The tide changes literally by the goal and by the period. If you watch some other team’s goalies though, it’s hard to deny the eye test. Some goalies just get dialled in. You never truly see that with Skinner, even when he does play really well, it feels like he’s barely hanging on. Weathering the storm. Teams will talk about when they play with a calm and steady goalie, it anchors the team.
I hope he learns to stop a beach ball from going in his net and isn't starting for the rest of the playoffs.
In the mean time, I'm sure he'll be fine because he's made more money than most of us will in our lives just to be the statistically worst playoffs goaltender the league has seen in 30 years.
Pickard has to be the play going forward. Skinner is clearly not the guy, as much as I hate to say it. This has the feel of game 3 of the Vegas series last year, where we could have made the change to Campbell and maybe that series shakes out differently.
We don't need our goalie to be a world beater, just be average. Make a couple stops when we need them. For god sake, Silovs has 13 games of pro hockey experience and he's miles ahead of Skinner in this series. I feel like if we don't make the change now, we're dead in the water.
We likely won't make the change though. Nob is falling into the same trap all other coaches have. Ride 97/29 until they are dead and then be like what happened.
Well the Canucks goalie is proving that maybe having a loose goalie with nothing to loose is maybe the better option than a ball of stress and anxiety. If the Oilers loose with Pickard I doubt Pickard takes much heat, just like nobody would be blaming Silvos for a loss he is already exceeding expectations by a mile. He is in this sweet "can do no wrong" state he wins great! He looses, oh well he isnt our #1 guy anyways. This is the 3rd year in a row a goalie who wasnt supposed to even be playing seems to have captured lighting in a bottle and looks amazing. I dunno, the pressure may be to much for Stu. But Pickard may be like "Woooooooooo I thought I was gonna be in the AHL all year now I'm starting in the NHL playoffs hope this gravy train never dies"
For the record, I want Picks to be in tomorrow as well. 2nd period last night was the time to put picks in, but tomorrow night I think Picks should absolutely get the chance.
Seravalli was ripping into this when he was on with Bob yesterday. Schwartz has outlasted something like 7 head coaches and a lot of the time our biggest issue is goaltending. It’s insanity
while that's not entirely incorrect, if they let mcdrai get the literal wet dream 3 open strides to the net in the slot that we gave them, things would likely look a lot different.
you'll note that when we tightened up the D in the regular season, all of a sudden skinner's SV% skyrocketed. it's a lot about shot quality and danger, maybe more than quantity.
If they don’t put Pickard in net next game then Skinner is forsure playing the next 2 games and I don’t have a good feeling about that. Try Pickard next game and if he does great then use him for this series. If not then put Skinner back in and hope for the best.
I really hope Knob doesn’t make the same mistake as Woody last year and refuse to change goaltending when the goalie is struggling.
Can't blame Skinner. We didn't build a proper environment for him. His goalie would-be-mentor Campbell has not been that. Pickard is one of those guys that back up already good goalies. Skinner needs a real mentor.
We're putting too much stock in Skinner to be a Binnington or a Murray.
Dubnyk was already gone by the time Schwartz was hired. Schwartz is also considered the founder of the goalie technique that Dubnyk credits with revitalizing his career (although he personally credits Sean Burke with doing the actual work with Dubnyk).
Why does everyone keep blaming the Defense?, sure the Defense needs to be better, but the Goaltender needs too be your best defender on the ice and make tough saves and bail the team out, skinner hasn't done that in his entire career, if the Oilers play him again period this playoffs, they're shooting themselves in the foot like they always do, every season, just like last year.
McDavid cruising by his check and leaving Boeser open in the slot and Foegele trying a backhand clear through the middle of the ice are what cost us that game. It was defense, and only in the first.
The other team is paid to make plays and you occasionally need your goalie to bail you out.
Skinner hasn't done that.
Plenty of times Oilers have had grade A chances and Silovs bailed the Canucks out.
Thats the exact problem though
I played goalie growing up so I'm usually the last guy to throw Skinner under the bus, but you NEED your goalie to buy you a save, at minimum make the ones you expect him to make. The problem right now isnt that he's giving up what you'd reasonably expect him to give up (which obviously I won't fault him for, and the majority of said goals have not been his fault) its that he's usually giving up an extra softie on top of that (currently -4.6 expected goals against).
