Post-Game Talk: Dallas Does Skinner

[Canovin]

I guess, don't let the puck get past you, like a goalie does. Eitherway, he was once again not good enough in a loss. It's pretty clear. The team needs him to only slightly better than "giving the game away" and they're more than fine, which is kind of amazing.

Don't get me wrong. I think Stuart cost us the game as he killed the momentum. 3-1 going into the 3rd. The Oilers had this in the bag. 2-3 saveable goals from Stuart depending how people want to view it. Also not pulling him when it was 4-3.

 

[Salvaged Ship]

Would not disagree if they bench Perry for 1 game and put Arvy in

Perry has been a difference maker most of these playoffs, Arvy not. I don’t think this is the time to teach those kind of lessons. I would rip him a new arsehole if I was the coaching staff but not sit him, we need the best players out there.

 

[Jimmi McJenkins]

Don't get me wrong. I think Stuart cost us the game as he killed the momentum. 3-1 going into the 3rd. The Oilers had this in the bag. 2-3 saveable goals from Stuart depending how people want to view it. Also not pulling him when it was 4-3.

I wish they would pull him, but Pickard isn't on the bench, so no chance they'll do that unless Stu his hurt. I don't like it, but it is the simple reality.

 

[McBigYak]

Our Goaltender can't catch a pick within 2 ft of his shoulder?! And this is a defense of him? The guy with arms that are 40" long?

You cannot actually think that that puck was able to be saved by his shoulder, unless you want him to be 2 feet out of position on a guy directly in the slot firing a backhand.

He was bad. But that goal wasn't even remotely close to being on him. It is a 90 degree tip from the goal line on a puck that was going 2 feet wide.

Plenty of holes in his game to poke at last night. The 5th goal most certainly was not one of them.

Watch the goal objectively. Unless you want him to somehow not square up to Steel, be buried inside his net, and overcommit to the post side, which would be an absolutely ridiculous and odd decision, he cannot save that tip.

Or alternatively, you want him to stay square to Steel but somehow become Stretch Armstrong or something and grow an extra 18 inches worth of shoulder.

 

[BlackDogg]

No he's fading a bit compared to 2022-2023. And no i'm not hoping for it, but thanks for putting words in my mouth and telling me what i'm thinking.

Like I said i thought Mcdavid had a really good game last night. The others posters summed up well that he just doesn't have the consistency or scoring ability he once had.
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BTW Jimmy you said the same thing which makes you a hypocrite. Stop targeting my posts. You really get off on the confrontation eh?

It was tongue in cheek, as the last few games he has not been able to pot them. (of course he's not as bad as Jesse Puju, nobody is, and maybe he has an injury to add to it), but a lot of people on here take everything literally as if they grew up in a closet. lol. Quite remarkable.

 

[barry halls]

One of the most devastating playoff losses of the McDavid era. Similar to game 1 against Florida, where the Panthers realized they could beat Edmonton’s A-game with their B-game, and gained all the confidence in the world because of it. Win game 2 or this run is over.

 

[BlackDogg]

The Skinner we feared appeared. In typical fashion, he lets in one suspect goal and has to followup with two more.

Just like Campbell.

 

[Kinibo]

What happened last night is nothing we haven't seen before. We seem to have a game or two like this in every series.

There are goalies who can steal a game for you when the team plays poorly, or hold you in when they're not. Skinner has neither of these qualities; he's only as good as the defence in front of him and there is no margin for error. Fortunately we have the ability to remove goaltending from the equation when we play our game. We didn't do that in the third and the result was predictable.

I didn't see anything last night to indicate that Dallas is the better team.

 

[popo]

So a lot of continuity from Rounds 1 & 2:

1. We are able to control the puck and play 5v5 and look like the better team
2. Special teams is a big problem, bad PK, PP
3. Skinner gonna Skinner. I don't blame him for the breakaway goal (that's on Draisaitl), or the tip. But the game winner was a back breaker.

Most goalies default deep in their net on the goal line when losing sight of the puck. Skinner turns his back on the play, exits the crease, and leaves the net wide open. Not a great strategy.

