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

[foshizzle]

local media was saying it was a risk trading him. I’m starting hear some media come around now…a little too late

 

[Bumblebee Man]

2 games post deadline, time to see who still believes in Stu this season (forgot past or potential future performance)?

Just to be clear to some....if you don't blame every single goal and every single loss on him....it doesn't make you a supporter.

That Thompson rebound was horrible by him, no doubt, but that goal still doesn't happen If Bouchard doesn't stop skating with his man. Bouchard had position and just stopped dead in his tracks and let Tage walk past him .

That goal was equally on Bouchard, and the game...Bouchard is ultimately to blame as he had 2 major mistakes on goals

 

[subnet]

Curious to see who the 3 votes for "yes" are

Oh I have some guesses. Most but not all are on ignore.

We have a REALLY good team here. We have friggen ELITE talent but our goaltending had really let us down.

With our elite talent we don’t need a prime D Haseck but just a friggen AVERAGE goalie. That’s it. Full stop.

We’re going to waste another year due to shite goaltending. Sigh.

 

[Bryanbryoil]

Just to be clear to some....if you don't blame every single goal and every single loss on him....it doesn't make you a supporter.

That Thompson rebound was horrible by him, no doubt, but that goal still doesn't happen If Bouchard doesn't stop skating with his man. Bouchard had position and just stopped dead in his tracks and let Tage walk past him .

That goal was equally on Bouchard, and the game...Bouchard is ultimately to blame as he had 2 major mistakes on goals

That's like saying that the center fielder should sprint all the way to 2nd base every time that a ball is popped up to the 2nd baseman. Sometimes you just need to do the simple thing and if you don't it is on you.

 

[TB12]

Guy sifts a wrister from the hash marks into a goalie's crest and the goalie gives up a disgusting rebound and the d-man is getting blamed? Only on HFOil to defend Moustache.

No f***ing chance this guy can get it done in the playoffs. But I hope to hell that he somehow bottles lightning for 2 months so the team can win the Cup. Really fun feeling going into the playoffs having less than zero trust in your tendie. Only in Edmonton do they saddle McDrai with such a huge f***ing burden year after year.

 

[Canovin]

No. Pickard and Rodrigue will have to Markannen their way to the cup

 

[oXo Cube]

local media was saying it was a risk trading him. I’m starting hear some media come around now…a little too late

Local media doesn't have opinions. They spout the party line.

It's pretty clear that management wasn't willing to admit it had a problem in goal until it was too late to address said problem.

 

[Anemia]

Can we win a division with him or, more realistically, can we make the playoffs? Better questions IMO, this guy is a bum.

 

[frag2]

Here's the problem with S. Skinner:

-- 2022-23: He was great, considering he was technically a rookie (almost won the Calder).
-- 2023-24: He was good-ish, but had some worrisome long dips (notably early in the season, but also vs. Vancouver in the playoffs).
-- 2024-25: He has been quite unimpressive all season, with the one winning period that seemed little to do with his play.

In other words, through three NHL regular seasons, he's got worse each season. I could understand a bit of a dip in year two after a big 'rookie' year, and to some extent he redeemed himself in the playoffs vs. Dallas and Florida, but now, in year three, we need to see him reaching peak level of play, not bottoming out to minimal-NHL level, which is kind of where he's at at the moment.

So, in short, my answer to the question is 'no'. But I guess there's some hope in the sense that he did perform very well vs. L.A., Dallas, and (eventually) Florida last spring, so we can at least hope he'll suddenly turn it on.

Looks like we got Steve Mason in the making

 

[McDoused]

I have to say, HF is a weird place. I've literally been going on about the goaltending all year and majority of fans brushed it off. When things go well, they are never as good as fans think. When they go bad, things arent as bad as they think. Since we returned from the 4nations break the team hasnt played well. As a result, both fans and media are starting to see that the goalies arent good emough. It's almost like a switch flipped. Everyone went from thinking the goalies were capable to absolutely useless. I think we all need to be more methodical and level headed.

