The Oilers luck has finally run out and they are done. Without Roloson they might as well surrender because neither Conklin nor Markkanen can fill his shoes. It was pretty obvious last night when Conklin crapped the bed and gave Brind'amour that gift.
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA Serves him right!
But for the record: Why is everyone blaming the screw-up so much on Conklin? Watch the video, it's so obviously Smith's fault! What the hell is he doing getting no further than a foot behind Conklin when he's playing the puck...? Watch the video on NHL.com and see how Smith is skating back... It looks like he will be going a little wide and so Conklin rightfully went to shovel the puck backwards. But at the last minute, Smith half-pivots right into Conklin's behind and blocks the pass that was otherwise going right to him. Obviously it's easy to blame the goalie but Smith should be bearing the blame. Another thing to note is that Conklin looked pretty composed after the goal, and goalies are taught to shake stuff like that off, because I'm sure it isn't the first nor the last time it will happen to him.
Plus if it's Smith's fault, we can officially declare that Edmonton should never again sign a defenseman whose last name is Smith, for those who remember the '86 playoffs... ;)
ya it was clearly Smith's bad. Conklin played him a soft pass and Smith bobbled it and gave it a push out front. And of course with BrindAmour's luck these days he was johnny on the spot. Conklin was not to blame.
He'll be fine. If you ask him if he wants to play game two you know he'd answer yes without a moments hesitation.
Markkanen didn't do all that badly. Sure he let in 5 goals which ultimately speaks for itself but on 3 of the 5 goals he didn't really have a chance. I don't know if Carolina could repeat all of those again and I think he should get another chance.