 

[McBigYak]

So a lot of continuity from Rounds 1 & 2:

1. We are able to control the puck and play 5v5 and look like the better team
2. Special teams is a big problem, bad PK, PP
3. Skinner gonna Skinner. I don't blame him for the breakaway goal (that's on Draisaitl), or the tip. But the game winner was a back breaker.
View attachment 1040533
Most goalies default deep in their net on the goal line when losing sight of the puck. Skinner turns his back on the play, exits the crease, and leaves the net wide open. Not a great strategy.

Game winner was horrendous. At first I thought he quit on the play because he thought the puck hit the netting. But he said in his post-game interview he thought he was interfered with. He just completely gave up on the play, which is kind of why I thought he thought it hit the netting.

Absolute bonehead regardless.

 

[K1984]

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.

I'm in the same boat and I agree with your assessments.

The biggest problem is mental. You can smell when he's entering "every shot is a goal" territory and I could just feel it after that Heiskanen one. The worst part is he's done this so much that the other teams and even the fans know he's going into that mode and it energizes them while we're dejected. The snowball rolls over the whole team.

Its at the point where the staff needs to take Rodrigue aside and tell him to prepare himself mentally to play, because if something like that happens again Skinner has to come out after the tying goal at the latest. There is no risk to making a change at that point to a below average AHL goalie. It's that bad.

 

[iCanada]

So a lot of continuity from Rounds 1 & 2:

1. We are able to control the puck and play 5v5 and look like the better team
2. Special teams is a big problem, bad PK, PP
3. Skinner gonna Skinner. I don't blame him for the breakaway goal (that's on Draisaitl), or the tip. But the game winner was a back breaker.
View attachment 1040533
Most goalies default deep in their net on the goal line when losing sight of the puck. Skinner turns his back on the play, exits the crease, and leaves the net wide open. Not a great strategy.

I mean, it's not like everyone else on the ice knew where the puck was. Oh, wait.

 

[popo]

I think we have to move on the next game and be optimistic.
Our PK looked great in the 1st and 2nd period. It will be better. Powerplay had a goal and can be better.
We dominated the first two periods. Their 1 goal was on a dumb mistake by us - a freebie. We could have had a few more goals, but didn't have any luck.

Let's win the next game and the split on the road is a decent place to be. We all knew Dallas wasn't going to be an easy opponent.

 

[Canovin]

The thing about Stan saying he's good with the goalies we had. He probably did try but one of Jeff Skinner/Arvid didn't waive their NMC and Oilers had what 600k in cap space even with Kane on LTIR

 

[MikeS24]

Appreciate the sentiment but I can't agree. There have been countless Oiler games where shit like that goes unpenalized because this is a biased, corrupt league. Case in point: Pickard getting bodychecked in his crease by L.A in game four and Kane getting crosschecked into the net a few minutes later. No penalties on either. Or Hertl flopping intentionally on Pickard's knees. No call. We're up four goalie interference calls to none in the playoffs and yet we're the ones with an injured goalie.

The, 'those penalties will always be called' statement is the biggest fallacy in hockey. The rights holding media loves to push it but it is factually untrue. Point out to me one time where the Oilers were down by two and getting dominated going into the third period and were handed three straight powerplays like that. Doesn't happen.

And remember the, 'refs dont call penalties in Oiler games either way because the Oiler powerplay is so good' argument? Let's see if that holds true now that Dallas is humming along. I guarantee it will not. Calling it now: this series will have the most powerplays of any in this year's playoffs.

We get bent over and lubed non stop

Dallas is the most penalized team in the league? Sorry, we will still give them more PP's. Marchment is such a flopper.

Both Kulak calls were iffy.

The Oilers are way below the remining teams when it comes to PP's. All while we control games.

DAL - 43 PPS
FLA - 42
CAR - 36
EDM - 27

What are these f***in teams doing special?

 

[Louis Cypher]

Stu is pretty much the same as always. If the team plays a perfect game in front of him like in the last 2 Vegas games you get good Skinner. If the team plays ass like in game 1 & 2 LA and 3rd period last night you get Bad Skinner.

Until Pickard is healthy or we finally get a Starting Goalie our team needs to play perfect in front of him to get a win. Even then he can be prone to shitting himself.

Typical game 1. McDrai give us a chance to win and Stu and the team shit themselves.

 

[McBigYak]

I'm in the same boat and I agree with your assessments.

