Stuart Skinner shuts up all the haters
How exactly do you forget that just last year, Stuart Skinner backstopped this team to the Stanley Cup finals? Yeah, he doesn't seem capable of stealing a game, but in this day and age of defence-first hockey, by the time a goal goes in, the goalie shouldn't be the one snuffing out the play. In this day and age, there's no need to find the next Martin Brodeur or Dominik Hasek in net. If the skaters in front of you are playing well enough, you don't need to worry as much about who your goalie is. Also, it's important to remember who Skinner has outdueled between this year and last year. Skinner has outdueled Jake Oettinger, Darcy Kuemper, and now Adin Hill. Neither Pickard nor Skinner may have the best numbers, but both have proven themselves throughout the last two playoffs to be a great tandem that shuts the door when it counts.
Now, Skinner's haters are eating gigantic bags of crow like never before. Two shutouts in a row tend to do that. Maybe next time, don't be so quick to get the knives out, Oilers fans. You just might be embarrassing yourselves by the time the series ends.
Vegas restaurants need to stop jumping the gun on gloating until they actually have something to gloat about
I never actually saw this, but a restaurant in Vegas called PKWY Tavern actually paid for space on a billboard near Rogers Place to gloat about the GKs winning game three - in a legendary epic fail.
What exactly did you have to gloat about? All your team had done by that point was win a single game, and even then all you did was cut the Oilers' series lead to two games to one. The GKs hadn't won anything yet, so what exactly did you have to gloat about? The GKs didn't even have the series lead at that point. What a pathetic troll job. Making this even funnier is the GKs failed to even score a goal in the final two games after this billboard was posted.
Typical American arrogance. I have now officially taken it upon myself to troll their X account relentlessly. Today, it was something along the lines of asking them if their special was the loser combo.
I suggest we inundate their X account with troll jobs so they will never make this mistake again. Their X handle is @PKWY Tavern.
The Oilers can win however they want to
I've said this before, and I'll say it again for the people in the back - the Oilers can win games however they want to.
Want to key in on Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl? No problem, because in comes Zach Hyman, Evander Kane, Corey Perry, Connor Brown, or any number of depth players to finish the job. In game five it was Kasperi Kapanen playing in his first game of the playoffs that finished the job and wiped the GKs from the series.
Want to play aggressively and get into an offensive firefight? The Oilers will outscore you. Want to clamp down defensively? The Oilers will match your play and win 1-0 in OT. Think being physical is the answer to beating the Oilers? They can play that game too, with Corey Perry and Evander Kane being particularly pestilent, and if those two don't get under your skin then Trent Frederic will. Not to mention the McDrai duo are perfectly capable of scoring on sharp angle shots, so you can hit them all you want but the puck will probably be in your net before you know it.
Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg will be crying the Blues
Now, that being said, did Ken Holland, Jeff Jackson, and Stan Bowman all screw up by not signing both to QOs a lot sooner? Yes, puzzilingly they never did, however, in the end the twin traitors paid the price as the Blues were eliminated by the Jets in the first round, while the Oilers are still standing and playing in the third round, possibly playing the team that beat them in the first round (the Jets). Holloway has proven himself to be an over hyped offer sheet theft as he was injured the entire series and thus was never a factor in the series loss. Broberg, meanwhile, with an inferior team around him, put up only 1-1-2 in the puzzlingly even games played. For that Blues GM Doug Armstrong is paying him almost $4.6 million, and once that contract is up, he'll have to give him at least a minimum 10% raise because Broberg is still an RFA at the end of his contract. Slow sarcastic clap to you, Mr. Armstrong, well done. How's that egg taste on your face right about now? Of course, what else can you expect from the guy who hires his buddy Peter Chiarelli to be his VP of hockey operations? We all know how terrible that guy can be.
Bowman looks like more and more of a genius for not matching the offer sheets to these players. Not only was he able to procure cheaper alternatives for both players in Vasily Podkolzin and Ty Emberson, but he was able to use the cap savings - in conjunction with Evander Kane's LTIR cap space - to acquire John Klingberg, Jake Walman, and Trent Frederic, who are all guys that have been key to the Oilers current playoff run. This is the key to a great GM - find great pieces for the roster at reasonable prices. Most GMs can draft and develop players, but not all of them are good at supplementing those guys via free agency, trades, and the waiver wire.
Sometimes you just have realize when to walk away from the table. Bowman did that, and now Blues GM Doug Armstrong is saddled with two overpriced players who contributed little to nothing to his club when it mattered most.
Adin Hill tried being a coward to help his team and it failed
Hill successfully trolled the refs with a crazy embellishment job in Game Four but even with two PPs it failed to produce a spark with his team. Even the rest of the league could see what Hill did and didn't agree with this unsportsmanlike drama. This is truly on the same level as Sean Avery blocking Martin Brodeur's view in the 90s by waving his hands in the air. Absolutely pathetic cowardice on Hill's part, and the NHL should've suspended him for it.
Memo to Adin Hill - if you want to be an actor, then retire and move to LA. If you want to be a goalie, then play the game and stop with the acting. It didn't help your team. Hill kept a lower profile in game five and just played the game, so I'm assuming he learned from his game four stupidity.