Skinner's stats under Woodcroft this season:
9 Games Played
3.58 Goals Against Average(Pretty terrible)(4.44 for Campbell JFC!)
2.69 Expected Goals Against Average(Actually better to last year after the Ekholm trade)
(3.77 for Campbell holy sh** they played horribad in front of him-see D below)
Skinner's stats during the 27 game streak(Nov 24th to All Star Break):
21 Games Played
1.78 Goals Against Average(Vezina Caliber-See Ullmark Below)
2.72 Expected Goals Against Average(Basically the same as under Woodcroft after the Ekholm trade)
Skinner's stats since All-Star break:
7 Games Played
4.05 Goals Against Average(Horrible)
3.28 Expected Goals Against Average(Not good)
Skinner's stats before Ekholm trade last season:
34 Games Played
2.90 Goals Against Average(Better than I remembered)(3.48 for Campbell)
3.26 Expected Goals Against Average(Not good)(2.80 for Campbell)
Skinner's stats after the Ekholm trade last season:
16 Games Played
2.38 Goals Against Average(Improvement similar to below)(2.88 for Campbell)
2.78 Expected Goals Against Average(Nice improvement)(3.01 for Campbell)
Skinner's Playoff stats 2023:
12 Games Played
3.62 Goals Against Average(Pretty terrible)
2.94 Expected Goals Against Average(Pretty Good Considering it's the Playoffs)
For reference the xGAA for Campbell was 2.96 so the defense was pretty consistent although very small sample size for Campbell)
Just for reference of what a good team's goaltending looks like:
Linus Ullmark:
2.66 Expected Goals Against Average 2022-23 Season
1.87 Actual Goals Against Average 2022-23 Season(He won the Vezina)
These kind of numbers + a good team = historic season.
3.21 Expected Goals Against Average 2023-24 Season
2.71 Actual Goals Against Average 2023-24 Season
Not as good as 22/23 but still stopping .5 goals more than you should usually lets you be a pretty good team, which they are, even with some key player losses.
Jeremy Swayman:
2.83 Expected Goals Against Average 2022-23 Season
2.21 Actual Goals Against Average 2022-23 Season
3.01 Expected Goals Against Average 2023-24 Season
2.48 Actual Goals Against Average 2023-24 Season
Really good, consistent numbers both seasons no matter how you slice it.
My conclusions(yours may vary):
A) Our defensive improvement under Knoblauch/Coffey is overblown in some ways as seen in the xGAA. I think the situational improvement(closing out games) is real but it helps when your goalies don't stink early forcing you to chase games every night. This situational improvement could also be seen under Woodcroft after the Ekholm trade last season but, no doubt, it was taken to a whole new level under Knoblauch/Coffey. Unfortunately, that kind of defensive improvement means almost nothing if you're consistently chasing games.
B) In a league of parity with 1 goal games all over the schedule, a good team can do historic things like setting season point records & 16 game winning streaks when your goalie gives up almost a goal less per game than they statistically should. Conversely, if they give up something approaching a goal more than they statistically should, the team sucks & coaches get fired.
C) Even good teams when they're playing well give up scoring chances. Boston was the only team I even looked at &, honestly, I expected their xGAA from last year to be a bit better than it was but it was very similar to Edmonton's during the timeframes I posted & will guess they are similar to the other good teams league wide. I've said for years, when the Oilers get NHL quality goaltending, when their GAA is .25-.4 better than their xGAA, they will win more than their share of games. We all know what happens when the goaltending stinks & their GAA is actually higher than their xGAA.
D) The players, goalies included, must have been reading their press clippings during the All-Star break & forgot how to defend. The goaltending has been horrible but the numbers(& the eye test) also show the defensive play has been horrible too. Some of that is due to early goals & chasing games like earlier in the year for sure but....
I've always said when you know your goalie is struggling/stinks you play differently/scared in front of them. I think we're seeing some of this but I'm not just gonna give the players a pass & put all the blame on the goalie. There's plenty of blame to go around.
E) Skinner is a capable NHL goalie as evidenced by his numbers all last year. I know everybody just wants to point to the playoff failure but a lot of goalies fail in their 1st shot in the playoffs. If he performed like he did in the regular season where his GAA was 0.4 below his xGAA instead of 0.7 above, we would have been just fine. Then he showed he's more than capable for a month & a half this year.
F) I know, some will reply with "I'm not reading all that gibberish yada yada yada" because it doesn't align with the narrative they want pushed but, whatever.