The biggest problem is mental. You can smell when he's entering "every shot is a goal" territory and I could just feel it after that Heiskanen one. The worst part is he's done this so much that the other teams and even the fans know he's going into that mode and it energizes them while we're dejected. The snowball rolls over the whole team.

Its at the point where the staff needs to take Rodrigue aside and tell him to prepare himself mentally to play, because if something like that happens again Skinner has to come out after the tying goal at the latest. There is no risk to making a change at that point to a below average AHL goalie. It's that bad.

It is bad, but it is not that bad.

There is almost 0 chance they go to Rodrique. They are not going to throw in a small, below average AHL goaltender with 2 games of NHL experience in the WCF. There is a very good chance he would just get absolutely torched.

If Pickard is out for the remainder of the playoffs, they will live or die with Skinner.

 

[ahmedou]

This Oilers fan stayed until the end of the game. To support the team. At Dallas. Even if there was a blowup. At the 3rd period. Respect.

 

[K1984]

It is bad, but it is not that bad.

There is almost 0 chance they go to Rodrique. They are not going to throw in a small, below average AHL goaltender with 2 games of NHL experience in the WCF. There is a very good chance he would just get absolutely torched.

If Pickard is out for the remainder of the playoffs, they will live or die with Skinner.

I'm not suggesting starting him, I'm suggesting putting him in if idiot starts down the path he was on last night.

When he gets into that mode there is no saving him.

 

[MikeS24]

Walman has nothing to do with it (Walman was also garbage last night)

We could have flipped Stu for Gibson without giving up a first, but the brass didn't see Gibson as an upgrade and probably were worried about injury history

I wonder who they see as an upgrade? I think they are reading goalie numbers backwards and think close to 800 is an upgrade. So they think Stu is elite. A garbage can can out up better #'s on average than this guy. Please boot him into the sun. Criminal if they keep him around next year

 

[Lay Z Boy GM]

Well like other posters have said Mcdavid's shot has went to crap and he can't score to save his life. So I will stick with the opinion that he has regressed a little and we have already seen his peak.

Agree to disagree I guess.

I don’t think you’re wrong. He’s still one of the best in the league. It’s been two years of this, he’s either been injured for a while or he’s left his peak.

 

[MikeS24]

Can't blame Skinner totally for the loss. Players shot themselves in the foot in front of him. On one goal an Oiler decided to play goal and completely screened Skinner doing Dallas a huge favour. There certainly was some embellishments on the high sticks but the refs bought it. Penalty kill was off for sure. This series will be a grind. Best team defense will tell the tale.

Skinner is such a trash can of a goalie (as a whole) and has been crapped on so much the last 2 years, that even in my whatsapp large hockey chats, I still have some delusional human beings who say "Not Skinners fault" when we get scored on lol

Whether it is his fault or not, people need to say it because he is at fault so much.


It's like an auto reply. They are so used to saying it now.

If Pickard is done for good, good night Irene.

Or play any bum the first 3 games since Skinner does not have the will or mental capacity to start any series on time.

 

[Balakay14]

I think the shit PK is mostly on the goalie, and not just Skinner.

The PK was unplayable for the first 4 games of the Kings series (Pickard wasn’t great on it either), then kind of stabilized, then was actually pretty good against Vegas. Because we were getting the odd save.

Then Skinner decides to do his thing again. I don’t perceive the PK was getting picked apart or anything like that. Just every shot goes in.

Just to further highlight this, the Oilers xGA on the PK all season long (and so far in the playoffs) has been much better than the actual results, they're just not getting some of the saves they should on the PK

 

[frag2]

I mean, it's not like everyone else on the ice knew where the puck was. Oh, wait.

View attachment 1040537

The amount of times these playoffs where Skinner is spun out of position with his back facing the puck is pretty crazy

We get bent over and lubed non stop

Dallas is the most penalized team in the league? Sorry, we will still give them more PP's. Marchment is such a flopper.

Both Kulak calls were iffy.

The Oilers are way below the remining teams when it comes to PP's. All while we control games.

DAL - 43 PPS
FLA - 42
CAR - 36
EDM - 27

What are these f***in teams doing special?

The Oilers fight through it. Others simply flop at contact. That's the difference. Maybe we should incorporate some of the latter into our strategies.

 

[elmeroil]

Honestly more Oilers PP's last night wouldn't have helped the way their PP is looking. Need shots from the point and rebounds, what they're doing is not working.