Stanley Cup final: Stuart Skinner to be Oilers’ Game 4 starter, Jeff Skinner, Troy Stecher to play
Kris Knoblauch is mixing things up for Game 4 of the Stanley Cup final.
The Edmonton Oilers head coach is set to make two lineup changes with his team down 2-1 to the Florida Panthers in the best-of-seven title series.
Troy Stecher will replace John Klingberg on the blue line, while Jeff Skinner enters the fray up front for Viktor Arvidsson.
“We have a lot of good players, a lot of good players who had been in and out of the lineup,” Knoblauch said following his team’s morning skate. “Some players haven’t even seen any game action so far in this series. Felt that we could use the change, have those guys come in, give us a boost.
“We’ve seen it throughout the playoffs where we’ve made alterations to our lineup and it’s benefitted us.”
Knoblauch also made changes to most of his forward lines defence pairings, including bumping Connor Brown up to play alongside Connor McDavid and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.
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“A guy that’s playing really well, skates well,” McDavid said. “Good with the puck, confident guy that can play up and down your lineup.”
Stuart Skinner will get the start in net despite allowing five goals in each of his last two games — a 5-4 overtime defeat and a 6-1 drubbing.
Stecher, meanwhile, is poised to reunite with Darnell Nurse on the back end after sitting out Edmonton’s last four games as a healthy scratch.
“Grateful to be in the position I’m in,” said the undersized blueliner from Richmond, B.C.
“I’ve been doubted a lot throughout my career and been told ‘no’ a lot … I’m still standing.”
Jeff Skinner skated on the third line with Adam Henrique and Trent Frederic. Corey Perry moved to the fourth line with Vasily Podkolzin and Mattias Janmark. The second line of Leon Draisaitl between Evander Kane and Kasperi Kapanen was unchanged.
The tweaks in defence saw Mattias Ekholm paired with Jake Walman, while Brett Kulak was beside Evan Bouchard.
Nugent-Hopkins projects to dress after missing Tuesday’s practice with an undisclosed injury.
Knoblauch said the decision to start Stuart Skinner instead of turning to Calvin Pickard is based on the former’s track record.
His numbers in Game 4s were lights out heading into Thursday with a 6-0 record to go along with a 1.26 goals-against average, a .955 save percentage and two shutouts.
“I’ve been really impressed with how Stu has handled a lot of things,” Knoblauch said. “The adversity, whether that’s regular season, playoffs. Things haven’t always gone smoothly, but he’s been able to work it out and respond. Another one is just how well he’s played in the second half of series. That goes for every single series last year, this year.
“There’s confidence that here’s a guy who’s going to continue to get better as the series goes on. Hopefully we have a few more games that he can stand up and play really well.”
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