On Sunday, Kris Knoblauch shared a scene he observed from his vantage point behind the Edmonton Oilers bench three days before early in the deciding game of the Western Conference final. The team had just gone up 3-0 early in the first period against the Dallas Stars, and initially, there was some confusion over who had scored it. “When that goal went in, there’s a little bit of doubt how that puck went in, when it went in, and who scored it,” Knoblauch said Sunday after team practice in preparation for Wednesday’s Game 1 of the Stanley Cup final. “I think it was Leon (Draisaitl) in front of me who shouted out (Jeff) Skinner’s name – ‘Yes! It was Skinner’ – then the other guys just lit up.” That game was just the second game of this year’s National Hockey League playoffs for Skinner – and the second career post-season game of his career. The 33-year-old winger, who joined the Oilers as a free agent last summer on a one-year, $3-million contract, hadn’t been playing regularly heading into the playoffs as it was, suiting up for 72 of the 82 games on the regular-season schedule and playing mostly on the third and fourth lines. Still, he scored 16 goals and 13 assists for 29 points, an offensive performance not unlike that of 40-year-old teammate Corey Perry, who recorded 19 goals and 11 assists for 30 points in 81 games. Skinner’s 16 was good enough for sixth on the team goal-scoring list, Perry’s 19 fifth. Skinner, in his 15th NHL season, had been recruited to the Oilers in hopes he could find chemistry with the likes of stars Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, and patrol the left wing among the team’s top six forwards. After all, he’s scored a career 373 regular-season goals (and now one playoff goal) in 1,078 games. Five times he’s been a 30-plus goal scorer. One season, he scored 40. Skinner indeed has hands but didn’t make the top-line cut in Edmonton. But that hasn’t gotten him down. Prior to suiting up for Thursday’s eventual 6-3 Game 5 win over the Stars to set up an Oilers’ Stanley Cup rematch with the Florida Panthers, Skinner related working with Oilers training staff to stay ready for a call to action “The guys have been playing really well, battling really hard, and I just try to come in, read off those guys, try to keep it simple and try to contribute,” Skinner said. With Connor Brown, who has scored five goals in a depth role these playoffs, skating at Sunday’s practice – and with both him and Knoblauch saying he should be ready to return to the Oilers lineup after missing games 4 and 5 against the Stars with an injury – the status of Skinner, who stepped into the lineup after Zach Hyman was lost to injury, is in question for the Cup opener Wednesday at Rogers Place. But Knoblauch said he’s “sure” Skinner will play again in the playoffs at some point. “There’s been a lot of adversity for him this year,” Knoblauch said. “It hasn’t gone as well as anyone anticipated, but for him being in the Stanley Cup final and for him be able to score a goal to help us get there, we’re very, very happy for him, and he’s deserved it.”
