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The Los Angeles Kings crushed the Edmonton Oilers 6-2 in Game 2 of their first-round Stanley Cup Playoff series on Wednesday night — and Stuart Skinner didn't make it to the finish line.
After allowing six goals on 30 shots in Game 1, Skinner was pulled after letting five get by him on just 28 shots at Crypto.com Arena. And the Kings faithful let the 26-year-old hear it after he was replaced by Calvin Pickard in the third period:
"WE WANT SKINNER" chants in LA after the Oilers put in Pickard 😬 pic.twitter.com/vIsT7zwQ48
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) April 24, 2025
For the first time in four Round 1 meetings between the Kings and Oilers, the Kings have opened up a 2-0 series lead — and the goaltending has been a big reason why.
Skinner struggled mightily in both games in Los Angeles, while Darcy Kuemper allowed just two goals on 24 shots in his second consecutive victory. It looks like the tide has turned between the two Pacific Division rivals, and the Oilers will need to win Game 3 in Edmonton or face down a daunting 0-3 hole.
Oilers not blaming goaltending for 0-2 deficit
After the game, Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse defended Skinner amid a nightmare start to the postseason.
“No team in this league can give up the amount of Grade A's and high-danger chances that we've been giving up and still win,” Nurse said, per NHL.com's Dan Greenspan. “We've been hanging our goalie out to dry on quite a few occasions. I think he’s actually made some huge stops for us in a timely manner, too, so we got to be better.”
Head coach Kris Knoblauch also refused to blame Skinner after his team gave up six goals for the second straight time.
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“I don't think there's been any bad goals,” the bench boss said. “There's been a lot of goals, but boy, the chances that we're giving up are Grade A's, and I'm not sure there's many that I would say, ‘Geez, where's the save there?' When you're making a gaffe and a guy's all by himself in the slot, and we've seen probably three of those in the last two games, that's not giving your goaltender much help.”
After Skinner was pulled, Pickard gave up a goal on the first shot he faced. The netminding has just been completely lopsided, with Kuemper shutting things down for the Kings and the defensive coverage falling apart time and time again for the Oilers.
LA has also been lights out with the man advantage throughout the series, going 3-for-5 on Wednesday and now 5-for-10 through two games. It's been an offensive explosion for one of the league's best regular-season clubs.
Meanwhile, Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl combined for just one point in Game 2, and that's not the recipe for any kind of success for the reigning Western Conference champions.
“We got a hunger to win as well, but we got to ramp it up,” Draisaitl admitted, per Greenspan. “We got to dig in. We got to start playing here. Obviously, it hasn’t been good enough. And there is hunger on their side. Of course, you can sense that, but it’s not anything that we’re not able to match. We just have to find it, and we got to find it quick of course.”
The series now shifts to Alberta for a virtual must-win on Friday night. It'll be interesting to see who starts between the pipes for the Oilers at Rogers Place in Game 3.