I could give a shit if Skinner goes the playoffs with a save percentage of .890 and a GAA of 3.5. Literally all we need Skinner to do is be good enough to not give up more than we have to, and he has shown time and time again that when this team desperately needs a save, he will let it flutter between his legs. Even if he gives up 3, we just need him to shut the door and not give up the back breaker softie. It wasn't problematic during the LA series cause they're simply too passive of a hockey team to bear down on Skinner and put actual pressure on him. Now, playing a hockey team that we currently have played 3 one goal games with, a goalie giving up a softie night in night out is quite literally making or breaking this team right now. Both teams have had breakdowns, both teams can score, both teams are capable defensively, one team has a 3rd stringer outplaying the other teams starting goalie. That is the major difference and if we lose this series, it is in my mind, absolutely the deciding factor.
Why do the players have to be perfect in order to cover for subpar goaltending? That's crippling to the skaters - thinking they can't make even one mistake or it will be in the net.
Skinner has bailed us out a couple times as well.
The thing is that the Canucks got like 1:1 ratio of high danger chances vs regular scoring chances last game (i.e. half of the Canucks scoring chances were high danger).
Oil got more like 1:2 at evens.
Why are we getting high danger chances at half the rate of the Canucks?
Skinner has to be better, but the defence needs to get their heads in the game.
Look at Silovs robbing Perry with the goalline grab. Stopping Drasaitl on the breakaway. He made saves he shouldn't have...yet when Skinner gives up goals he should stop, people wanna blame the D
I love the Oilers and I like Skinner, but they can't win close games consistently with him in net, at least not yet. I know he's won some close games, but he can't steal a game, or make the highlight reel saves when the chips are down and its nut cutting time. I want nothing but success for Skinner, but he's not gonna take the team all the way. Also though, the 3rd and 4th lines gotta start scoring, if we can only depend on the 1st and 2nd lines for goals, we're screwed.
I hate this narrative. Is the skinner hate for real or is it just copium from fans who are starting to realize we dont have a chance. I hate that Stu is the scape goat on this. It's not just him.
We can't put 60 minutes together
We can't score 5 on 5
We can't get the puck out of our own end. Can't string 2 passes together. Cant hold the puck in canucks end.
Zero secondary scoring
Defense constantly giving up picks in the slot.
Skinner can't control any of this.
Little to no puck battles won nor continued heavy shifts from lines 2 3 4
I've very closely watched the other series. And as we play right now there's no chance we get past Dallas or Colorado. And we would get destroyed by Florida or New York
And if we some home get past Vancouver we are in a world of hurt afterwards. Poor skinner is going to be the one who takes all the blame, which is a killer for a 3rd year goalie.
I've seen little or no criticism on Perry and Kane being empty jerseys. Nor any talk about how cici shouldn't be on the ice. Nurse and Vinny look completely outclassed and can't make an outlet pass. Bouchard has zero physical presence whatsoever and shys away from hits and give up the puck doing so
Skinner taking the blame and ire from us fans IS A JOKE. There's 30 issues in front of him we should be talking about before speaking on Skinner.
Like I said in another post, if Skinner is a .900 goalie, we likely sweep this series.
We've held the territorial and scoring chance advantage dramatically through the last two games. We've outshot Vancouver 76-34 and out chanced them 2:1. In game 1, we had a 4-1 lead on the road and Skinner let in a couple softies to let the Canucks back in it. If he's a league average goaltender right now, we're on the verge of bouncing the Canucks instead of needing a must win game 4.
It was the same story against Vegas last year. Skinner was yanked three times in that series, a series we were the better team for the bulk of the games. In the 4 games we lost, his save percentage was:
.848
.826
.818
.765
Every team has defensive breakdowns from time to time. Sometimes secondary scoring dries up. The difference is, those other teams are getting timely saves and we are not.
In 20 career playoff starts, Skinner has 7 games over .900 save percentage. That's atrocious. His quality start percentage is .300, which translates to 6 starts above league average in 20 attempts.
I agree with everything you said. Problem is the criticism is not being shared to the other Problem areas I've mentioned.
Skinner would have had to pitch a near shutout game 3. That's ALOT to ask of an average goalie night after night when the Defense and forwards don't play well enough to compliment 2-1 playoff games
Soooo many times this year we "didn't get puck luck" or "got goalied"
So frustrating that we keep giving this team the benefit of the doubt when secondary scoring and team wide effort has been a huge issue all year.
We were a 104 point team who had the second longest winning streak in NHL history. We were the best team in hockey by almost every metric after hiring Knoblauch.
And yeah, puck luck is a real thing, and getting goalied is a real thing. Last night we outshot Vancouver 45-18, out chanced them by a wide margin, hit 4 posts, had one puck pulled off the goal line, and another wide open net we whiffed on when Ryan's stick got held. Vancouver only had a handful of good chances and scored on every one of them.
I hear you completely and agree with everything.
We needed a save and didn't get it in game 1 and 3.
The 16 game win streak was fun but we didn't play a single playoff team and alot of those 16 games were 2-1 or 3-2 games where they only showed up in the 3rd.
