“Yes, we can play defence,” said the Oilers captain following his team’s 3-0 win in Dallas Friday.

“We’re a different team than we have been in years past, probably not as run and gun as years past, but we can play defence, and Stu was great.”

No Oilers win or loss is complete without an assessment of ol’ Stuart Skinner, who is largely believed to be the man who can either make or break the team’s Stanley Cup dreams.

His 25-save shutout in Game 2 won’t silence the critics who nearly shut down the internet after he let in five goals in a series-opening meltdown in Dallas.

However, the 26-year-old Edmontonian has earned a reprieve with a shutout run the organization hasn’t seen in more than a quarter century.

Amidst an erratic post-season in which four of his last seven starts have seen him lose with four or more goals in each, Skinner has now posted three blank slates in his last four outings.

The only other time in Oilers history the team has had three shutouts in a four-game span came in 1998 when Curtis Joseph caught fire in the playoffs.

For an organization known for playing firewagon hockey, it’s a significant development — a twist McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and company realized several years back they’d have to start focusing on if they were to win the world’s most gruelling tourney.

These aren’t your father’s Edmonton Oilers.

“Forwards are coming back really hard, everyone is selling out, blocking shots — it’s that time of year,” said McDavid, whose club earned a split by being the better team in five of the first six periods of the conference final. 

“That’s what it takes.

“When we defend and everyone is bought in like that, we know we’re going to find enough offence somewhere.”

Symbolic of the team’s increased focus on defending is the fact Draisaitl has lined up alongside fourth liners Kasperi Kapanen and Vasily Podkolzin the last four games. And while the Rocket Richard Trophy winner has just one goal in that stretch, the team has won three of those in stifling fashion.

Having fallen one win short of Stanley Cup glory last season, this team knows the importance of defensive play, eating pucks and sacrificing in every way at both ends of the ice.

It’s all this club can do to give themselves a chance when the man playing the most important position sports an .890 save percentage this spring.

Still, full credit to Skinner, who continues to battle through his whipping-boy status by overcoming his shaky puck play to give the Oilers momentum heading into Sunday’s home matinee.     

“If you get a shutout, your goalie has to be rock solid, at the same time, unless your goalie is out of this world, in order to get a shutout, you have to play well defensively,” said Zach Hyman, whose club had 17 blocked shots Friday. 

“You have to limit those chances because there are some good players on the other team, and given enough chances, they’ve shown that they can score.

“It’s a combination of strong defensive play, but at the end of the day, a shutout belongs to the goalie and there’s a reason for that — he’s the one making the saves, the last line of defence, and he made some big ones.”

A breakaway stop on Wyatt Johnston early in the third period stifled any chance of another third-period Stars comeback, and a desperate lunge with his paddle to scuttle an Esa Lindell chance earned Skinner highlight-reel praise.

Skinner may have to be sized for a Stanley Cup ring, or two, before he could ever earn the faith of Oilers fans.

But what the embattled netminder has done of late is more than just a footnote in a series many believe will come down to goaltending.

“I think when you look at the teams that win, they’re normally the teams that are pretty stifling defensively,” said Skinner, who has a 2.90 GAA these playoffs, which is almost a half goal a game higher than he posted last spring. 

“I know that we’ve been improving and we’re getting better, because obviously we want to be that team. So we’ve done a heck of a job. It’s pretty special when you see the guys battling as hard as they do, blocking shots, just doing little things. 

“We’re definitely on the right track.”