Pre-Game Talk: Game 2. The Stuart Skinner Shit Show (with Pole!)

[Forgot About Drai]

It's been about 16 hours with a sleep in the middle of it so tough to be really accurate on it.

Keep in mind, they didn't completely roast him for it, but it was just noteworthy for me as it's fairly rare where they straight suggest he should have been better there.

If I remember correctly it was mostly that he wasn't competitive enough to get back into the battle to make a save echoing Stu's own comments from post-game.

I'm pretty sure it was one of the first 3 or 4 things they talked about so you wouldn't need to listen to the whole thing to hear it in detail. I don't really want to listen again though.

Appreciate it!

 

[PinSeeker]

I am certain someone would have already mentioned this but if a goaltender only makes the saves he is 100% supposed to make, and almost 0 that he should not make, that is not an NHL starter. That is a backup or career AHL goaltender. Period.

That said, the PK was awful.

 

[brentashton]

In response to Rishaug post game last night he said his traffic game and competitiveness is something he can work on.

After he lets in 4 in 9. In the middle of the playoffs. In his 5th season. In the 3rd consecutive year he’s been pulled due to his poor traffic game and lack of competitiveness. With our better goalie who is loaded with competitive spirit on the bench due to injury. With the ultra competitive Mike Smith as his early protégé to learn how to fight through traffic and be competitive.

It’s utterly mind boggling that the complete bonehead of a goalie coach we are forced to employ does not see this - as every single fan does. Or just maybe, just perhaps Smilin Stu might mention to Blind and Deaf Dustbin that he’d like to shore that area of game up as it’s been 5 years and he’s already partially cost the team 2 cups along with Woodcocks stubborn coaching or lack thereof.

The Oilers have to beat the Stars, the refs, a league worst PK and brutally inconsistent Smilin Stu goaltending forcing them to play a perfect defensive no penalty game in order to even have a chance at winning. It’s almost a zero sum game.

HOWEVER - the Oilers 5v5 dominated the Stars so the path to victory is clear. O penalties and O shots against us from inside our blue line. Achievable maybe.

Game 2 is not quite a must win but it’s damn close. 2-4 Skinner doesn’t figure his shit out until Game 4 and our 6-0 true number one goalie is in a morgue somewhere in Edmonton so we need a yeoman’s effort from all 18 players not named Stuart Skinner to take this one and bring the series back home.

Let’s Go Oilers!!!

Key to this pole question is the adjective Biggest in respect to all these challenges.

There are fallbacks/solutions to compensate for all of the challenges on the list, except for the last one. Only Skinner can address that one. History shows he will for a short period but then will regress again.

For that reason, it is the Oiler’s Biggest challenge.

 

[CupofOil]

Did Rob Brown rush to Skinner’s aid? He is the number one apologist for Skinner besides Spector out there.

He begrudgingly agreed with the other two but I've learned to tune RB out more lately. Struddy is the real star of the show. Rishaug has a good host voice and Rob Brown is just generic.

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

It’s unsustainable if you’re a serious cup contender and our backup may not be good enough to bail him out every single year.

So now you need style points when you win it all? Who cares how you win the Cup as long as you do FFS
Skinner is playing in his 2nd Conference Final in a row but it’s “unsustainable”
Ok then

 

[MessierThanThou]

So now you need style points when you win it all? Who cares how you win the Cup as long as you do FFS
Skinner is playing in his 2nd Conference Final in a row but it’s “unsustainable”
Ok then

And much like last year, he wouldn't even get there if Pickard didn't bail him out in an earlier round.

 

[Garbo Man]

Even Skinner blames Skinner on that first PP goal. He even said all he had to do is look to the right and he could've seen it. Its in the postgame. He says he needs to be more competitive. That when Dallas are putting a screen down he needs to work around it to take a look. He never attempted. You can see his face it almost in Marchments ass. I guess you can try to defend that. I don't know how. Not even the culprit is and he usually explains away the GA.

The reason I blame Skinner specifically on the 2nd Dallas goal is that the same point shot happened in the first period, and luckily it hit knob of stick instead of going in and Skinner never looked around screen on that either. He doesn't even move to look around. That play happened twice and it was very nearly 2 GA.

in the game 3X Skinners D also stopped pucks from going in. This all in the same game in addition to all the shit he let in. I know you're not absolving him. just saying.