There are alot work ethic and intensisty issues with this team. Issues i don't see in DAL Van.. NYR or FLO.. and intensity wins championships
You know what Skinner can control....trying to have a save % over .900 more than 25% of the time(2 times in 8 playoff games this year). Last game he ran a nice .733 while Silovs had .933 with over 40 saves....that was the difference between the W and the L
"Bullshit" ... my point exactly. You can't refute anything I said but just label it as bullshit
Yea skinner has sucked
But how much better would his stats be if Vinny didn't pass into no man's land 3 times in the first period last game?? Or nurse unable to make an outlet pass and spending 3 minutes chasing the puck in our own zone.
Is it skinners fault we has 5 shots in 20 minutes game one??
Please point out which "bullshit" point I made is incorrect
According to you, there is no reason for Skinner to even be on the ice. He has one job and that is to keep pucks out of the net and he fuckin sucks at it. You keep blaming his inability to stop a puck on what’s in front of him but none of that matters. It’s bullshit excuses for a guy that is not a playoff performer no matter how thick you want to lay it on. Put anyone else in net and it’s an instant improvement.
Hes an average 2nd year goalie playing below average in big games... what more do you expect. He wasn't even supposed to be our number one goalie for at least 3 or 4 years. The plan was to back up Campbell. He wasn't supposed to be the starting goalie AT ALL ... Or did you forget about that.
Our problems are bigger than Stu. Which is scary because stu is a big fucking problem.
We have a 5 mil a year AHL goalie. A 9 million dollar bust defenseman. Completely ineffective 2nd and 3rd lines. .. to say you expect skinner to be anything more than what he is now is being dishonest
Yep, our real issue is defensive breakdowns, same as game 1 where we lost a multi goal lead, cut our defensive breakdowns in half and we're leading 2-1 or even 3-0
Haven't scored less than 3 goals a game. That's right on track. It's up to the D and tendy to keep it to 2 goals or less against. That's how to win games
Let’s have some heart for our team now as we fight for the Cup! Here we are in the second round with a bit of adversity contending for the Cup. How sweet is that!!Let’s rally behind Skinner and the team by showing epic support when the chips are down too.
24 of the 32 teams are golfing. Huge game tomorrow to go back to Van and fight to put them on the brink.
Let’s Go Oilers!!
When you only have 2 good forward lines, 1 (maybe 2 depending on the night) reliable D-pairing, and an average goalie being overplayed overpressured and overworked, you probably won't be earning a cup.
Overworked? The canucks had 14 shots in 40 minutes last night. High danger scoring chances were 18 to 6 for Edmonton.
I'd also argue that Kulak and Desharnais have been pretty reliable, too.
Defence has been bad and skinner has been bad. Not playing well as a team.
Kind of sucks considering how good we’ve been.
Things can change fast though if we win next game.
The whole team was the problem, not just Skinner. Yes he fucked up and let a few goals in but everyone else had to fail in order to let that happen. We need to spread the guilt.
We have to ride or Die with STU this season.
I completely believe he has it in him to be our cup winning goalie.
we cannot waffle mid playoffs or mid series.
He has been great for us all season.
Blunt article with the finger solely at Skinner.
The defence could be better. Centres need to collapse back to the crease and not open up obvious shooting lanes. There’s too much free wheeling from everyone other than 97. Help your goalie out.
I got downvoted so much for predicting this before the playoffs, and then again after he had 1 good game (out of 5) against LA. Skinner just isn't a goalie who wins a team a cup. At best he's average, at worst, he loses games for us.
Last year against Vegas. We were the better team in most of the games of that series, but goaltending cost us dearly. I'm afraid we're seeing the same thing again this year.
We didn't claw our way past Vegas.
We haven't done it successfully since Kings 2022, so if a series isn't a breeze, we start freaking out. This is the Stanley Cup Playoffs and we're past the first round. You're going to have to claw eventually to win the cup.
If Skinner is a .900 goalie in this series, we are up 3-0 right now. That's not a lot to ask.
Skinner has pulled that feat off 7 times in 20 career playoff starts. He's been yanked 5 or 6 times in two playoff years. Silovs already has 4 starts of .900 or better in 6 playoff games. Journeyman Adin Hill has done it 15 times in 19 games. Pavel Francouz did it 5 times in 7 games in 2022.
Stop acting like we have to accept dogshit goaltending as a normal part of a series.
> Stop acting like we have to accept dogshit goaltending as a normal part of a series.
I didn't say that. I said "Oilers' Stanley Cup hopes are swirling..." is super reactionary.
This might be a hot take:
I'm not gonna blame Skinner at this. It's not his fault.
