The Cult of Hockey's "McD and Skinner heroes of Oilers win over Stars" podcast 

I'm proud of the oil tonight. They won literally against the odds.

Thanks guys! Connor Mcdavid has decided it's time to win the Stanley Cup!

Skinner played awesome

Officiating was ridiculous with 5 powerplays to 1 but it did not matter! To me the Oilers controlled most of the game, and they deserved the victory

Draisaitl with the 13 game point streak. Leon was great tonight too.

they all played so hard tonight from top to bottom! stu was solid! one of the best two way games on defense1st offense 2nd. Bruce with great "T" shirt win!

For all the warranted criticism can we get behind skinner? He was fantastic. Tracking the puck. Just everything u need to win a game!

Great game and great discussion thanks! I'm surprised you guys didn't mention how the final goal resembled a game losing goal against Colorado at the end of the regular season when McKinnon beat Bouchard to the puck over on the same sideboards and passed it to lehkonen in front of the net for a game-winning goal

When the OT goal was being reviewed... I'm going "NOW WHAT?". I thought it was being reviewed for offside.

Luke Gaz on the panel pointed out a really interesting stat about Skinner, his stats are insanely good when he faces 25+ shots/game and he’s horrendous when facing 20 or less.

McDavid has a date with destiny!

Paul Coffeey"s influence has been huge on this team"s success.

Camera angles are terrible! And the standing fans don’t help.

Everything gets more difficult now. Adjustments will be made by a fantastic coach. But hey we won! And totally deserved to!

I don't know why the Oilers were struggling to get it up when alone vs the goalie. First Foegle fumbles the puck on a breakaway, then Holloway makes a good move, but tries to finish along the ice (while on his forehand), then Connor in overtime rolls it along the ice. GET THE PUCK UP I was yelling at the TV!

First goal against on kulak, second goal on both Vinny (for not making an easy clear when he had the chance) and Nurse for being... Ummm.... Nurse. These guys gotta learn to keep their shit together for 60 minutes, they really must be the worst team in the league for giving up the lead. Refs were absolute shit, thank f' the PK is as good as the PP. Skinner helped relieve a lot of our stress, played pretty damn good tonight. I don't want to see a repeat of last series with the 'win one, lose one' bs. Just get in there banging again and don't let up.

They earned it!

Bruce, is there any danger of overworking the lucky shirt? -A concerned fan.

Such great win. Another great podcast guys! Thanks and take care

On the tying goal the biggest issue was Desharnais (NOT NURSE). Desharnais first gives the puck away when he could have cleared it, then later on the same play, leaves his man Tyler S. wide open at the side of the net.

I was so scared of Dallas but they don’t look any better than the canucks…I feel good about the oilers chances after this game!

Staples scared the crap out of me … “if we had to count on nurse …” please go easier on us David

Dallas made a cartoon of 4 dragons representing the 4 goalies of the final four teams in the playoffs…three fierce looking dragons and the fourth dragon that supposed to be skinner is cross eyed with its tounge hanging out !…I hope skinner sees it and uses it for motivation!

I was impressed by the Oilers ability to prevent the Stars from spending too much time in their end,..moving the puck in the other direction much more effectively than I have seen in the past. A good road game. Depth players played hard as well.

More then enough chances to end the game and why it went to double OT is mind boggling

Great team game. The backcheck was unreal today. Goaltending was solid. Oilers fare sooo much better against a D core like dallas. Smaller, smart mobile guys. Its the big mean guys they struggle against. Have to keep hitting them. It WILL break them down. Line 4 had a great game. Work hard and make their D defend in the corners. It opens up offense for the top 2 lines. Pk unit was awesome.

22:00 Bruce mentioned Garland shortly after 22:14 Silovs, I think the Canucks are haunting Bruce😂

It's only one game, but: 1) Stars look much slower than the Canucks, especially on the forecheck and on the breakout. 2) Oil's breakouts and zone entries seemed much easier than against the Canucks

Bettman’s NHL US team conspiracy continues, 5pp including 4min to Mcd to the Oilers 1, what a joke, Stars we’re hooking and holding all night! Oilers had their say for all of 🇨🇦 last night!

“Sitting pretty w house money” is a losers logic … it’s what craters this team … More Killer Instinct needed not less

Mcdavid was not good for a lot of the game but when he got it together you knew he was going to be a difference maker

Oilers are faster than Dallas/. They will win this series!!!/ and on to the CUP !!!!!!

They have to get a handle on icing the puck. Too many defensive zone face offs. Too much TOI for the lines being stranded out there. Always seemed to be on Draisaitl line.

Good game go oilers go.

