EDMONTON — So, what’s more important at this time of year?
An understaffed team that directs 87 shots at the Dallas Stars goal, falls behind 4-0 but valiantly makes a 4-3 game of it before the final buzzer sounds?
Or an Edmonton Oilers team that has been soft all season long, that loses starting goalie Stuart Skinner on what was not the first occasion on which a Stars player felt zero fear of rolling through his crease and putting the body on Skinner?
And then, for good measure, Dallas ran backup Calvin Pickard as well. Because, well, why wouldn’t you?
It’s open season on Edmonton goalies, and it’s a bad, bad look on a veteran team like this one.
“I was pissed at myself. I didn't see what happened,” began Corey Perry, when asked about the Oilers’ response in protecting their goalie. “I was on the ice when (Mikko) Rantanen hit Skinner.
“That's on me. I should never let that happen.”
It was in no way intentional on Rantanen’s part, but guess what? When a guy injures your goalie — Skinner did not travel with the team for their game in Seattle Thursday — there isn’t time to summon a judge and jury.
Goalies are sacred in hockey. Or they’re supposed to be.
And the combination of frequency and impunity with which the Stars bulldozed through Edmonton’s crease on Wednesday night was concerning for a team that claims to have pushback.
“I didn't see it until afterwards, and I was very pissed at myself,” said Perry, one of the last of the old school players in these parts.
OK, so Perry takes personal responsibility.
But does he think that, as a group, the Oilers have done a good enough job of letting teams know that the goalie is off?
That there’s a price to be paid if you run Edmonton’s tendy?
Perry’s response: “We’ll talk about that internally.”
It may not be 1987 anymore, where violence in hockey is concerned. And that’s a good thing.
But you know what hasn’t changed since way back when Maurice Richard played?
You can’t win when your No. 1 goalie is wearing a suit and sitting in the press box, because he’s on the I.R.
“I'm not sure what we can do without taking a major penalty,” said head coach Kris Knoblauch, when asked about his team’s tepid response. “You know, if a guy doesn't want to fight you, you don't fight. If you take it in your hands, you're vulnerable to taking the suspension.”
The Oilers are a team that are last in the NHL in hits, and we can rationalize that.
They’re at or near the top in all the puck possession stats, which mitigates the need to hit. Their team-leading hitter from a year ago, Evander Kane, will miss the entire season due to injury. Trent Frederic is hurt too, so they’re a little light at the moment.
Their depth guys are older, less excitable veterans, who don’t “run around” the way they perhaps did in their younger years.
So, those are the excuses.
But here are the options: The first guy who touches your goalie gets dealt with in the moment by whomever arrives at the pile first. Or, on his very next shift he is greeted by a Max Jones or Darnell Nurse, and is told explicitly what the reason is for the ensuing altercation.
Or, behind Door No. 3, someone takes the puck through the Dallas net and whomever happens to be standing in the crease at that end of the ice.
You may not like the sound of that, but that is the way winning teams play the sport.
Edmonton failed on all three fronts on Wednesday, and Stuart Skinner is sitting at home with an ice bag on his neck — very likely concussed — because of it.
We asked Connor Brown about the Oilers’ work on this file:
“I don't know if you're looking for a line brawl or something,” he began, giving us a fourth option to consider, “but I mean, we'll take numbers. I mean, we know we're gonna play these guys a lot.”
OK, hold on.
This was the last meeting this season between the Stars and Oilers. If they meet in the Conference Final, well, that is surely a less opportune place to exact revenge than at the moment of the incident, with the Stars up 4-1 late in the game.
“We have a gritty group in here, and a group that can dig in. I don't think (Rantanen was) trying to run Stu — it was a bit of an unfortunate play.
“I’ve got no qualms about this team's heart.”
Heart? We’re not questioning heart.
Gamesmanship? Toughness? The ability, as Perry alluded to, to read and react?
We’ll question those for as long as we watch opponents crash Edmonton’s crease with zero fear of repercussion.
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