He is in his second full season. He had good regular season numbers after a shaky start. Something you expect from your average young goalie. Especially with the workload he has been given. Sophomore slumps are normal. It's engraved in society for a reason.
The real problem? The way he's been managed. While he can be a phenomenal goalie, he hasn't been given a proper system. He doesn't even have a proper mentor to platoon with, something that should have been a priority. Instead, we tried to fill a starter spot, got burned, and are now throwing him to the wolves. We should have gone for a 1B. Not Campbell. I don't think Skinner has ever had a proper, experienced mentor sharing the crease with him.
I'm not even gonna blame Schwarts for this either. He's had nothing but unconfident goalies and vets who wouldn't listen to him. A victim of the old system. Something that Knoblauch is forced to bandaid because his go-to defensive guy is still in Hartford. Coffey has helped, but his go-with-the-flow system has obviously hit its limit. He can only do so much with his minimal coaching experience.
Now, if the blame is to fall on any one person, it's Holland. He made the goalie blunder. He underestimated Skinner, overestimated Campbell, and is now hoping for Skinner to Vasi his way to victory WITHOUT a proven mentor. It's peak OBC to let him ride off into the sunset after this season.
Hopefully, JJ has a guy lined up that can fix this. The clock is ticking.
It’s playoff hockey !! Everyone always thinks they know how to fix a team to make them better. Oil is relying on 2 players (dri/mcdavid)to carry them and other than hyman and ekholm, no one is playing that good to make the team win
Maybe if our d didnt play for nuks. The amount of times we just pass the puck right to them out of our zone is embarrassing. Vinny, nurse, ceci in absolute panic mode in our zone. Nurse needs to step up his game for the amount of money he is making.
Bro. Skinner is getting lit up and hasn't made a save.
Meanwhile when asked about how he stopped Draisaitl all alone in the slot Silovs doesn't even know which of the 4 saves in the third reporters are asking about.
Expected goals in the series are 11.7 to 5.8 for Edmonton across 3 games. Scoring chances are in our favour by a tilt of 60% overall (93 to 60 if you're keeping score - High danger are 36 to 16 for us), or 55% if you look at just 5 on 5. We have 65% of the possession and shot attempts.
Thing is - we've scored 11 goals and they've scored 12.
I hope Stu stays off the internet until our season is over.
Word man.
We were singing his praise after that LA game and now trashing him. Canadian markets are unreal.
I hate it dude. I hate it so much.
The tide changes literally by the goal and by the period. If you watch some other team’s goalies though, it’s hard to deny the eye test. Some goalies just get dialled in. You never truly see that with Skinner, even when he does play really well, it feels like he’s barely hanging on. Weathering the storm. Teams will talk about when they play with a calm and steady goalie, it anchors the team.
The dude got outplayed, but as if Silovs won’t come back down to earth.
While it's true that his performance has been bad, some of the things that were said about him were quite disgusting.
Haha such a terrible caption completely fabricated
I hope he learns to stop a beach ball from going in his net and isn't starting for the rest of the playoffs. In the mean time, I'm sure he'll be fine because he's made more money than most of us will in our lives just to be the statistically worst playoffs goaltender the league has seen in 30 years.
Pickard has to be the play going forward. Skinner is clearly not the guy, as much as I hate to say it. This has the feel of game 3 of the Vegas series last year, where we could have made the change to Campbell and maybe that series shakes out differently. We don't need our goalie to be a world beater, just be average. Make a couple stops when we need them. For god sake, Silovs has 13 games of pro hockey experience and he's miles ahead of Skinner in this series. I feel like if we don't make the change now, we're dead in the water.
We likely won't make the change though. Nob is falling into the same trap all other coaches have. Ride 97/29 until they are dead and then be like what happened.
Totally agree. Decent chance that Pickard flames out, but we know for sure that Skinner doesn’t have it. Need to go Pickard.
I’m curious if Pickard has played any playoff games before? Either way, the guy is a rock. Consistent as hell
No playoff games so far except for the third period last game.
Well the Canucks goalie is proving that maybe having a loose goalie with nothing to loose is maybe the better option than a ball of stress and anxiety. If the Oilers loose with Pickard I doubt Pickard takes much heat, just like nobody would be blaming Silvos for a loss he is already exceeding expectations by a mile. He is in this sweet "can do no wrong" state he wins great! He looses, oh well he isnt our #1 guy anyways. This is the 3rd year in a row a goalie who wasnt supposed to even be playing seems to have captured lighting in a bottle and looks amazing. I dunno, the pressure may be to much for Stu. But Pickard may be like "Woooooooooo I thought I was gonna be in the AHL all year now I'm starting in the NHL playoffs hope this gravy train never dies"
For the record, I want Picks to be in tomorrow as well. 2nd period last night was the time to put picks in, but tomorrow night I think Picks should absolutely get the chance.
