Stuart Skinner needs to be better to save Edmonton Oilers’ season

The chips are down, and the Edmonton Oilers season will be on the line on Saturday night. It is time for their goaltender to step up.

Following a 4-3 loss to the Florida Panthers in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final, the Oilers find themselves on the brink of elimination, and could see Lord Stanley’s Cup paraded around on their own ice.

That is unless Stuart Skinner reaches deep down and plays as he did earlier in the playoffs.

Despite having a strong finish in the Western Conference Final, Skinner has been outdone by Panthers netminder, and Vezina Trophy candidate Sergei Bobrovsky in each of first three games of the series. While you cannot point the finger at the former Swift Current Bronco for being the sole reason Edmonton is down 3-0, if Skinner does not play better in Game 4, the series is over.

On Friday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Frank Seravalli and Tyler Yaremchuk explain how important Skinner’s performance on Saturday will be if the Oilers want to live to fight another day.

Frank Seravalli: You can’t get .868 [save percentage] goaltending in the Stanley Cup Final and expect to win. I understand the criticism for the stars, I get it, but when you look at the pecking order of all the Oilers issues so far…to me, when I look at this series, just watch Game 3 over again, the Oilers get one or two stops, and it’s 2-1 or 3-1, as opposed to 4-1, it’s totally different. There was never any halt to the momentum. It was a six-minute crushing death blow by the Florida Panthers that the Oilers couldn’t get any help.

I said before the series that if Stuart Skinner isn’t in the .900 range…god speed, good luck, good night, it’s over.

You can watch the full segment and entire episode here…