Post-Game Talk: Oilers win by the Skin of their teeth

[russ99]

Man the Isles 3rd period goals were just brutal. Nobody knows what to do or who to cover, and the gameplan to beat us is wait until we overcommit or screw up and find the wide open trailer. Glad Connor is back on track and our offense is making plays with the puck in the offensive zone but we got a ways to go defensively.

 

[Jimmi McJenkins]

Man the Isles 3rd period goals were just brutal. Nobody knows what to do or who to cover, and the gameplan to beat us is wait until we overcommit or screw up and find the wide open trailer. Glad Connor is back on track and our offense is making plays with the puck in the offensive zone but we got a ways to go defensively.

Honestly, they largely don't defensively. The issue the Oilers have is every high quality chance goes in every time.

They were much better than the Isles all night, but each time there was one chance it went in. Yes the defense needs improve in those spots, but the Oilers need to have a larger conversation about things, because a game like this needs to stop happening.

It's extra hard when you consider the Oilers are utterly incapable of making significant change at all.

 

[Zerotonine]

The priority has to be a goalie, not a RHD

1000 percent. I think people might be amazed at just how much the d improves atleast by the eye test simply by upgrading the goalie.

Every simple mistake is highlighted with it ending up in the back of the net...

 

[CupofOil]

Average? What criteria do you base that assessment on?

Based on save percentage (using Quant Hockey as a source) he is

Current season - 54th of 74 goalies with any minutes played. Bottom 1/3 of league

2023-24 - 31st goalie out of 64 players

As for parsing this data based on only looking at #1 goalies, that is challenged as many teams run tandems and determining who is the true #1 is isn’t clear. If you do a secondary sort on minutes played maybe you can get a tighter look but i don’t think it elevates him much just from a visual look of the raw data. (i don’t have the tools to migrate the data into excel to do that additional sort).

But i don’t think he’s even average.

Skinner was 4th in the league in starts last season so those stats are comparing a bunch of guys that started less games a lot much less so it's hard to compare guys that don't share near the same workload. One of the guys, btw, who is has been considered a top NHL goalie for a while in Juuse Saros had a .906 Save Pct, compared to Skinner's .905 and that's without playing in front of an absolute dumpster fire of a team for the first portion of the season. Jake Oettinger's save pct. btw, same as Skinner's.
Skinner also nearly won the Calder the season before with a .913 save pct.

Yes, he's had a bad season like 11 games in but the bigger sample size illustrates that he's a #1 starter in the league albeit an average one. Tons of goalies are inconsistent in this league, it's a higher scoring league now.
I just think it's ridiculous to state that 50 goalies would be clear upgrades on Skinner. How can I even respond to a post that crazy?
I'm not saying he's amazing or anything btw, I acknowledge that he has flaws and even called him a clown goalie on the 2nd goal in particular last night, but there's so much hyperbole around here in terms of how bad people say he is that it makes my head hurt.

 

[jesusbuiltmyhotrod]

Stu skinners lateral movement is horrendous

 

[iCanada]

Man the Isles 3rd period goals were just brutal. Nobody knows what to do or who to cover, and the gameplan to beat us is wait until we overcommit or screw up and find the wide open trailer. Glad Connor is back on track and our offense is making plays with the puck in the offensive zone but we got a ways to go defensively.

Literally the Islanders only had 3 good scoring chances all game and one of them was caused by Skinner mishandling the puck to give it away then kicking out a juicy rebound into the slot.

It's a shitty gameplan that only works because we have absolute dog shit goaltending.

 

[94 Oil Drops]

Missed the game but saw the highlights. Sh*tter almost lost that game for the team all by himself. Man he sucks this year! He simply can't close the door.

I know we'll probably never be able to get a true number 1 goalie but I'd definitely get a cheaper one somehow and start rotating 3 goalies. Neither Pickard or Skinner can play consistently enough to get us places we need to be.

 

[AUAIOMRN]

Basically on any play that requires agility or quick movement you expect a goal against and it’s a shock if he actually makes the save.

The weird thing is that it seems like that would be the easiest kind of problem to fix - it's just physical athleticism, there's no mental component. Makes me wonder if our esteemed goalie coach even has him practicing it.

 

[fireantz]

Skinners not the problem! The truth this 32 team league has maybe 10 elite goalies Skinner isn’t one of them Sorokin is and look what that got the Islanders The score last night should have been 8-1. This team is built to outscore their shortcomings. After 16 games 23 teams have scored more than the Oil. Only Leon has scored consistently He’s scored as much as the rest of the top 9 combined. Stop looking at Stu to be our saviour and bitch about contributions by the group up front

 

[TKB21]

The weird thing is that it seems like that would be the easiest kind of problem to fix - it's just physical athleticism, there's no mental component. Makes me wonder if our esteemed goalie coach even has him practicing it.

It really is mind boggling. The average fan can see his lateral movement is abysmal, how he and dusty can watch tape of his games and not come to the conclusion that he should be practicing lateral movements all day everyday is a complete head scratcher.

 

[Canovin]

Skinners not the problem! The truth this 32 team league has maybe 10 elite goalies Skinner isn’t one of them Sorokin is and look what that got the Islanders The score last night should have been 8-1. This team is built to outscore their shortcomings. After 16 games 23 teams have scored more than the Oil. Only Leon has scored consistently He’s scored as much as the rest of the top 9 combined. Stop looking at Stu to be our saviour and bitch about contributions by the group up front

I get that Stuart isn't in the elite 10 but our backup is a better option than him. Each teams have a starting goalie and an back up that's better than him. That's a problem going into the playoffs when you're playing a guy who's constantly the last option

 

[Jimmi McJenkins]

Literally the Islanders only had 3 good scoring chances all game and one of them was caused by Skinner mishandling the puck to give it away then kicking out a juicy rebound into the slot.