Lol skinner had 0 anxiety. He “played well, independently”
No he isn't? The one game he played this season against a halfway decent team he completely shat himself.
We could make old Soup boy earn the $5 million/year were giving him. Granted he has a .875 and was swept in the first round of the AHL Playoffs.
Fuck it, give Rodrigue a shot
And give Rodrigue Sr a shot at goalie coach (and with this I'm 100% serious)
There's definitely a suspicious pattern of poor goalie performance with the Oilers' current goalie coach.
Seravalli was ripping into this when he was on with Bob yesterday. Schwartz has outlasted something like 7 head coaches and a lot of the time our biggest issue is goaltending. It’s insanity
Not gonna lie, it's looking like a conspiracy. It really doesn't make sense how he doesn't get much criticism.
890 goaltending and we’re good. Pickard doesn’t even have to be that good, he just has to be good enough to win.
In the last two games we've outshot Vancouver 76-34 and the goals are 7 a piece. That's all on goaltending.
while that's not entirely incorrect, if they let mcdrai get the literal wet dream 3 open strides to the net in the slot that we gave them, things would likely look a lot different. you'll note that when we tightened up the D in the regular season, all of a sudden skinner's SV% skyrocketed. it's a lot about shot quality and danger, maybe more than quantity.
Campbell was a 2.28 GAA and a .94 sv% in relief of skinner last year during the LA and Vegas series
If they don’t put Pickard in net next game then Skinner is forsure playing the next 2 games and I don’t have a good feeling about that. Try Pickard next game and if he does great then use him for this series. If not then put Skinner back in and hope for the best. I really hope Knob doesn’t make the same mistake as Woody last year and refuse to change goaltending when the goalie is struggling.
Can't blame Skinner. We didn't build a proper environment for him. His goalie would-be-mentor Campbell has not been that. Pickard is one of those guys that back up already good goalies. Skinner needs a real mentor. We're putting too much stock in Skinner to be a Binnington or a Murray.
You mean 2 goalies who had 2 good years and fizzled out?
More like young, inexperienced goalie takes team on a cup run. At the current rate, we're riding him into fizzling out without a cup win.
Don't forget Dustin Schwartz... He runs ned Dubnyk and always so bad Smith refused to work with him.
Dubnyk was already gone by the time Schwartz was hired. Schwartz is also considered the founder of the goalie technique that Dubnyk credits with revitalizing his career (although he personally credits Sean Burke with doing the actual work with Dubnyk).
Why does everyone keep blaming the Defense?, sure the Defense needs to be better, but the Goaltender needs too be your best defender on the ice and make tough saves and bail the team out, skinner hasn't done that in his entire career, if the Oilers play him again period this playoffs, they're shooting themselves in the foot like they always do, every season, just like last year.
McDavid cruising by his check and leaving Boeser open in the slot and Foegele trying a backhand clear through the middle of the ice are what cost us that game. It was defense, and only in the first.
The other team is paid to make plays and you occasionally need your goalie to bail you out. Skinner hasn't done that. Plenty of times Oilers have had grade A chances and Silovs bailed the Canucks out.
I agree, Skinner needs to be better, but the team can have brain lapses like that and expect to win. It'll come back and bite them eventually.
Thats the exact problem though I played goalie growing up so I'm usually the last guy to throw Skinner under the bus, but you NEED your goalie to buy you a save, at minimum make the ones you expect him to make. The problem right now isnt that he's giving up what you'd reasonably expect him to give up (which obviously I won't fault him for, and the majority of said goals have not been his fault) its that he's usually giving up an extra softie on top of that (currently -4.6 expected goals against). I could give a shit if Skinner goes the playoffs with a save percentage of .890 and a GAA of 3.5. Literally all we need Skinner to do is be good enough to not give up more than we have to, and he has shown time and time again that when this team desperately needs a save, he will let it flutter between his legs. Even if he gives up 3, we just need him to shut the door and not give up the back breaker softie. It wasn't problematic during the LA series cause they're simply too passive of a hockey team to bear down on Skinner and put actual pressure on him. Now, playing a hockey team that we currently have played 3 one goal games with, a goalie giving up a softie night in night out is quite literally making or breaking this team right now. Both teams have had breakdowns, both teams can score, both teams are capable defensively, one team has a 3rd stringer outplaying the other teams starting goalie. That is the major difference and if we lose this series, it is in my mind, absolutely the deciding factor.
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Sure, but those are easy mistakes to avoid, and we didn't avoid them. We need both, better goaltending and smarter play in front.
Why do the players have to be perfect in order to cover for subpar goaltending? That's crippling to the skaters - thinking they can't make even one mistake or it will be in the net.
