Post-Game Talk: Dallas Does Skinner

[M Ace]

It's a fantasy to think Skinner is even sniffing the lineup imo. We don't need more production, we need sustained pace and forecheck through four lines.

Our transitions from defense to forecheck to puck retrieval have been unbelievable. We have been smothering good teams. Bowman brought in 2 puck movers and 3 forecheckers and it made Skinner the roundest of pegs -- blame Jackson.

Every time Frederic dumps and hits their D count it +1. Hyman, Kane, Podz and Frederic have created four lines that bank +1's and it's made the forecheck better imo

Wonder the Cinderella story when Jeff Skinner comes in to the lineup to stay, and then wins the Conn Smythe trophy! =D

 

[McAsuno]

I'm not even sure that's true. Dallas still didn't create much 5 on 5 in the third and relied on 2 horribly misplayed PP goals by Skinner, and another nice PP goal to be in this game. The Seguin 5-3 goal was largely luck and not really anything to get worried about.

It's also incredibly rare that a team gets handed 3 power plays in a 6 minute span.

Was more a perfect shit storm than it was Dallas showing up. Edmonton shot themselves in the foot, with a lot of help from their goalie and a little help from the refs.

Pretty much.
4 goals against on 9 shots towards Skinner in the 3rd sigh..
If anything, the game score pretty much dictated what the series said would look like.
Oilers the better 5on5 team that must limit their penalties especially with a poor PK starting on Friday G2 against a weaker 5on5 stars team that have relied massively on their powerplay to even get to the WCF.

I see us clawing back to win G2 assuming 74 doesn't shit the bed again.

Also if Deboer continues this TOI for those players at the top (will wear them out), I see the Oilers winning the longer the series goes.

 

[rboomercat90]

So as someone who started this season defending Skinner and ended the year shitting on him, these are my observations:

• Skinner's lack of puck tracking ability is frightening when he is off. He lacks basically, any awareness of where the play is heading and as a result has to scramble, often.
• Skinner's mobility is lackluster which makes him (as a big goalie) look like Optimus Prime in there. It hurts him on the PK a lot and on basically any cross-crease chance. When he's good, his positioning makes up for a lot of his mobility.
• Skinner's basics seem to go out the window when he struggles. Positioning, movement, anticipation, puck handling, awareness, all gone.
• When Skinner plays bad it affects the team. We've seen this countless times. They don't believe in him. They shouldn't let it affect their play but it does.
• When Skinner is good he's quiet. Uneventful. He's a very positionally sound goalie so when he's feeling it the puck sticks to him like velcro. As soon as you see him popping rebounds out it's trouble.
• Skinner's absolute top end, the best he can be, is actually very good. Not MVP or AS level but similar to what prime Binnington or Osgood could provide which is a measure better than the top end of Pickard. However, his bad games are not even passable at an ECHL level.

Optimus Prime is a perfect nickname for Skinner. That’s exactly who he looks like in net.

 

[iCanada]

Optimus Prime is a perfect nickname for Skinner. That’s exactly who he looks like in net.

If only we could get him to turn into truck form and roll over in front of the net...

 

[McAsuno]

Optimus Prime is a perfect nickname for Skinner. That’s exactly who he looks like in net.

I wouldn't disrespect Optimus to that extent.
Skinner is this if anything if we're gonna use Transformers as an example.

 

[LemmyUlanov55]

Nice special teams bonanza, might want to work on that.
On to game 2!

 

[Navx94]

Love how the haters are out full force right now. We know how this ends the boys been here done that. They’ll be fired up for game 2 only worry is which stu shows up.

 

[Fishy McScales]

Frustrating to lose going into the third, breaking without bending like that, but that was a really fortuitous period for Dallas. Everything went in for them and it's not just on Stu and the D. Those were all seeing-eye shots or weird bounces like the fifth goal.

Unpopular opinion perhaps but I thought Kane's penalty was the correct call, although I wouldn't have minded 2 for embellishment on Duchene on top of it.

The one that really pissed me off was the call on Kulak late in the second. The Oilers were in the unacceptable position of being up in powerplays, on top of being up on the scoresheet. That was just a battle where Marchment fell down and they found a way to make a straight-up make-up call that started Dallas' comeback. They had to call two straight (legit) penalties anyway; don't manufacture things and decide the game, okay zebras?