It's a shitty gameplan that only works because we have absolute dog shit goaltending.

View attachment 930062

The Oilers utterly outclassed the Isles all over the ice, but when every High Danger Chance goes in, that's a problem.

 

[Canovin]

Skinner was 4th in the league in starts last season so those stats are comparing a bunch of guys that started less games a lot much less so it's hard to compare guys that don't share near the same workload. One of the guys, btw, who is has been considered a top NHL goalie for a while in Juuse Saros had a .906 Save Pct, compared to Skinner's .905 and that's without playing in front of an absolute dumpster fire of a team for the first portion of the season. Jake Oettinger's save pct. btw, same as Skinner's.
Skinner also nearly won the Calder the season before with a .913 save pct.

Yes, he's had a bad season like 11 games in but the bigger sample size illustrates that he's a #1 starter in the league albeit an average one. Tons of goalies are inconsistent in this league, it's a higher scoring league now.
I just think it's ridiculous to state that 50 goalies would be clear upgrades on Skinner. How can I even respond to a post that crazy?
I'm not saying he's amazing or anything btw, I acknowledge that he has flaws and even called him a clown goalie on the 2nd goal in particular last night, but there's so much hyperbole around here in terms of how bad people say he is that it makes my head hurt.

The Oilers probably win the cup at least once the last 2 years if we had Saros in net

 

[rboomercat90]

That is most definitely going on my tombstone.

They’re going to need to bury you under a skyscraper.

 

[jesusbuiltmyhotrod]

This team has won a cup already with better goaltending

Skinners not the problem! The truth this 32 team league has maybe 10 elite goalies Skinner isn’t one of them Sorokin is and look what that got the Islanders The score last night should have been 8-1. This team is built to outscore their shortcomings. After 16 games 23 teams have scored more than the Oil. Only Leon has scored consistently He’s scored as much as the rest of the top 9 combined. Stop looking at Stu to be our saviour and bitch about contributions by the group up front

Skinner is 100 percent a problem. No one says he is the only one

 

[Stauf4Prez]

Can the Isles please leave Sorokin in Edmonton. Man imagine a goalie like that here.

And let Dustin Schwartz have his way with him? Please no.. not another one..

 

[fireantz]

Every season you have injuries and slumps but you also have surprises that offset your short comings Name anyone other than Kulak who is over performing expectations

 

[ManByng]

Just imagine Sorokin on this team.

It would still take a bit more than that, like a solid d-man such as Rasmus Anderson, Artum Zub, Cam Fowler and the like. If we only could have still had Broberg and Larsson….

 

[rboomercat90]

Man the Isles 3rd period goals were just brutal. Nobody knows what to do or who to cover, and the gameplan to beat us is wait until we overcommit or screw up and find the wide open trailer. Glad Connor is back on track and our offense is making plays with the puck in the offensive zone but we got a ways to go defensively.

I think the issue is they start to panic in their own end because they know if they’re not perfect defensively and allow any shot on goal that it’s going into the net.

 

[McShogun99]

Why not both?

Can you imagine this guy is pulling in 13M in contracts this season. What a floater. J Skinner is a clutch heart and soul player said nobody ever. He's sure rounding into what I expected here. I'll save people the trouble of looking it up. J Skinner has 1G 1A in the last dozen games and somehow is -5 in the last 5 games. One was an Oilers blowout and Skinner was somehow -1 in a 7-3 blowout. This guy has never been part of any winning team and doesn't add the intangibles required. Career wise he just scores goals and really he's not even doing that. 15G pace. lol Thats basically 1M/Goal. Hard job if you can get it...

I know it's the wrong thread but Holloway would have looked so much better in his spot. The kid is a heart and soul player that's made for playoff hockey. Skinner's been ruined from years of playing on bad teams.

 

[CupofOil]

The Oilers probably win the cup at least once the last 2 years if we had Saros in net

You missed my point. @brentashton posted the save pct. and I was using Saros as an example of a goalie who is highly regarded that had a save pct. similar to Skinner. Same with Oettinger, who Skinner outdueled in the playoffs btw. I'm not saying that Skinner is as good as Saros.

As I said, I acknowledge Skinner's flaws but there's some major hyperbole around here when people say that there's 50+ goalies that would be clear upgrades on Skinner and that he's a backup at best.

 

[MoontoScott]

He's just the best

...in the World.

 

[Jimmi McJenkins]

...in the World.

Absolutely, 1000pts is incredible, 1000pts in under 700 games is all-time shit.

 

[Echodek]

.864%

Another day Skinner marked safe from an above .900 save percentage.

 

[Canovin]

You missed my point. @brentashton posted the save pct. and I was using Saros as an example of a goalie who is highly regarded that had a save pct. similar to Skinner. Same with Oettinger, who Skinner outdueled in the playoffs btw. I'm not saying that Skinner is as good as Saros.

As I said, I acknowledge Skinner's flaws but there's some major hyperbole around here when people say that there's 50+ goalies that would be clear upgrades on Skinner and that he's a backup at best.

His issue is not one but many flaws. The guy is even worse than Koskinen. I wouldn't say it hyperbole as the numbers of goalies I would take over Skinner is a lot like around 50. More or less.