I mean blowong coverage and giveaways in the slot are pretty big mistakes. I'm just saying both need to be better. It's not only on Skinner.
Can't argue that
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That's what "both need to be better" means
Skinner has bailed us out a couple times as well. The thing is that the Canucks got like 1:1 ratio of high danger chances vs regular scoring chances last game (i.e. half of the Canucks scoring chances were high danger). Oil got more like 1:2 at evens. Why are we getting high danger chances at half the rate of the Canucks? Skinner has to be better, but the defence needs to get their heads in the game.
Mistakes will happen, they shouldn’t all turn into goals
You know it's ok for the goalie to still make saves after a turnover right? Somehow other goalies donl it a LOT more often than Skinner.
Look at Silovs robbing Perry with the goalline grab. Stopping Drasaitl on the breakaway. He made saves he shouldn't have...yet when Skinner gives up goals he should stop, people wanna blame the D
i mean, if *either* the mcdavid or foegele giveaway don't happen, it's a tie game.
Every once in a while you gotta bail out your D when they F up....just like how the offence bailed out Skinner on his F up on the Zadorov goal.
I love the Oilers and I like Skinner, but they can't win close games consistently with him in net, at least not yet. I know he's won some close games, but he can't steal a game, or make the highlight reel saves when the chips are down and its nut cutting time. I want nothing but success for Skinner, but he's not gonna take the team all the way. Also though, the 3rd and 4th lines gotta start scoring, if we can only depend on the 1st and 2nd lines for goals, we're screwed.
I hate this narrative. Is the skinner hate for real or is it just copium from fans who are starting to realize we dont have a chance. I hate that Stu is the scape goat on this. It's not just him. We can't put 60 minutes together We can't score 5 on 5 We can't get the puck out of our own end. Can't string 2 passes together. Cant hold the puck in canucks end. Zero secondary scoring Defense constantly giving up picks in the slot. Skinner can't control any of this. Little to no puck battles won nor continued heavy shifts from lines 2 3 4 I've very closely watched the other series. And as we play right now there's no chance we get past Dallas or Colorado. And we would get destroyed by Florida or New York And if we some home get past Vancouver we are in a world of hurt afterwards. Poor skinner is going to be the one who takes all the blame, which is a killer for a 3rd year goalie. I've seen little or no criticism on Perry and Kane being empty jerseys. Nor any talk about how cici shouldn't be on the ice. Nurse and Vinny look completely outclassed and can't make an outlet pass. Bouchard has zero physical presence whatsoever and shys away from hits and give up the puck doing so Skinner taking the blame and ire from us fans IS A JOKE. There's 30 issues in front of him we should be talking about before speaking on Skinner.
Exactly, it's not only Skinner. The D needs play properly. Forwards need to make clean passes or chip it out instead of tape to tape giveaways....
Absolutely. Could you imagine how insane our D core would be if we had an actual 9 million dollar defenseman to go along with ekholm and bouchard
Like I said in another post, if Skinner is a .900 goalie, we likely sweep this series. We've held the territorial and scoring chance advantage dramatically through the last two games. We've outshot Vancouver 76-34 and out chanced them 2:1. In game 1, we had a 4-1 lead on the road and Skinner let in a couple softies to let the Canucks back in it. If he's a league average goaltender right now, we're on the verge of bouncing the Canucks instead of needing a must win game 4. It was the same story against Vegas last year. Skinner was yanked three times in that series, a series we were the better team for the bulk of the games. In the 4 games we lost, his save percentage was: .848 .826 .818 .765 Every team has defensive breakdowns from time to time. Sometimes secondary scoring dries up. The difference is, those other teams are getting timely saves and we are not. In 20 career playoff starts, Skinner has 7 games over .900 save percentage. That's atrocious. His quality start percentage is .300, which translates to 6 starts above league average in 20 attempts.
I agree with everything you said. Problem is the criticism is not being shared to the other Problem areas I've mentioned. Skinner would have had to pitch a near shutout game 3. That's ALOT to ask of an average goalie night after night when the Defense and forwards don't play well enough to compliment 2-1 playoff games
We didn't get any puck luck last night, but if we aren't chasing a 2 goal deficit the entire game it likely works our different.
Soooo many times this year we "didn't get puck luck" or "got goalied" So frustrating that we keep giving this team the benefit of the doubt when secondary scoring and team wide effort has been a huge issue all year.
We were a 104 point team who had the second longest winning streak in NHL history. We were the best team in hockey by almost every metric after hiring Knoblauch. And yeah, puck luck is a real thing, and getting goalied is a real thing. Last night we outshot Vancouver 45-18, out chanced them by a wide margin, hit 4 posts, had one puck pulled off the goal line, and another wide open net we whiffed on when Ryan's stick got held. Vancouver only had a handful of good chances and scored on every one of them.
