Jeff Skinner stepping up for Edmonton Oilers in McDavid’s absence

When the Edmonton Oilers needed someone to step up and fill a rather crucial void or two the most, no one has had a hotter hand than Jeff Skinner.

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Though it feels like it’s only fitting to add, ‘of all players,’ to the end of that sentence, with the way the season’s been going for him.

You remember Skinner? The veteran, pure goal-scorer the Oilers brought in during off-season free agency on a one-year, $3-million deal to bolster a second line alongside Leon Draisaitl. Only that didn’t happen nearly the way they would have liked when he ended up being asked to round out his game and play more of a supportive role to Edmonton’s already established superstars.

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Anyway, it resulted in Skinner soon finding himself getting shifted all up and down the lineup in efforts to find him a permanent home, only to see such a spot remain elusive all season long, to the point where, for a while there, it only made sense to make him a healthy scratch.

And not just for one or two games. It hit double digits — 10 scratches in a span of 28 games between the end of December and beginning of March.

In between, he even found himself parked right back in that second-line spot playing on the left wing of the league’s leading goal scorer, of all places, only to wind up plucked right back out of the lineup soon after.

And through it all, Skinner displayed nothing but the very the stick-to-it-ness these Oilers are all going to need to find if they hope to even come close to returning to the Stanley Cup Final a year after winding up on the wrong side of the deciding goal in Game 7 against the Florida Panthers.

It’s hard to argue anything other than he did all he could do whenever he was called upon, and it was as much the club’s fault as his own that he wound up looking more like a square peg trying to be forced into a round hole on this Oilers roster.

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But that all changed in the five games the Oilers have been without one or both of their superstar centres prior to opening a four-game road trip against the Vegas Golden Knights on Tuesday — a trip captain Connor McDavid isn’t on, along with top defensive player Mattias Ekholm (undisclosed injury) and starting goalie Stuart Skinner (head injury).

In that span, first without Draisaitl and now without McDavid, and in between without either (for the first time due to injury since they both began playing together 10 seasons ago, no less), Jeff Skinner came up with three goals and an assist, tying Zach Hyman for the most offensive production among Oilers forwards.

And while Hyman was automatically going to be leaned on in the next-man-up scenario, having an otherwise snakebitten Skinner stand up and shoulder the load is as much a testament to him as a player as it is a welcome surprise. (Perhaps for Skinner as much as the rest of the team.)

“I think we’ve got to fill the hole collectively, as a group, and for the most part we’ve done a pretty good job,” Skinner said. “We’ve got a lot of veteran guys, a lot of guys that have been around a while and know the situation and are ready for the opportunity to contribute as much as we can.

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“That’s the way it goes, everyone’s been on teams where guys go down and you need guys to step up and take advantage of the opportunity they’ve been given. Obviously, we’d like to have him back as quickly as possible, but in the meantime we have to kind of work together and step up a little bit.”

No one foresaw Skinner hitting the stretch drive of the regular season with 25 points (14 goals, 11 assists), tied eighth in team scoring with Corey Perry, who turns 40 next month. (On May 16, in fact, which is the same day Skinner turns 33.)

“Any sort of up and down throughout the season, any adversity, any new opportunity, you try and learn from it and you use it as experience going forward,” Skinner said. “I think I’m no different than anyone else on the team in that situation, and I think a lot of us are excited to try and take advantage of that opportunity.”

All the steps taken, either forward or back, have been to get the Oilers into playoffs, which would mark the first post-season appearance for Skinner in his 15-year NHL career.

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“I think everyone’s excited this time of year,” Skinner said. “Games get tighter, there’s more at stake and obviously there’s sort of a buzz that starts to creep in, and I think everyone’s excited about it.

“Including myself.”

E-mail: gmoddejonge@postmedia.com

On Twitter: @GerryModdejonge

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