Can we ALL admit our goalie won us this game. Or is that too painful to the narrative? Ya perhaps it might go off the rails. But he was undoubtedly good tonight!

They're winning with Carrick in. Not the fastest out there but faceoff's are important, hits.

Jack Campbell had a 0.857 SV% in the Condor’s 5-1 loss in the Calder Cup Playoffs. So, no, he won’t be making any surprise appearances with the Oilers any time soon.

Good summary on Nurse - is a conundrum (to be making so many errors - but has always been his style). But he is holding at -10 thru the 13 playoff games, so is staying fairly close to Vince & Cici who are -6... Good point that McD maybe deserved net 2 mins as the net 4mins penalty time was really a brutal hand in OT - but they played thru it

Nurse was hired by the opposing team!! Wants to pad his 9 mil.

Thanks guys, you both look a bit dopey tonight but made another fun podcast. What seems to be happening with the OIL is that destiny seems to be taking over. The 2 greatest players of this generation are determined to achieve their fate of winning a cup. Many others like Hyman and Bouchard are rising to the occasion as well. Fate and destiny have taken over. Go boys go. It's your time!

Long post follows. Read / Don't Read up to you. Statistics for Round 3 Playoff Game 1 Edmonton at Dallas May 23rd, 2025. These are "Base" statistics and are simply a foundation for reference. They are not the detailed stats the Cult of Hockey compiles. Score: Oilers 3, Stars 2 in double OT. Oilers Lead the Series 1-0. Edmonton Oilers Draisaitl 1 Goal Hyman 1 Goal, 1 Secondary Assist McDavid 1 Goal (GWG in OT2), 1 Primary Assist Kulak 1 Primary Assist Bouchard 1 Primary Assist Nuge 1 Secondary Assist Skinner 31 Saves on 33 Shots = .939 Save %age (Excellent) Dallas Stars Seguin 2 Goals Benn 1 Primary Assist Dadanov 1 Primary Assist Robertson 1 Secondary Assist Oettinger 35 Saves on 38 Shots = .921 Save %age (Excellent) 3 Stars: 3-Hyman (1G, 1A), 2-Seguin (2G), 1-McDavid (1G (GWG 2OT), 1A) Edmonton Dallas Shots on Goal 38 33 Hits 33 29 Faceoffs Won 35 44 PP 0/1 0/5 Giveaways 15 (11 per NST) 9 (8 per NST) Takeaways 8 12 Blocked Shots 24 (21 per NST) 25 Player TOI SOG +/- PIM Hits Blocks Giveaways Takeaways Ekholm 31:48 0 0 0 1 4 0 0 Bouchard 31:33 4 3 2 1 2 0 1 Nurse 27:04 2 0 0 1 1 0 0 Ceci 26:02 1 0 0 1 1 0 2 Desharnais 23:08 1 -1 0 1 6 1 0 Kulak 20:18 2 0 0 1 3 2 1 McDavid 27:04 4 2 4 1 2 1 0 Hyman 26:05 4 2 0 3 0 1 0 Draisaitl 25:17 3 1 0 1 0 0 1 Nuge 24:46 3 1 0 1 1 0 0 Kane 22:04 4 0 2 5 0 1 0 Holloway 19:53 2 0 2 3 1 2 0 Brown 16:55 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 Janmark 16:26 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 McLeod 15:28 3 -1 0 5 0 1 0 Foegele 14:17 0 -1 0 1 1 0 2 Ryan 12:37 2 -1 0 2 0 0 0 Carrick 12:12 2 0 0 4 0 2 0 Oilers Faceoffs Won Lost Percent Draisaitl 8 21 27.6 Carrick 5 5 50.0 Ryan 3 2 60.0 McDavid 3 7 30.0 McLeod 5 4 55.6 Nuge 1 1 50.0 Kane 1 0 100.0 Holloway 1 0 100.0 Brown 1 0 100.0 Foegele 0 1 0.00 Stars Faceoffs Won Lost Percent Seguin 12 4 75.0 Benn 12 4 75.0 Johnson 8 8 50.0 Duchene 8 9 47.1 Pavelski 3 5 37.5 Faksa 1 5 16.7 This was a very close game with the Oilers holding on to a 2-1 lead for most of the 2nd and 3rd periods until Seguin tied it up (2nd of the night). Just looking at base stats Oilers had 5 more shots, 4 more hits, won 9 fewer faceoffs, gave up 5 penalties to Dallas's 1 (and that double minor to start the first OT by McDavid needs a stupid sticker on the forehead for a bit, yes, he redeemed himself by scoring the winner 32 seconds into the 2nd OT but still). PK (both teams) 100%. PP (both teams) 0%. If the Oilers could have gotten more calls they may have had more goals but we'll never know. The Oilers had 6 more Giveaways (which is a lot), 4 fewer Takeaways (again, a lot) and 1 fewer blocked shot (24 to 25 for Dallas). Both teams were blocking anything and everything for some time there. I mean I thought the first period might end with Dallas having 3 shots and the Oilers having 1 before things progressed a bit later in the period. This was a great game between two great teams. On this night the Oilers were better and I think Skinner surprised them as to how good he was. Take care all.