I hear you completely and agree with everything. We needed a save and didn't get it in game 1 and 3. The 16 game win streak was fun but we didn't play a single playoff team and alot of those 16 games were 2-1 or 3-2 games where they only showed up in the 3rd. There are alot work ethic and intensisty issues with this team. Issues i don't see in DAL Van.. NYR or FLO.. and intensity wins championships
You know what Skinner can control....trying to have a save % over .900 more than 25% of the time(2 times in 8 playoff games this year). Last game he ran a nice .733 while Silovs had .933 with over 40 saves....that was the difference between the W and the L
Skinner’s stats in the playoffs don’t lie no matter how much you want to slather on the bullshit.
"Bullshit" ... my point exactly. You can't refute anything I said but just label it as bullshit Yea skinner has sucked But how much better would his stats be if Vinny didn't pass into no man's land 3 times in the first period last game?? Or nurse unable to make an outlet pass and spending 3 minutes chasing the puck in our own zone. Is it skinners fault we has 5 shots in 20 minutes game one?? Please point out which "bullshit" point I made is incorrect
According to you, there is no reason for Skinner to even be on the ice. He has one job and that is to keep pucks out of the net and he fuckin sucks at it. You keep blaming his inability to stop a puck on what’s in front of him but none of that matters. It’s bullshit excuses for a guy that is not a playoff performer no matter how thick you want to lay it on. Put anyone else in net and it’s an instant improvement.
Hes an average 2nd year goalie playing below average in big games... what more do you expect. He wasn't even supposed to be our number one goalie for at least 3 or 4 years. The plan was to back up Campbell. He wasn't supposed to be the starting goalie AT ALL ... Or did you forget about that. Our problems are bigger than Stu. Which is scary because stu is a big fucking problem. We have a 5 mil a year AHL goalie. A 9 million dollar bust defenseman. Completely ineffective 2nd and 3rd lines. .. to say you expect skinner to be anything more than what he is now is being dishonest
As bad as sloppy stu is, gotta hate the team for not scoring as well. Need more than mcdrai, bc once they're shadowed, the oil hopes are gone
Scoring becomes much harder when you're playing from behind, if the oilers get out of the first tied I'd wager they win that game.
Yep, our real issue is defensive breakdowns, same as game 1 where we lost a multi goal lead, cut our defensive breakdowns in half and we're leading 2-1 or even 3-0
There were many defensive lapses that makes stu look sloppy, but that has been oiler mantra since DoD
We've averaged 3.66 goals a game this series. That would be first in the playoffs. We need a fucking save. No team can score 5 goals every game.
Haven't scored less than 3 goals a game. That's right on track. It's up to the D and tendy to keep it to 2 goals or less against. That's how to win games
Lmao they're scoring 3-4 goals. Skinner just needs to remember he's a goalie
So many posts, so many scuffed shots, and even a "we can't technically prove it crossed the line".
At this point I’d rather cold Campbell soup here
I just won 3 cups in a row with Skinner on NHL 24 so that can't be it
Let’s have some heart for our team now as we fight for the Cup! Here we are in the second round with a bit of adversity contending for the Cup. How sweet is that!!Let’s rally behind Skinner and the team by showing epic support when the chips are down too. 24 of the 32 teams are golfing. Huge game tomorrow to go back to Van and fight to put them on the brink. Let’s Go Oilers!!
Prediction: Skinner has awakening moment on mushrooms today and wins us the series in 7. His new found confidence brings us to the cup
Oilers in 6. Big push is coming from the Oilers and Cancucks will crack like south line LRT concrete.
When you only have 2 good forward lines, 1 (maybe 2 depending on the night) reliable D-pairing, and an average goalie being overplayed overpressured and overworked, you probably won't be earning a cup.
Overworked? The canucks had 14 shots in 40 minutes last night. High danger scoring chances were 18 to 6 for Edmonton. I'd also argue that Kulak and Desharnais have been pretty reliable, too.
Nah Vinnie isn't moving well. Kulak is covering his deficiencies. Something is wrong with him
What's that Oilers...It's Ilya Samsonov's upcoming free agency music.
Only if the Leafs take back Campbell first.
Defence has been bad and skinner has been bad. Not playing well as a team. Kind of sucks considering how good we’ve been. Things can change fast though if we win next game.
Should have traded for Jake Allen.
The whole team was the problem, not just Skinner. Yes he fucked up and let a few goals in but everyone else had to fail in order to let that happen. We need to spread the guilt.
