Oilers’ penalty woes and composure issues lead to blowout loss and put them in precarious spot

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Falling behind early, parading to the penalty box and losing their composure, the Edmonton Oilers find themselves in an all-too-familiar position trailing the Florida Panthers in the Stanley Cup Final.

Not much went right for them in Game 3 on Monday night, a 6-1 blowout loss that put them down 2-1 in the series after taking the opener at home. By Tuesday, they were back on the ice for practice, eager to put their worst performance since early in the playoffs behind them.

“We obviously didn’t feel great waking up, but getting together again, get on the ice, we all feel a lot better,” veteran defenseman Mattias Ekholm said. “Most guys wanted to go out and skate and have a good flush of the legs and that’s just what we did.”

Many of their 85 penalty minutes, the most by a team in the final in nearly four decades, came in garbage time, but there is far more concern about the mistakes that piled up early.

“We didn’t play very well,” said Evander Kane, who was whistled for two of his three minor penalties in a miserable first period and got a misconduct late. “That’s evident. We have nobody to blame but ourselves. We can definitely be a lot better.”

Stuart Skinner got pulled after allowing five goals on 23 shots, but captain Connor McDavid acknowledged, “I don’t know how much we’re going to put on Stu.” The play in front of him was disjointed and disconnected at 5 on 5, on the power play and on the penalty kill.

Coach Kris Knoblauch after practice also defended Skinner’s play but said no decision has been made on who will start in Game 4 on Thursday night. Journeyman backup Calvin Pickard went 6-0 in the first and second rounds after replacing Skinner as the starter before getting injured and ceding the net.

“I’m not holding anything against Stu on that performance,” Knoblauch said.

Skinner was not even close to the biggest problem.

“Obviously it wasn’t our best — not our best at all,” McDavid said. ”I don’t think our best has shown up all series long. But it’s coming. We’ll shift the focus to finding a way to get a win in Game 4.”

Being more disciplined is a good place to start.

After giving up a goal to Brad Marchand 56 seconds into the game, Edmonton took four minor penalties in the first period. The dam eventually broke on a power-play goal from Carter Verhaeghe with less than 3 minutes left in the first period that proved to be the game-winner.

“We’ve got to control our penalties in the first,” Ekholm said. “We can’t take four. It’s just too much. You’re having their best players on the ice way more than we have our top guys on there because we’re obviously killing too much.”

The Oilers’ play was almost indistinguishable from how they’ve looked for much of this run, getting balanced scoring and star performances from McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. Ill-timed defensive breakdowns proved costly, and guys lost their cool — like Jake Walman squirting water at Panthers players on their bench from his place on the visiting side.

“I obviously did that for a reason,” Walman said, reluctant to explain why. “It’s just gamesmanship, I guess.”

Walman was fined $10,000 Tuesday, $5,000 for the water bottle incident and the same amount for taking an extra swing at Matthew Tkachuk. He and the rest of his teammates are expected to be off Wednesday before returning to the ice Thursday for their morning skate.

“Having the day off the day before, that’s our plan,” Knoblauch said. “Kind of break it up a little bit and not be on the ice all the time.”

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