The Heiskanen goal literally hit his shoulder and went in anyways. I've said this multiple times but when Skinner goes down into the Butterfly position he goes from being 6'5 to being 4'5. Guy shrinks almost 2 full feet in size. If he went down into the butterfly and doesn't shrink into a little ball like he always does then that shot hits him square in the shoulder and the Oilers are still up 3-1

 

[29Beast97Mode]

Damn man that loss is demoralizing. It will give Dallas hope that they can can come back on any lead.

Skinner effect

 

[Stoneman89]

They played a fantastic 40 minutes, so I'm going to hang my hat on that going forward. If we play our best and the Stars play their best, I don't believe they can match us. It looked like men against boys out there and probably should have been 5-1 and coasting him if not for a bit of bad puck luck.
I didn't like all the careless stick penalties, but Jeezus, you have to kill some of them off! And can't stand the Stars theatrics when a stick does come near. Amazing how 6 minutes of shitty play can undo 40 minutes of good, smart work. I'm not about to give the Stars credit for that win. We gave it to them. Just stick to the script and take this series home, baby. And Stu, it would certainly help if you made the odd save above expected.

 

[Stoneman89]

He begrudgingly agreed with the other two but I've learned to tune RB out more lately. Struddy is the real star of the show. Rishaug has a good host voice and Rob Brown is just generic.

Brown won't say shit about the Oilers or anyone on the team. He's become so predictable in his analysis, he's become boring. I don't listen to him anymore.

 

[Oilhawks]

so you want to trade a goalie that led the team to a championship...for a goalie who may or may not do the same thing

make that make sense

If you consider that same goalie had to be bailed out by Campbell vs the Kings his first year (and still gave away the following series vs the Golden Knights), and had to be bailed out by Pickard the following year against the Canucks (and was mediocre in the finals, giving away a game in that 0-3 start that probably cost them the series), and had to be bailed out again by Pickard this year against the Kings…

Adding in that him being Jekyll and Hyde all year cost them multiple wins that would have given them home ice that could cost them this series…

It makes a lot of sense to get a new look in net

 

[Stoneman89]

Even Skinner blames Skinner on that first PP goal. He even said all he had to do is look to the right and he could've seen it. Its in the postgame. He says he needs to be more competitive. That when Dallas are putting a screen down he needs to work around it to take a look. He never attempted. You can see his face it almost in Marchments ass. I guess you can try to defend that. I don't know how. Not even the culprit is and he usually explains away the GA.

The reason I blame Skinner specifically on the 2nd Dallas goal is that the same point shot happened in the first period, and luckily it hit knob of stick instead of going in and Skinner never looked around screen on that either. He doesn't even move to look around. That play happened twice and it was very nearly 2 GA.

in the game 3X Skinners D also stopped pucks from going in. This all in the same game in addition to all the shit he let in. I know you're not absolving him. just saying.

It's called fighting through the screen to give yourself an advanced chance. I get that screens can be a problem, but he does a poor job of challenging them. Using a screen as a reason for a goal all the time is just a lazy, dumbass excuse. Way too many shots get by him from the points with no deflection.

 

[Stoneman89]

so you want to trade a goalie that led the team to a championship...for a goalie who may or may not do the same thing

make that make sense

I would say if Pickard takes back the net when he's healthy, and is the one to finish out the rest of the journey to a cup, you have to seriously think about making a move with Skinner.

 

[McShogun99]

They need to fix the PK fast and get it close to 80%. The kill rate when Skinner plays is 58% and when Pickard plays its 65% so not much difference between each goalie which is clearly a systems/effort level by the PKers. Having a healthy Ekholm will help but we're not winning anything if the PK stays this bad.