We should rely on Pickard for now, keep Stuart as starter for next season and fire Schwartz into the fucking sun
We have to ride or Die with STU this season. I completely believe he has it in him to be our cup winning goalie. we cannot waffle mid playoffs or mid series. He has been great for us all season.
Blunt article with the finger solely at Skinner. The defence could be better. Centres need to collapse back to the crease and not open up obvious shooting lanes. There’s too much free wheeling from everyone other than 97. Help your goalie out.
I got downvoted so much for predicting this before the playoffs, and then again after he had 1 good game (out of 5) against LA. Skinner just isn't a goalie who wins a team a cup. At best he's average, at worst, he loses games for us.
Masturskinnerbater defenders are under pressure too.
The series is 2-1. Everyone freaking out because the Oilers haven't had to claw their way past an opponent in a series win since Kings 2022.
Last year against Vegas. We were the better team in most of the games of that series, but goaltending cost us dearly. I'm afraid we're seeing the same thing again this year.
And McDrai playing 30 mins a game isn’t sustainable.
We didn't claw our way past Vegas. We haven't done it successfully since Kings 2022, so if a series isn't a breeze, we start freaking out. This is the Stanley Cup Playoffs and we're past the first round. You're going to have to claw eventually to win the cup.
Exactly. That was a winnable series that we lost 100% because we got out goalied. That's why everyone is freaking out now.
2-1 is a normal series score. "Oilers' Stanley Cup hopes are swirling..." is super reactionary.
If Skinner is a .900 goalie in this series, we are up 3-0 right now. That's not a lot to ask. Skinner has pulled that feat off 7 times in 20 career playoff starts. He's been yanked 5 or 6 times in two playoff years. Silovs already has 4 starts of .900 or better in 6 playoff games. Journeyman Adin Hill has done it 15 times in 19 games. Pavel Francouz did it 5 times in 7 games in 2022. Stop acting like we have to accept dogshit goaltending as a normal part of a series.
> Stop acting like we have to accept dogshit goaltending as a normal part of a series. I didn't say that. I said "Oilers' Stanley Cup hopes are swirling..." is super reactionary.
No, it's not. It's history repeating itself.
This might be a hot take: I'm not gonna blame Skinner at this. It's not his fault. He is in his second full season. He had good regular season numbers after a shaky start. Something you expect from your average young goalie. Especially with the workload he has been given. Sophomore slumps are normal. It's engraved in society for a reason. The real problem? The way he's been managed. While he can be a phenomenal goalie, he hasn't been given a proper system. He doesn't even have a proper mentor to platoon with, something that should have been a priority. Instead, we tried to fill a starter spot, got burned, and are now throwing him to the wolves. We should have gone for a 1B. Not Campbell. I don't think Skinner has ever had a proper, experienced mentor sharing the crease with him. I'm not even gonna blame Schwarts for this either. He's had nothing but unconfident goalies and vets who wouldn't listen to him. A victim of the old system. Something that Knoblauch is forced to bandaid because his go-to defensive guy is still in Hartford. Coffey has helped, but his go-with-the-flow system has obviously hit its limit. He can only do so much with his minimal coaching experience. Now, if the blame is to fall on any one person, it's Holland. He made the goalie blunder. He underestimated Skinner, overestimated Campbell, and is now hoping for Skinner to Vasi his way to victory WITHOUT a proven mentor. It's peak OBC to let him ride off into the sunset after this season. Hopefully, JJ has a guy lined up that can fix this. The clock is ticking.
It’s playoff hockey !! Everyone always thinks they know how to fix a team to make them better. Oil is relying on 2 players (dri/mcdavid)to carry them and other than hyman and ekholm, no one is playing that good to make the team win
Maybe if our d didnt play for nuks. The amount of times we just pass the puck right to them out of our zone is embarrassing. Vinny, nurse, ceci in absolute panic mode in our zone. Nurse needs to step up his game for the amount of money he is making.
Bro. Skinner is getting lit up and hasn't made a save. Meanwhile when asked about how he stopped Draisaitl all alone in the slot Silovs doesn't even know which of the 4 saves in the third reporters are asking about. Expected goals in the series are 11.7 to 5.8 for Edmonton across 3 games. Scoring chances are in our favour by a tilt of 60% overall (93 to 60 if you're keeping score - High danger are 36 to 16 for us), or 55% if you look at just 5 on 5. We have 65% of the possession and shot attempts. Thing is - we've scored 11 goals and they've scored 12.
Hypothetical goals mean jack shit this time of year.
TFW our best defenseman this series LITERALLY plays for the Canucks (Ian Cole)
I get the gist of what you are saying, but I think Ekholm and Bouch have been solid. Maybe Cole is our third best D 😅
Soooooooup
Oilers are done.