Oilers PK shines and McDavid calls game in 3-2 OT win against the Stars

Stuart Skinner faced 33 shots on Thursday and stopped 31 of them, which was good for a .933 save% and a big Game 1 win. The reason I’m starting this section with his stats is because there were so many doubters about Skinner’s game after what happened against Vancouver that there is a sizeable chunk of hockey fans — not Oilers fans — that thought he had no chance competing against Oettinger.

Well, in Game 1 at least, Skinner rose to the challenge and went save for save with a very good goaltender at the other end. He looked calm, handled the puck well, and looked like the guy who was one of the best in the league for a run of a few months. Had Stu not been dialled in from Jump Street, the Oilers could have found themselves in a hole while they were trying to shake the nerves off, but he stood tall and laid the foundation for what was a massive road win.

THE PENALTY KILL

The Oilers’ PK was tasked with killing off five shorthanded situations against the Stars, and they got the job done like champions. As I’m watching the boys kill off penalty after penalty, I couldn’t help but think of the YEARS when the Oilers couldn’t get a kill to save their lives, and now they’ve got the best PK in the playoffs. At a 92.5% kill rate, the Oilers’ PK is lights out right now, and my body is here for it.

OTHER THINGS WORTH MENTIONING…

Thanks to Reid Wilkins, I learned that this was the Oilers’ first win in double OT or later since Shawn Horcoff beat San Jose in triple OT on May 10th, 2006. Is it a sign? I’m choosing to believe it’s a sign.

-Leon Draisaitl opened the scoring with his ninth goal of the playoffs and extended his point streak to 13 games. Just so we’re clear here, Drai has points in every single playoff game so far. That’s bananas. But not only is he getting it done on the offensive side of the puck, but there were also many instances of him hauling a-- back to the d-zone to break up plays too. The guy is just so damned good at playoff time that I wish I were smarter so I could come up with better words to describe how great he’s been.

-Can we talk about the fact that the Dallas Stars weren’t called for a single penalty outside of a bench minor in over four periods of play? I’m not trying to be some conspiracy theorist or anything like that, but you can’t tell me that every player in a Dallas Stars jersey was a perfect angel in Game 1. It was ridiculous. The good news is that the PK was perfect in Game 1, killing off all five shorthanded situations they faced, including the double minor to Connor McDavid in overtime. Amazing effort.

-Should we talk about Brett Kulak’s 10-bell giveaway that resulted in the first Stars goal, or should we leave it alone? Playoff Kulak has been sensational so far in the playoffs, but that giveaway could have turned the tides. He’ll be better, but that mistake was costly.

-After going to Los Angeles and Vancouver for the first two rounds and dealing with their fanbases, which could be incredibly toxic, it was so refreshing to come to Dallas and not have any of those same experiences. If anything, every Stars fan we met was very nice and blown away that we flew from Edmonton to Texas to watch our boys play. They were friendly, their chirps were pretty funny, and I’d be remise if I didn’t mention how great the experience was in Game 1 after getting screamed at for two nights in Vancouver. Shout to Stars fans, and I never thought I’d say that. Oh, and no, I’m not talking about the BANG guy — he wasn’t anywhere near us.

-I know my schtick is that I love faceoffs, but you can’t tell me I was the only one who wished the Oilers could win a draw in the third period and overtime. Instead, the boys won only 44.3% of the draws, and some of those losses resulted in some quality shots against Skinner. Fortunately, we still managed to come up on top, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t getting rattled late in the game when the guys kept losing faceoffs in their zone.