The ironic part is now I feel like I'm defending the goaltending. It's bad but it's not as bad as this poll indicates. If 88% of you think their is either no chance or less than 5% chance that the goalies can figure it out you might as we'll step away from hockey and come back next year. This team is still good enough that it can win despite its goaltending problem even if it makes it considerably less likely.

Can we win a division with him or, more realistically, can we make the playoffs? Better questions IMO, this guy is a bum.

The goal isn't to win the division. Skinner was our goalie last year with shitty numbers and we still made it the final.

Obviously skinners a problem but this team can still win. It's skinners last chance or he's gone in the offseason.

 

[russ99]

Depends. If this group starts playing like a team on both ends of the ice, they may have a shot, since enough offense and defensive support could give us a shot in multiple 7 game series.

And as we've seen many times before a goalie can get hot in the playoffs. Skinner is a mess right now, but stranger things have happened, Adin Hill was a 4th goalie on the AHL to NHL to AHL recall train but won a cup for the Knights.

 

[Bumblebee Man]

That's like saying that the center fielder should sprint all the way to 2nd base every time that a ball is popped up to the 2nd baseman. Sometimes you just need to do the simple thing and if you don't it is on you.

Nope. That's like saying we should have deserved the tying goal in the final b/c the dman shouldn't have cleared it trickling in cuz the goalie stopped 90% of the shot.

It's literally in the dmen handbook to clear rebounds, tie up sticks and prevent players from driving the goalie.

That goal absolutely does not happen If Hedman or Slavin was in Bouchards spot.
Hell, that goal doesn't likely happen if it were Kulak or Nurse.

Once the shot was taken, Bouchard steps out of the way of Tage. It was a prevental goal despite the flub

 

[iCanada]

Damn - faith in Oilers fans is lower than I expected.

With 50% in hell no, 11.1% in no, 25% in not likely, and 5.6% in maybe (call that 2.8%)... 88.9% of Oilers fans think Skinner isn't good enough.

 

[K1984]

Depends. If this group starts playing like a team on both ends of the ice, they may have a shot, since enough offense and defensive support could give us a shot in multiple 7 game series.

And as we've seen many times before a goalie can get hot in the playoffs. Skinner is a mess right now, but stranger things have happened, Adin Hill was a 4th goalie on the AHL to NHL to AHL recall train but won a cup for the Knights.

Here's what has to happen for it to be possible, and it still is possible:

- Team has to defend like they did from November - mid January. They are 100% capable of it because this exact same group was basically the best defensive team in the league for months. They just chose to stop for whatever reason. This is step 1.

- Special teams has to be good on both sides of the puck

- If the top 2 happen, Skinner has to just be ok. He was just ok from Nov-Jan, and we won a ton because the play in front of him insulated him. This can happen again.

I've been a broken record, but the team needs to control what they can control. There is no new goalie coming. Just get to the level of Nov-Jan defensively and our reliance on the goalie making the big save (which he won't make) goes down drastically. Keep vomiting up 10+ rush chances a game and there is no possible way to win with this goalie.

If they just manage the god damn puck like professionals Skinner isn't near as much of a factor.

 

[Fixed to Ruin]

For everyone dumping on the goaltending only while ignoring the other glaring issues. Here's a former coach dumping on the forwards, goalies and defense with multiple examples which is what I've been saying for months now.

Starts at 19 minutes.

 

[Bumblebee Man]

Guy sifts a wrister from the hash marks into a goalie's crest and the goalie gives up a disgusting rebound and the d-man is getting blamed? Only on HFOil to defend Moustache.

No f***ing chance this guy can get it done in the playoffs. But I hope to hell that he somehow bottles lightning for 2 months so the team can win the Cup. Really fun feeling going into the playoffs having less than zero trust in your tendie. Only in Edmonton do they saddle McDrai with such a huge f***ing burden year after year.

I really don't understand why this place works so hard to be so simple.

