EDMONTON -- Don’t expect another goalie staring contest at the red line before the Edmonton Oilers and Florida Panthers play Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final at Rogers Place on Saturday (8 p.m. ET; CBC, TVAS, SN, TNT, truTV, MAX).
During warmups before Games 3 and 4 of the best-of-7 series in Florida, Oilers goalie Stuart Skinner and Panthers backup Vitek Vanecek appeared to be staring each other down from opposite sides of the red line. With Calvin Pickard starting for Edmonton in Game 5, there probably won’t be a repeat of that.
“I don’t have much routine there,” Pickard said following the Oilers’ morning skate Saturday. “I’ll be probably facing our end.”
Pickard earned his first start of the Cup Final by replacing Skinner in Game 4 with Edmonton trailing 3-0 following the first period and saving 22 of 23 shots in a 5-4 overtime victory that tied the series 2-2. Skinner allowed three goals on 17 shots in the first period.
Part of Skinner’s pregame routine is to stand by the boards and face toward the opponent’s side of the ice from his side of the red line. Vanecek appeared to try to disrupt Skinner’s concentration by blocking his view and looking directly back at Skinner from only a few feet away.
Pickard skated over during warmups prior to Game 4 and tried to talk Vanecek into moving.
“It’s nothing,” Pickard said. “I just went over there last game because, I don’t know, I think he’s trying to get into ‘Skins’’ head, but it really wasn’t anything. Obviously, the cameras, you can’t hide out there, so you guys can make it a bit of a story. But I was just asking if he wanted to stretch next to me and he said, ‘No.’ I said, ‘That’s OK.’
“But I don’t expect anything like that tonight.”
Vanecek said he did not say anything to Skinner while they were staring at each other.
“Pickard came over and he [asked] if I want to stretch with him,” Vanecek said. “I said, ‘No, I like this side.’ So, that was it.”
Vanecek denied he was trying to unsettle Skinner, insisting, “No, I’m just doing my routine.”
But the 29-year-old acknowledged it was not his usual routine.
“It’s a new one,” he said. “For this series.”
Vanecek, who has not played in the Stanley Cup Playoffs with Sergei Bobrovsky starting and finishing each of Florida’s 21 postseason games, expressed admiration for the job Pickard did in relief in Game 4. The 33-year-old improved to 7-0 with a 2.69 goals-against average and an .896 save percentage in nine games (six starts).
“It’s always tough,” Vanecek said of replacing the starter mid-game. “He’s an older guy, a lot of experience and then he come into the game, and he played great. So, I think that’s something special for him.”