And what the hell was that by Perry? 200 ft from your own net up 3-2 in the third, having just let in a goal against the league's number 1 PP merchants? FFS, you're 40 years old Corey...

 

[Fishy McScales]

The funny thing is that this was the inverse of game 1 against the Kings. This time we dominated the first two and allowed a huge comeback in the third.

Unfortunately we found a way to lose both of these games.

 

[Jumptheshark]

Love how the haters are out full force right now. We know how this ends the boys been here done that. They’ll be fired up for game 2 only worry is which stu shows up.

they always are

 

[brentashton]

Love how the haters are out full force right now. We know how this ends the boys been here done that. They’ll be fired up for game 2 only worry is which stu shows up.

It’s funny how Stu cant seem to string together 3 weeks of consistent hockey play.

Haters only come out because Stu opens the door for them, every f***ing time. Frankly it’s gone on too long.

Even if the Oilers push through his inconsistency and win a championship in spite of him, he must be priority number one in the off season for an upgrade.

 

[Jimmi McJenkins]

It’s funny how Stu cant seem to string together 3 weeks of consistent hockey play.

Haters only come out because Stu opens the door for them, every f***ing time. Frankly it’s gone on too long.

Even if the Oilers push through his inconsistency and win a championship in spite of him, he must be priority number one in the off season for an upgrade.

Stu has no future in Edmonton, no matter how this season finishes up, though more success will make him easier to move.

 

[Austerlitz]

Here's a fun fact. Oettinger's save percentage last night was .888. Just the fourth time all playoffs that he's been below .900. The other three times were Dallas losses by large margins.

Not us, though. Nope,we lose because our guy goes .814.

 

[WhiskeyEE]

Frustrating to lose going into the third, breaking without bending like that, but that was a really fortuitous period for Dallas. Everything went in for them and it's not just on Stu and the D. Those were all seeing-eye shots or weird bounces like the fifth goal.

Unpopular opinion perhaps but I thought Kane's penalty was the correct call, although I wouldn't have minded 2 for embellishment on Duchene on top of it.

The one that really pissed me off was the call on Kulak late in the second. The Oilers were in the unacceptable position of being up in powerplays, on top of being up on the scoresheet. That was just a battle where Marchment fell down and they found a way to make a straight-up make-up call that started Dallas' comeback. They had to call two straight (legit) penalties anyway; don't manufacture things and decide the game, okay zebras?

And what the hell was that by Perry? 200 ft from your own net up 3-2 in the third, having just let in a goal against the league's number 1 PP merchants? FFS, you're 40 years old Corey...

Yeah pretty much what I saw although I stopped watching at 4-3 because the Oilers taking such dumb penalties with such a lousy PK has been irritating me for a while.

I can't remember the Kulak penalty. You're probably right that it was a make up call. Perry doing what he did was probably hubris since they won 8 of their last 9 and were controlling the game. Kane was a careless play. Then they seemingly couldn't get it together.

I blame Perry more than anyone. At least the others didn't intentionally sabotage the team. But it was a team effort more or less.

Unlike others I don't think the refs are out to get the Oilers. McDavid high sticked Hughes in OT last year and he was bleeding and it wasn't noticed. But I do think make up calls are a thing. If you get a PP on a subjective violation and don't score it's a net negative because you know the refs will call something the other way. The difference is that the Oilers tend to commit more objective violations that are auto-called and they don't even those out.

Since the team just can't get their shit together on the PK (and this has been an issue all year) you'd think they'd learn to be more disciplined. But, like I said, they were 8-1 in their last 9 and controlled the first 2 periods.

 

[CupofOil]

That’s a series defining collapse.
Absolutely abysmal third by every single player.

It's a Game 1 loss on the road, hardly a series definer. Hell, the Oilers have had worse early series collapses/losses almost routinely in the playoffs.

With that said, they're not winning this series if that PK doesn't improve drastically. I said it going into the series, my biggest fear against Dallas is their powerplay as the Oilers are the better 5 on 5 team. Kind of a weird role reversal from past Oiler teams but that's where we're at now, keep this a 5 on 5 game and the Oilers likely win the series.

