LevelingSolo
Registered User
- Jan 15, 2012
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Can't people there are people defending him, his play has been unacceptable
Smith would play really well for most the game, but then would let in some mindboggling bad goals. King ofnthe super softy. But overall he played well.Mike Smith's .913 in 16 games 2 years ago at 40 years old doesn't look too bad now, does it?
Fans I sort of understand. They're emotional and prone to joining cults of personality. The coaches and management though who continuously keep feeding Skinner starts are like degenerate gamblers: "How much worse can it get? The luck is surely about to change soon. Just have to keep on dumping games and then it'll all be worth it in the end..."Can't people there are people defending him, his play has been unacceptable
That's just not true however. High danger chances were 4 to 1 in Oil's favour. Silov allows 2 goals less than is expected while the Skinmeister allows 2 goals more than is expected (about).
In short, no, it's not because the D is bad. It's because Skinner can't make a save. An average goalie with advanced stats in the median would've won the Oil each of these games.
Goals 2 and 3 were off bad defensive zone. Cover by McDavid going to the boards when ekholm had the man leaving Boeser wide open in the slot. Then Foegle gives the puck away in transition.
Yes. He was not in position to challenge either of them. He wasn't squaring off against the shooter at all. Did absolutely nothing to cut off the angle.Which goal was his fault tonight? 2 of the goals were point blank walk ins with no defense. One was a deflection.
Were those Canuck teams good enough to be final 4 in the league for the 3-4 window that Naslund/Bertuzzi dominated?cloutier ruined the naslund/bertuzzi canucks... yeah
I used to get on Smith but the one thing I give him credit for is he could reach that next level and play great games and make great saves. This Oilers teams plays much better defensively then the Oilers teams he played for. Skinner has shown no ability to raise his game and at the moment he is not even reliable to make average saves. I feel nervous about every shot he faces, anything can go in.Smith would play really well for most the game, but then would let in some mindboggling bad goals. King ofnthe super softy. But overall he played well.
The bigger issue, to me, is that Edmonton gives up THE BEST chances to the Canucks, and Silovs is doing whats needed just to win. Its not amazing but it gets the job done.The Oilers tend to outshoot their opponents heavily but allow a average number of breakdowns where a goal is expected.
The Canucks all playoffs long have not been shooting with very much volume, but have created enough chances regardless. They literally just made Saros look like a statistically bad goalie one series prior.
The way both teams are playing is the perfect storm for destroying save percentage. The exact same thing happened to Markstrom against Edmonton in 2022 and then right through the next season as one of the best shot suppression teams in the league. Shot suppression combined with the usual number of dangerous chances. You're going to allow just as many goals but not have any of the extra rubber to pump your numbers.
I'm not saying Skinner isn't allowing some stoppable goals, but staring at SV% without considering the context is going to be very misleading. It's like how analysts said PK was an area of weakness for the Golden Knights heading into the conference finals last year without looking at who they'd played.