I remember an article from 2013-14 which talked about Ben Scrivens and the work he was doing in LAK with their goalie coach, Bill "Oilers-cant-even-nepo-correctly" Ranford. It was a while back, but from what I recall, when he was in Toronto, he always had his glove down and kept his shoulders low, and had to move it higher to make saves on that side. Ranford coached him to keep his glove hand up, track the puck for better lateral movement and raise his shoulders to appear larger - and Scrivens really blossomed. We got him, he was decent in that season of acquisition, iirc, and then we hired Dustin Schwartz. I remember the hire because we were the laughing stock of the league re: goaltending because Dubnyk went to Arizona and Sean Burke nearly died, both of laughing and pain, trying to "coach the Edmonton" out of him. Think that quote may have been directly from Nashville but nevertheless.
The next season, by April, his form was completely gone again. And its been a run from Fasth to Skinner of watching goalies unable to lift their glove hand to make a f***ing save, unable to stop a cross ice feed beyond freak athleticism, and look like a shooter tutor sitting well inside their own nets.
The only player who has had sustained success as an Oilers goalie is Mike Smith, who refused to listen to this hack and hired his own goalie coach. Talbot went from Vezina nominee to journeyman. Broissoit went from promising prospect to washed up backup (to cup winner!) Campbell went from being at least an NHL starter to perhaps an elite ECHL third stringer. Skinner used a season of AHL goaltending learning to backstop a Calder nominated season to whatever the f*** the last 10 games have been.
His claim to fame is a career average 2.96 GAA/.906 s% Carter Hart. The first thing our hypothetical analytics department should do is look at why we have generationally ass goaltending.
I joked we should hire Mike Smith, because his glare and imminent aura of violence may cause opponent team errors, but at least he has an identifiable elite skill he could teach these numbnuts manning our net. I mean, if Skinner can't stop the puck, maybe he can stop giving the other team free goals with his horrific stick handling.
The only thing Schwartz does well is survive.
He survives again.
