Finally. Sisters, bros, and non-gendered those, we have finally reached the end of the marathon road trip. The Edmonton Oilers went over to Sunrise, Florida, for the annual Stanley Cup Final rematch with the Panthers. 12 days, and over 7,000 kilometres later, the Oilers got to finish this journey, at long last. The hope was that they could finish it off with a win and be able to claim a .500 points percentage over this seven-game stretch despite all the obvious flaws to their game.
The interesting quirks to this game were abound on both sides before a single puck was even dropped. On the Oilers’ side, we found out that Noah Philp had been moved to long-term injured reserve after going down in the Buffalo game on Monday. Intriguing prospect Connor Clattenburg was called up to fill his void. For the Panthers side, in addition to a boatload of injuries, they would be without defenceman Aaron Ekblad due to illness.
Both Stuart Skinner and Sergei Bobrovsky came into this contest with recent examples of brilliance and terrible play. As it would turn out, one had “it” tonight, at least for a critical third period, and the other had nothing. Give Edmonton credit for putting pucks to the net whenever they could, as it worked on this night. Bobrovsky is gonna want a couple of the four goals he let in back. While Skinner wasn’t perfect either, on a night where he didn’t have to be, he made sure to keep his team ahead for good after the 2-1 goal scored.
Feistiness, adventures and all, Oilers win 6-3 thanks to two empty-netters. A regulation win! Just the fifth one all season. Here’s the game story.
The quick start two nights ago wasn’t enough, so add on to it
Trent Frederic scored the first goal two nights ago, less than two minutes into the game. It appears Jack Roslovic took that as a challenge, as his first goal on this night needed just 25 seconds to be cashed in. To all of you young kids reading this article, this is exactly why you’re told to get pucks to the net. Like Roslovic did with Bobrovsky here, you just might catch the goaltender napping.
The Panthers would tie the score 1-1 not too long after. Noticing that it was allegedly “Goalies don’t have to make saves” Night at Amerant Bank Arena, Roslovic doubled up on his opening tally. This time, he scored on a more orthodox shot.
Getting that second goal was something the Oilers couldn’t do last game. Roslovic, figuring it out before the 1st period was even half-complete, was a major boost to a team trying to figure out consistent goal-scoring. By the way, in his last 16 games, Roslovic is averaging north of a point per game. What a nifty signing he has turned out to be.
Lack of discipline hurt the team in the second period
When Vasily Podkolzin scored this goal to chase Bobrovsky in the second period, it should have been cruise control the rest of the way. However, these are the Edmonton Oilers. Like insisting on going to West Edmonton Mall on Boxing Day for better deals, nothing ever comes the easy way for this group.
Two penalties were taken by the Oilers in the second period, one by David Tomášek and the other by Brett Kulak. The Panthers copied Ekholm’s homework and scored not long after the Tomášek penalty expired.
They then found that to be rather bland and made sure the next goal came while Kulak was still sitting.
Skinner aside (as we’ll get to him a little later on), this was not the finest night for the penalty kill. It got better in the third period, when it needed to be at its best. But in the second period, it single-handedly allowed Florida to re-enter a game in which their starting goalie had been pulled. Not a good time for either Tomášek or Kulak to take those penalties. And not a good time for the penalty kill to let the team down.
Bouchard and Ekholm reign supreme (and other depth notes)
Evan Bouchard is always a lightning rod in these parts when the going gets tough. Throw on Mattias Ekholm having his own subpar start to the 2025-26 season, and you have a defensive pair that really needed to get into top gear. This was the Oilers’ best option last season, and it hasn’t been yet this season.
Until tonight, that is, when Ekholm and Bouchard remembered the sins of Panthers teams past. They played like it was far more than a mid-November game in this one, registering three points and a +5 apiece. While plus-minus isn’t the greatest stat, +5 indicates these two were on for most of the Oilers’ good, and very little of their bad. Bouchard tallied three assists total, while Ekholm grabbed two apples of his own. He also saw Roslovic score twice in the first period and decided that was something he wanted in on.
Elsewhere, Matt Savoie had the second of the two empty-net goals and helped facilitate Ekholm’s strike (though not credited with an assist). Adam Henrique and Mattias Janmark each chipped in an assist on this night. And in his first NHL game, Connor Clattenburg had two shots on goal within his first 2:30 of game action. As a bonus, he did his job perfectly at the end of the game, agitating master agitator A.J. Greer.
There are still a few players who could stand to get going, but overall, this was a more balanced attack. Connor McDavid (the first empty-netter) and Leon Draisaitl (assist on Podkolzin’s goal) had one point each. Thanks to the performance of everyone else in this one, that’s all Edmonton needed. That’s the way it needs to be, a little more often.
Skinner, the winner of the game’s dinner for third-period heroics
Early on, it wasn’t looking too promising for Skinner. The first goal against is one that, interference aside, should not have gone in. On the second and third goals against, he couldn’t do enough to help out the penalty kill. Particularly on the second goal against, his faulty rebound control aided Mackie Samoskevich’s scoring.
Yet, in the style of Grant Fuhr, as he has done several times before, Skinner saved his most masterful for Period 3. He faced 10 shots in the 3rd, stopping all of them, including some high-danger chances. One chance, especially, was five-alarm fire levels of high danger, yet Skinner was the fireman the Oilers needed.
Overall, Skinner finished with 35 saves and a .921 save percentage. After the Buffalo loss, in which no Oiler really had a worthy game to discuss, and the debacle against the Capitals, which was correctly his fault, Skinner rebounded big-time in this one. He’s won four of his last six starts, with above-.900 save percentages in all but the first of those four wins. The Stu is heating up at the right time.
Player perspective
“Not exactly what we want- it’s average, in some ways- but the length of it, the strength of schedule of it; it’s good to come over to the East, and do what we did.” -Jack Roslovic on the Oilers’ 3-3-1 road trip
Home sweet home awaits this jet-lagged group
The Oilers get a well-deserved break in the schedule. Two days off, followed by a Tuesday night contest against the Dallas Stars, followed by three days off. Gonna feel strange covering one game in six days instead of three or four. Also gonna feel interesting having a 7 PM Mountain start time once again instead of 5 or 5:30 PM.
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