Oilers Haunted by History in Game 2 Overtime Loss to Kings

Edmonton’s Dylan Holloway scored twice, while Zach Hyman and Brett Kulak also lit the lamp for the home team. Drew Doughty, Kevin Fiala and Adrian Kempe had L.A.’s other goals. Kings goalie Cam Talbot made 27 saves, while Edmonton netminder Stuart Skinner stopped 21 of the 26 shots he faced.

The Oilers haven’t opened a series with back-to-back wins on home ice since 1990, when they took a 2-0 lead over Los Angeles by winning Games 1 and 2 at Northlands Coliseum. As it turned out, there were a number of historical trends that continued at Rogers Place on Wednesday.

Oilers and Kings Have Been Here Before

This is the third straight postseason that Edmonton and Los Angeles have met in Round 1, and the teams have now split the opening pair of games all three times.

In both 2022 and 2023, it was the Kings winning in Game 1 before Edmonton rebounded with a Game 2 victory. This time the order was different, but the result is the same.

Oilers Struggle in Overtime

The Oilers have now lost six consecutive playoff games that have gone to overtime on home ice. Edmonton is 1-7 in overtime in the postseason at Rogers Place, where the Oilers moved to from Northlands Coliseum in 2016.

Edmonton’s six consecutive home losses in sudden death have all come remarkably quick: four within the first 2:07, and none later than 9:19 of overtime. The average length of overtime in the six games is three minutes and eight seconds.

The Kings hold the lion’s share of responsibility for causing Edmonton this misery: Los Angeles has now beaten the Oilers in overtime at Rogers Place in three straight postseasons, including a 5-4 win in Game 5 two years ago and a 4-3 triumph in Game 1 last spring.

Overall, Edmonton is just 3-11 in overtime in the playoffs during the Connor McDavid era. The Oilers have had sudden-death success during the regular season, going 23-17 in overtime (excluding shootouts) over the last four seasons, including 8-5 in 2023-24. But while the three-on-three format of the regular season favours players with superior skill like McDavid and Draisaitl, five-on-five overtime in the playoffs is quite another story and continues to prove as such time and again.

Skinner’s Play Dips in Postseason

While Skinner had a couple of tremendous regular seasons, going 65-30-10 with a goals-against average (GAA) of 2.68 and save percentage (SV%) of .910 in 2022-23 and 2023-24 combined, Edmonton’s No. 1 netminder hasn’t yet been able to translate that level of performance into the playoffs.

Skinner now has a postseason record of 6-7, and his career playoff stats of a 3.88 GAA and .879 SV% are an alarming increase over the regular season. Wednesday was his fourth consecutive playoff game giving up at least four goals, tying Bill Ranford for the longest such streak in franchise history.

During Edmonton’s 12 games in the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs, Skinner was pulled a whopping four times. He was replaced by veteran Jack Campbell, who rose to the occasion, posting a 1.01 GAA and .961 SV% over his four relief appearances, and even backstopped Edmonton to a come-from-behind win in Game 4 against the Kings last spring.

This year there is no such safety net. Campbell is toiling away with the Bakersfield Condors in the American Hockey League, and Skinner’s backup, Calvin Pickard, hasn’t played a second of Stanley Cup Playoff hockey in his nine-season NHL career.

Skinner is far from bearing the bulk of responsibility for Edmonton’s Game 2 loss. He didn’t have much of a chance on Kopitar’s overtime winner, which came with Oilers defenceman Darnell Nurse caught badly out of position, and only Fiala’s tally could really be considered a “bad goal”. But he also didn’t take any goals away from the Kings, either.

Goaltenders that backstop their teams to the Stanley Cup are the ones that elevate their play in the postseason, and to this point in his young career, the 25-year-old Skinner has done the opposite of that.

Skinner has a chance to begin rewriting that narrative when the Oilers and Kings face off in Game 3 on Friday (April 26). The last two postseasons have seen Edmonton and Los Angeles tied 2-2 after the first four games, and with the way things are going so far this spring, that might very well be the case again after Game 4 concludes on Sunday (April 28).