Things get worse for Jeff Skinner in Edmonton after Game 2…

Since joining the NHL back in 2010, forward Jeff Skinner had never played a single playoff game.

Fifteen long years with the Carolina Hurricanes and then the Buffalo Sabres, only to watch his team get eliminated when real hockey began in the spring.

But this year was different. Or at least it was supposed to be.

After he was bought out by the Sabres last summer, Skinner was determined to finally reach the playoffs and experience that feeling NHL players all dream of. That’s why he signed with the Edmonton Oilers, last year’s Stanley Cup finalists who had come just one goal short of winning it all against the Florida Panthers.

After a disappointing season with just 29 points — though he still managed to score 16 goals — Skinner got the good news that the Oilers, as expected, made the playoffs.

At last, the 32-year-old forward got to play his very first postseason game. It was Game 1 of the first-round series against the Los Angeles Kings. But then, he was taken out of the lineup. The Oilers’ injured players returned to the lineup, and head coach Kris Knoblauch decided to take Skinner out and sit him in the stands.

Unless another forward gets injured, that will be Skinner’s only playoff game in 15 years. He’s watched the last seven from the press box.

This summer, we’ll see whether a playoff-caliber team will offer him a contract as an unrestricted free agent— or if he’ll have to settle for signing with another bottom-tier club and wait again for another shot at the postseason.

Sometimes, fate can be cruel.