucky bounce off the skates of Vegas blueliner Brayden McNabb and behind goalie Adin Hill.

Playoff series are about adjustments. But the Oilers can make improvements by simply playing smarter and harder. It’s up to head coach Kris Knoblauch and his assistants to figure out how they’re going to find holes in the Golden Knights’ defence.

Edmonton needs to get more pucks on Hill, who only has a .872 save percentage (SV%) this postseason, including .859 in Round 2. The Oilers totalled 65 shots over their Games 1 and 2 victories, but managed just 20 in Game 3, tying for their third-fewest shots in a game over the course of the 2024-25 regular season and 2025 Playoffs.

Skinner Activates 2024 Mode

After sitting on the bench for six games while Calvin Pickard led Edmonton on its win streak, Skinner returned to action in Game 3 when Pickard was ruled out with an undisclosed injury.

On Sunday (May 11), Knoblauch said that Pickard will also miss Game 4, meaning that Skinner will make a second straight start on Monday.

This news has inspired a degree of panic among fans in Oil Country, who have watched Skinner’s regular season struggles follow him into the playoffs. In three games this postseason, the 26-year-old netminder is 0-3 with a ghastly goals-against average (GAA) of 5.36 and a shocking SV% of .817.

Without Pickard to turn to, Edmonton needs Skinner to play much better. The good news is, there is ample reason to believe that he can.

It was almost exactly a year ago that Skinner returned from a two-game benching with the Oilers trailing the Vancouver Canucks 3-2 in Round 2 of the playoffs. Skinner proceeded to backstop the Oilers not only to a come-from-behind series win against Vancouver, but on a run all the way to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final, posting a stellar 2.05 GAA and .914 SV% over 15 consecutive starts during that span.

Skinner needs to rediscover his form, and the 26-year-old could use a bit more help from his teammates, too: in the 2025 Playoffs, the Oilers are averaging 3.33 goals per game when Skinner starts, a full goal and a half per game less than the 4.83 they are scoring when Pickard starts.

Not that it needs to be stated, but Monday’s tilt is pivotal. Historically, teams that fall behind 3-1 in a best-of-seven round come back to win the series less than 10 percent of the time. But if Vegas can even things up at 2-2, this suddenly becomes a best-of-three affair with home ice advantage in the Golden Knights’ favour.