Do You Think This Season's Version of Stuart Skinner Can Win the Cup This Season?

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Do You Believe That This Version of Stu Can Win the Cup This Season?

  • Yes

    Votes: 6 7.8%
  • Maybe

    Votes: 6 7.8%
  • Not Likely <5%

    Votes: 20 26.0%
  • Nope

    Votes: 9 11.7%
  • No Way In Hell

    Votes: 36 46.8%

  • Total voters
    77
  • This poll will close: .
We can win the cup yeah sure, BUT it will be despite skinner not because of him....
I agree with this. The roster's good enough if they tighten up and shelter him they can win. They almost did last year.

Lots of guys who need to build their game down the end of season stretch here though and need to get into playoff habits. Still stand by that this is the best top 4D this team has ever had in the McDavid era. Get Ekholm back healthy and get Bouchard dialled in for playoffs and they can flip things on a dime.
 
I’m going to have to defer to management on this one. They know how to win, they have multiple rings.

Oh yeah, fire Dustin Schwartz.

lol, almost the 12th anniversary of "I think I know a little bit about winning, if that's ever a concern"

And the lesser known from the same guy at the same press conference, "We need to get better immediately. That starts today.". Throw a little dash of "we have 2 types of fans" in there.
 
lol, almost the 12th anniversary of "I think I know a little bit about winning, if that's ever a concern"

And the lesser known from the same guy at the same press conference, "We need to get better immediately. That starts today.". Throw a little dash of "we have 2 types of fans" in there.
Can't squeeze GMs, etc etc etc.
 
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You're leaving out the Vegas series collapse in 2022-23, where Jack Campbell had to come in and stop the bleeding, and played so much better than Stu that some people actually think he could've saved that series...

Even in the LA series, in 3 out of 5 games Stu had a save percentage in the .800s. In the only loss of the series, Stu had an .808...the team lost in OT. He had two great games, one OK game (Game 1: had a shitty .892 but faced 37 shots), and two poor ones (.857 and .808). When your team wins a game and your goalie has an .857, well...unless you're giving up a crazy amount of high-danger chances (and the Oilers were among the best at suppressing those), you probably have to drag your goalie to victory.

And glad you added "eventually" for the Florida series, because he was poor in the first three games...but Game 3 especially, which his cheerleading section conveniently ignores, saw him finish with an .826 while McDavid had two assists and the Oilers only lost by a single goal. You still have people on here dancing their way around that performance, but that's as clear a smoking gun as any that he was the team's single biggest reason for that loss.
Well, 2023 is when Skinner was a rookie and the club had been fully expecting him to be the back-up then, and for a few years to follow. I don't think you can really blame the rookie, who had a great-ish regular season, for struggling against a top team (Cup winner) in his 1st playoff year, while the Oil were a trainwreck defensively in said series.

And no, I don't think Skinner was the reason they lost to Florida. I don't know how anyone could come up with that conclusion. He was overall pretty good in that series (better save percentage than Bobrovsky). He was just one of many Oilers who were just 'okay' or 'good' but not quite great enough to win.

Anyway, we can disagree all we want about past losses. I think we al agree that Skinner is at best a League-average goalie and at worst below average. But quite why this engenders such vicious hatred towards him by segments of the fanbase confuses me, as he was never projected to be anything other than, at best, a competent back-up. The fact that the Oilers have below-par goaltending is not because Skinner isn't living up to expections. It's because of a massive failure by the organization (specifically Ken Holland, I guess) to deal with the goaltending situation.
 
For some reason I can't see who voted. If you vote yes feel free to state that in the thread. If it happens crows will be on the endangered species list for the ammount of crow that the rest of us will have to eat.
 
Sure thing, do it up. That said it would be a little less worrisome if we had someone that can stop the puck. With both issues? Ruh roh!
It's a chicken or the egg argument at this point i think.

They both need to be better but i think the November to January stretch where the Oilers were on point defensively showed us that goaltending from both Skinner and Pickard seems to be at around 0.905 with a sub 3.00 GAA which is more than adequate to win most nights against anyone.
 
Don’t give a rats ass what he did last year as last years home runs don’t win todays ball games.

This year he is an AHL calibre goaltender.

Zero chance we win a cup with him in net.

When you factor in our garbage shooting percentage and PDO we simply cannot outscore his performance come playoff time.

And I think McDavid knows it.
 
Probably not, but it doesn't matter what I think because he's going to get the opportunity this year. Though they really should give Rodrigue a look to see what he can do.
 
It's a chicken or the egg argument at this point i think.

They both need to be better but i think the November to January stretch where the Oilers were on point defensively showed us that goaltending from both Skinner and Pickard seems to be at around 0.905 with a sub 3.00 GAA which is more than adequate to win most nights against anyone.
And how many of those teams were top tier teams? 0.905 vs average to poor teams is ok at best.
 
Need to see the team for a stretch with Ekholm and Frederic in before I decide. I personally think this defence is capable of dominating if they get back in sync when Ekholm is back, so yes its a possibility. Still believe this is the best group of dmen this team has had since the 06' Oilers.

If Kane is back for start of playoffs and can be an impact player it adds another dimension. They definitely won't struggle with playoff physicality if that happens. Even without him the current additions make this team much better built for playoff hockey.
 
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? We scored twice

Skinner made a couple huge saves to keep us in it yesterday.. that doesn’t fit the narrative though

Yes, we scored two, they scored three, and two of those three were ones that even his hardest defenders on here acknowledge were stoppable by the vast majority of NHL goalies......
 
No, I've prepared this Gif for the playoffs. 👿
ezgif-6e6e3dd7044465COM-WORDS.gif
 

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