Time to admit Koskinen’s no NHL goalie

Mikko Koskinen. L. That was the bottom line on the edmonton Oilers’ latest attempt to seize a major moment. Mikko Koskinen. L.

The Oilers’ six-foot-seven $us4.5 million-per-year netminder, who has one year remaining on his ridiculously overpaid contract, cost the Oilers the massive first game of a 10-game battle of Alberta series of this coronavirus pandemic Canadian division season. Mikko Koskinen. L.

It was his loss.

Criticize here and there around the roster starting with their abandoning a near-perfect game and near-perfect North-south 200-foot game plan in the second period.

Tyson barrie, for one, could be listed as an accomplice. but that was a game the Oilers showed up to win, outshooting Calgary 17-3 in the first period, and then lost because their goaltender let them down, again and again and again and again and again.

They’d go on to let themselves down, too. but this was a game for a goaltender to step up and win and the Oilers, in a very big game, didn’t have one.

You have to hang that loss on Koskinen — every centimetre of him. He was arguably left wanting on five of the six goals surrendered in the 6-4 loss.

Koskinen comes out of the 13th game of the season, his 12th, with a 3.55 goals-against average and a .889 save percentage.

General manager Ken Holland has to admit it and get on with it:

Mikko Koskinen is not a National Hockey League goalie.

Once again, slowly: Mikko. Koskinen. Is. Not. A. National. Hockey. League. Goaltender.

Holland is a Hockey Hall of Fame general manager who used to be a goaltender.

He knew that when he made getting a goaltender the No. 1 priority in the off-season. He just chose denial by the time he took the team to training camp.

Holland knew that when he went hard after Jacob Markstrom of the Vancouver Canucks despite the salary cap restraints left by former Oilers GM Peter Chiarelli, who gave Koskinen the $4.5-million-per-year contract despite the fact that: a) He can’t catch. b) He’s six-foot-seven and the Mikko Koskinen Shooter Tutor is a four-foot high piece of plywood across the bottom of the net.

It was ironic that it was Markstrom in the crease at the other end of the ice giving the Flames exactly what the Oilers needed.

There were all sorts of questions if the Oilers would come into the Saddledome Saturday night and seize the moment because there was most certainly a moment there to be seized.

With the Canucks loss, an edmonton win would have resulted in separation between Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg and edmonton for the four playoff positions in the Scotia North division and Ottawa, Vancouver and Calgary.

And the edmonton team that has a recent history of getting to .500 and then dropping back, came out with virtually everybody showing up to play exactly the game that coach dave Tippett and staff asked them to play. except one.

Mikko Koskinen. L.

The Oilers owned the puck. And they would play their ‘A’ game on every inch of the ice.

but the first shot by the Flames was a soft goal only 56 seconds into the game. For most of the period it was Calgary’s only shot on goal.

yes, they didn’t do it for 60 minutes. And there are some fingers to point. but the point is that in a very big game when this Oilers team needed a save, he didn’t give them one.

Some people have been trying to paint Koskinen as being heroic as the Oilers’ total mismanagement of the goaltender situation had left Tippett no other choice but to play the guy every game.

but he had been given another chance to prove he was an NHL goalie and failed. better now than 100 days from now.

Now, at least Mike Smith is ready to return. but he was an unemployed goalie when Holland was attempting to sign Markstrom.

The Oilers, by now, should have the maturity to leave the mess Koskinen has made in the crease behind them in Calgary and move on to Ottawa and win two more against the Senators and hold their current position.

Holland almost certainly has been hoping he could get away with his goaltending until sometime closer to the trade deadline.

Now he knows he has to make the move between now and then. Saturday night told the tale.

No matter how well Holland’s off-season acquisitions play, even if they make the playoffs, they’ll be looking over their shoulders wondering if the Oilers are going to get the goaltending when they get there.