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

If you consider that same goalie had to be bailed out by Campbell vs the Kings his first year (and still gave away the following series vs the Golden Knights), and had to be bailed out by Pickard the following year against the Canucks (and was mediocre in the finals, giving away a game in that 0-3 start that probably cost them the series), and had to be bailed out again by Pickard this year against the Kings…

Adding in that him being Jekyll and Hyde all year cost them multiple wins that would have given them home ice that could cost them this series…

It makes a lot of sense to get a new look in net

"Skinner helped win the Oilers a championship....but the next goalie could do anything, maybe even help the Oilers win a championship!" is quite the logic

Skinner ain't perfect, but he helped the Oilers get to the Cup final last year, and get to this point right now with his play in the most critical games in the Vegas series

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

And much like last year, he wouldn't even get there if Pickard didn't bail him out in an earlier round.

who cares?
where's "good" goalies like Blackwood right now? dude shit his pants in games 6 and 7 against Dallas because he stinks in big games, while Stu actually plays better as the series go on
Hellebuyck shit his pants all playoffs

 

[NotAVacuumSalesman]

Is it time to dig in?

 

[foshizzle]

Janmark as his centerman isn't ideal. But yeah he needs to step up.

Janmark as an NHL player isn’t ideal. He’s the definition of looking busy while accomplishing nothing.

 

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

It's been about 16 hours with a sleep in the middle of it so tough to be really accurate on it.

Keep in mind, they didn't completely roast him for it, but it was just noteworthy for me as it's fairly rare where they straight suggest he should have been better there.

If I remember correctly it was mostly that he wasn't competitive enough to get back into the battle to make a save echoing Stu's own comments from post-game.

I'm pretty sure it was one of the first 3 or 4 things they talked about so you wouldn't need to listen to the whole thing to hear it in detail. I don't really want to listen again though.

I just listened to it and they got on him about that goal and one other.

 

[foshizzle]

who cares?
where's "good" goalies like Blackwood right now? dude shit his pants in games 6 and 7 against Dallas because he stinks in big games, while Stu actually plays better as the series go on
Hellebuyck shit his pants all playoffs

Funny the two goalies you mentioned have better metrics than Skinner. Hellebuyck- 58 Career playoff games played .903 save %. Hellebuyck may have shit his pants - but Skinner has worse numbers. Thanks again for supporting the Skinner sucks balls camp

 

[foshizzle]

The Heiskanen goal literally hit his shoulder and went in anyways. I've said this multiple times but when Skinner goes down into the Butterfly position he goes from being 6'5 to being 4'5. Guy shrinks almost 2 full feet in size. If he went down into the butterfly and doesn't shrink into a little ball like he always does then that shot hits him square in the shoulder and the Oilers are still up 3-1

That ball thing is 100% Schwartz. All goalies under him have done that and drives me nuts

 

[Oilhawks]

"Skinner helped win the Oilers a championship....but the next goalie could do anything, maybe even help the Oilers win a championship!" is quite the logic

Skinner ain't perfect, but he helped the Oilers get to the Cup final last year, and get to this point right now with his play in the most critical games in the Vegas series

'Helped' is quite generous, given all of the problems I listed, that cost the team Cups the past two years. Every game he shits the bed in puts a toll on the players mentally and physically.

All they need is average goaltending and they'll win a Cup

This Jekyll and Hyde Campbell-esque mental midgetry is not what a Cup contending team is in need of

 

[Messrules11]

It's called fighting through the screen to give yourself an advanced chance. I get that screens can be a problem, but he does a poor job of challenging them. Using a screen as a reason for a goal all the time is just a lazy, dumbass excuse. Way too many shots get by him from the points with no deflection.

I’m still pissed about his lack of effort on the Duschene goal, what kind of ass clown goalie doesn’t play to the whistle? This turd has to go.

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

Funny the two goalies you mentioned have better metrics than Skinner. Hellebuyck- 58 Career playoff games played .903 save %. Hellebuyck may have shit his pants - but Skinner has worse numbers. Thanks again for supporting the Skinner sucks balls camp

cool, I'm sure they're enjoying those metrics on the golf course at the moment

 

[bone]

Brown won't say shit about the Oilers or anyone on the team. He's become so predictable in his analysis, he's become boring. I don't listen to him anymore.

Brown on GYB is different than Brown on Ched. CHED he's unlistenable. GYB he's a bit better, but when its at its best is when they disagree on GYB as it can get entertaining.