Dadonov deflected the puck to Seguin, it wasn't Nurse's skate TNT broadcast caught that on the replay

MacDavid a 10? He missed an open net and took a 4 minute high sticking penalty in overtime off the draw. I mean he had a nice tip but a 10? I thought he was terrible most of the night and it was RNH, Bouchard and Hyman who were carrying him. MacDavid also was not good against Vancouver, he quite literally had zero points in 4 games. I actually think RNH has been playing absolutely amazing the last 3 games. And this may sound crazy but I think Bouchard might actually be the most underrated player in the NHL.

MORE BRUCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCE!!!!!!!!

Fact check: Nurse did not direct that puck to Seguin on goal 2 - that was a Stars player who got his stick on it. Probably trying to direct it into the net, but put it to his player by accident.

Duchene didn't get a penalty on the hook becaaaauuuuuse "the Stars don't take penalties".

Bruce is thinking like the Springboks rugby team. 100% they'd rest Skinner for a game and start Pickard.

I thought the same thing re: playing Picard game two That would mess up the stars hehe

23:51 Just a minor correction, it was not off of Nurse's skate, it was #63 who tipped it to his teammate. A great tip! Sources from RU-vid: 1) NHL -- Gm1 Highlight video at 5:40 2) SPORTSNET -- NHL Game 1 Highlight video at 6:58 and 7:13 Nevertheless, a great analysis! 👍👍👍👍

I thought the challenge may have been for a possible offside on the zone entry.

The refs suck plain and simple really lopsided tonight. Soft ass calls on us.

Would you look at the goal off of nurse's skate and see if it really did come off nurse's skate or a Della's player skate

We won! Great! Next! Focus!

2nd !!!! We Won !!!!!

I think Darnell Nurse Skate has more assists than Hyman in these playoffs. But he did play well 😂

You guys should watch the replay before being so harsh on Nurse.The puck was redirected to Segin from a Dallas player.They showed that during the intermission.

The oilers held there own against Dallas, and they were not pushed around

Watch Dallas' 2nd goal again. It didn't hit Nurse. Dadanov passed it to Seguin. Sick pass!

Oil played a great game but still got awfully lucky with some turnovers, Skinner standing tall and special teams being special. Gonn be a tight series. I enjoy Desharnais's play but a few failed clears and late game icings put the oil in a really tight spot

Athena or Hera? Choose!

This also has to be a deflating loss for Dallas, I think the Oil take it in 6.

Do the refs start the next game with a two minute delay of game penalty for that challenge at the end?

What is it with the egregious giveaways (in the same area of ice too) leading to an opening goal against? And then a one-goal win against a good team missing a key forward. Hockey gourdes. If Boeser were healthy, they may not have survived the Canucks. Can't keep relying on this luck, gotta play sharper. Kulak should've just tackled Seguin.

Refs will buckle down next game. It will be 10 to 1 powerplays for Dallas. Lmao what a bunch of clown refs.

6:55

Sorry. But yes david. You nailed it. Orwellian. Joke or not. Look around!

I still think Nurse has to be traded / play Broberg next season !!!!!

They looked equal because Edmonton can't play better, especially Skinner and the Stars didn't show up at all, just like the past 7 game 1s. This will probably go 6 before the Stars inevitably win it.

Oilers need to watch and check that Asian guy, he was allowed to get some good shots and he got the assist on the 2nd Seguin goal

Pichard game 3

A 10 for McDavid xD David's assesment is so bad most of the time. I would like the podcast way more, if it would be Bruce with Kurt instead od David.

McDavid was NOT a 10! He was slow, couldn't make a pass if he tried, constantly had the puck taken away. Had an open net that even Campbell would score on. The goal he scored was a fluke! He has an injury and it better get better soon. McJesus less then perfect is not a good thing

Are you Drunk David???? Connor played like crap.

Dave you can give Bouchard and Ekholm all the praise in the world, but your constant bashing of the other d-men on the team when doing so is childish and odd. This was a team effort.

Somehow, Connor McDavid has become the most overrated player in the n. H. L.

Take Maclud out