I already admitted that the rebound was a horrible play by Skinner. But the video also shows Bouchard not doing his job...something kids learn in peewee to defend...the net


Sheesh, it's like you've never watched a hockey game before and don't realize that dozens of times a game jockeying for position, pushing, shoving, scrums and even fights breakout in the goal crease.
You know why? The common denominator in these plays?.......Cuz players are defending their goalie and the net

A single goal can have more than one breakdown. It's really not that complicated

 

[K1984]

For everyone dumping on the goaltending only while ignoring the other glaring issues. Here's a former coach dumping on the forwards, goalies and defense with multiple examples which is what I've been saying for months now.

Starts at 19 minutes.

Amen to all of this. The straight up missed shots on a goal is another massive problem for the team that doesn't get talked about enough.

I really don't understand why this place works so hard to be so simple.

I already admitted that the rebound was a horrible play by Skinner. But the video also shows Bouchard not doing his job...something kids learn in peewee to defend...the net


Sheesh, it's like you've never watched a hockey game before and don't realize that dozens of times a game jockeying for position, pushing, shoving, scrums and even fights breakout in the goal crease.
You know why? The common denominator in these plays?.......Cuz players are defending their goalie and the net

A single goal can have more than one breakdown. It's really not that complicated

No, no you didn't know?

ALL teams play as laughably loose as we do. They just get saves. Or at least that's the narrative from people that don't watch other games.

 

[Behind Enemy Lines]

For everyone dumping on the goaltending only while ignoring the other glaring issues. Here's a former coach dumping on the forwards, goalies and defense with multiple examples which is what I've been saying for months now.

Starts at 19 minutes.

Required viewing.

This team is broken in all capacities. But as discussed most elements are fixable at least in the goal suppression side where they can reduce repeating poor decision making and terrible systems execution. Goaltending is highly volatile and a clear weakness. But without a team commitment to manage the puck in front of them there's little chance this team can win when the league play style changes to hard, close checking grind playoff series hockey.

Goalscoring and ability to outscore their problems as historically they have been able to do is a legitimate question mark with the team scoring actual results under performing x-goals and team shooting percentage NHL below 50% league average. Secondary scoring is a major concern and no certainty with major down years from McDavid and broadly across the roster this will reset itself.

This team could flush itself in the first round or drive to Conference Championship or maybe beyond. But it won't go anywhere if they cannot re-find their smart, disciplined systems play and individual decision making to mitigate against opposition scoring.

 

[Oil53]

Played and coached some goal,nothing high end.IMO Skinner needs to shed 15-20 pounds plus work on being less in his head during games if he wants to track the puck better (staying in the moment).
These 2 things could bring him up to average goalie status.

 

[Oilslick941611]

Yes, but only if the team is playing well scoring more than 2 goals a game and the PP and PK come back.

This is a good team on paper and they've struggled lately through poor play in all 3 zones and in net.

They were in the division lead with Skinner this season so they've shown the answer can be in the room.

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

At present time, no...he's been far too inconsistent this year

they need to tighten up defensively like they were 5 weeks ago and it could happen again

 

[Bumblebee Man]

Played and coached some goal,nothing high end.IMO Skinner needs to shed 15-20 pounds plus work on being less in his head during games if he wants to track the puck better (staying in the moment).
These 2 things could bring him up to average goalie status.

Personally I think if he shaves his moustache he'll have a fresh start.

 

[guymez]

At present time, no...he's been far too inconsistent this year

they need to tighten up defensively like they were 5 weeks ago and it could happen again

That alone would allow Skinner to stop guessing and settle in a little more. I think his sv% could get close to the 0.910 level if the team tightened up their puck management and attention to detail in the D zone.
Structure has to be prioritized...better goaltending usually follows.
Will it happen?
I am becoming more skeptical because it seems like that kind of structure is antithetical to the identity of this team.
They can do it for stretches but thats as good as it gets. Its like asking a perimeter player to hit and go into the heavy areas of the ice...he can do it short term but its never sustainable because he will always default back to the player he really is.

Interestingly enough that is the very thing that has IMO been the cause for some very capable coaches to be fired.
Knoblauch could be next.