 

[Ritchie Valens]

So as someone who started this season defending Skinner and ended the year shitting on him, these are my observations:

• Skinner's lack of puck tracking ability is frightening when he is off. He lacks basically, any awareness of where the play is heading and as a result has to scramble, often.
• Skinner's mobility is lackluster which makes him (as a big goalie) look like Optimus Prime in there. It hurts him on the PK a lot and on basically any cross-crease chance. When he's good, his positioning makes up for a lot of his mobility.
• Skinner's basics seem to go out the window when he struggles. Positioning, movement, anticipation, puck handling, awareness, all gone.
• When Skinner plays bad it affects the team. We've seen this countless times. They don't believe in him. They shouldn't let it affect their play but it does.
• When Skinner is good he's quiet. Uneventful. He's a very positionally sound goalie so when he's feeling it the puck sticks to him like velcro. As soon as you see him popping rebounds out it's trouble.
• Skinner's absolute top end, the best he can be, is actually very good. Not MVP or AS level but similar to what prime Binnington or Osgood could provide which is a measure better than the top end of Pickard. However, his bad games are not even passable at an ECHL level.

The biggest hurdle with the bolded is a very good Skinner only appears for 2, maybe 3 games at a time, then disappears for long stretches. At this point he is what he is. No matter how far they go, getting a better goalie is still at the top of my wish list this offseason and it should be at the top of Bowman’s too.

 

[tardigrade81]

Win game 2 and put this clunker behind us

 

[CycloneSweep]

It's a Game 1 loss on the road, hardly a series definer. Hell, the Oilers have had worse early series collapses/losses almost routinely in the playoffs.

With that said, they're not winning this series if that PK doesn't improve drastically. I said it going into the series, my biggest fear against Dallas is their powerplay as the Oilers are the better 5 on 5 team. Kind of a weird role reversal from past Oiler teams but that's where we're at now, keep this a 5 on 5 game and the Oilers likely win the series.

My point was we played our best and lost. Dallas didn’t even really play. We threw away a win spectacularly. You can’t afford to do that at this stage of the playoffs.

 

[Ritchie Valens]

Optimus Prime is a perfect nickname for Skinner. That’s exactly who he looks like in net.

Except Optimus Prime could save the day

 

[Austerlitz]

The biggest hurdle with the bolded is a very good Skinner only appears for 2, maybe 3 games at a time, then disappears for long stretches. At this point he is what he is. No matter how far they go, getting a better goalie is still at the top of my wish list this offseason and it should be at the top of Bowman’s too.

Even good Skinner is not the kind of goalie you can ever look at and think, 'he's not letting in a bad one tonight'. A godawful, backbreaking goal is always a possibility.

 

[CycloneSweep]

I’ve calmed down but I still think that game sets the tone for the series. Edmonton can play great hockey but as long as we have Skinner and an awful PK Dallas can play for a few minutes and we can lose the game.
As long as Skinner is in the net we have to play perfect hockey.
Imho those 2 shut outs may actually hurt the team this playoffs cause it’ll give the team a false sense of hope in Skinner.

That said the penalty kill is awful and they need to give it to a different coach like right now

 

[CupofOil]

My point was we played our best and lost. Dallas didn’t even really play. We threw away a win spectacularly. You can’t afford to do that at this stage of the playoffs.

Sure but that doesn't make a series definer. Makes it a little harder sure but it's just Game 1 and, no, the Oilers did not play their best lol and I'm sure you'd agree that the PK has a lot of room for improvement.

 

[CycloneSweep]

Sure but that doesn't make a series definer. Makes it a little harder sure but it's just Game 1 and, no, the Oilers did not play their best lol and I'm sure you'd agree that the PK has a lot of room for improvement.

The PK has room for improvement but they haven’t done that yet. They haven’t made any adjustments all playoffs it’s been bad the entire time and they dont seem to be taking it as a serious issue to fix.

And it is series defining. Either they wake up and spend all day today fixing the f***ing penalty kill or they just erase the tape and lose the series. The PK is a problem that they keep ignoring.

 

[GMofOilers]

Gotta win game 2, just be prepared to score 6 it’s doable

Not even worth worrying about not my fault Skinner he’s been doing this for 3 years now. He is what he is….. the biggest fraud in the league.

Hopefully Pickard is ready for game 3

 

[Salvaged Ship]

You might get away with a hold or hook at times but are going to get called for a penalty if you put your stick in a guys face, even if they embellish it a bit. I get everyone looking at the number of penalties each game and being upset but the Perry and Kane penalties are going to get called damn near every time. Keep your friggin sticks down, its game 1 of the conference finals. The penalty kill is shit, the goalie blows. You can’t do dumb shit like this.

Perry should have apologized to the team for his penalty, it was inexcusable.