from Mark Spector of Sportsnet,
The Edmonton Oilers are getting nervous.
About their goaltending. About their depth players. About the fact they haven’t beaten the Vancouver Canucks in regulation yet this season — in seven tries.
About Stuart Skinner’s career .881 save percentage in the playoffs.
How do we know?
Because, after a 4-3 loss in which Skinner was pulled after 40 minutes — then reinserted to sneak in a pseudo timeout in the final two minutes — the affable and accountable No. 1 goalie was withheld from the media by the team.
from Iain MacIntyre of Sportsnet,
When veteran backup Casey DeSmith was unable to play Game 4 of the first-round series against Nashville — three games after Vezina Trophy-candidate starter Thatcher Demko was injured — Silovs, with zero experience in the National Hockey League playoffs, merely went in and outplayed Predators’ goaltending star Juuse Saros.
Now three games into Round 2, he is outplaying Oilers starter Stuart Skinner so much that while Silovs was making 21 saves in the third period of Vancouver’s 4-3 win, Skinner was watching from the Edmonton bench after being yanked by coach Kris Knoblauch after surrendering four goals on 15 shots through 40 minutes.
Not only has Silovs not been the liability for the Canucks many predicted, based only on his inexperience and the daunting circumstances surrounding of his sudden rise to prominence, but the six-foot-four Latvian is outplaying celebrated opponents and actually giving Vancouver the advantage in the crease the team planned to have with Demko when the Stanley Cup tournament began.
Game highlights are below.