Player Discussion Stuart Skinner

[SupremeTeam16]

Minus a blip against Vancouver he was solid, especially in the back half of series. Happy that Stu will be back next year with another years experience under his belt.

Tough to win when you score zero or one goal in 3/7 games in a series regardless of who your goalie is.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

Bob Stole 2-3 of the W's in this series. I would say game 1, 3, 7. Did you even see the other replays of some of the saves he made. For instance the save on Hyman while on his back where he makes a spectacular save to prevent the puck going in? On the Snet telecast the replays shown did not show plays. Other replays since made available are showing how much Bobo stoned us in game 7. He really was the difference.

He didn't steal game 7. The Oilers didn't really press until the third period as desperation kicked in. Game 3 he was good but the Panthers were relentless then backed off when the game was 4-1 (Vegas did the same thing too).

It's funny if you read the thoughts on Bob a few years ago especially from Panther fans they'd probably say exactly what we're saying about Skinner right now.

Besides, there's no replacement coming unless you want to throw 10m at a "maybe".

 

[GOilers88]

Seems like there's this idea that if the Oilers had just won every series in 4 games, Stu playing lights out in games 4-7 of every series wouldn't have even been necessary.

So we need to find a goalie who would have carried the Oilers to a cup by ensuring the team only has to play 16 games. If we just go buy a goalie who doesn't have any bad games, there's no reason for the team to ever have to go deep in a series. This is pretty revolutionary stuff.

 

[harpoon]

But you don't get to throw Skinner to the wolves because NO ONE SCORED A GOAL

He will continue. Babbling on and on is what he does. Especially when wrong.

 

[Kinibo]

Skinner is the goalie equivalent of the internet dress debate from a few years ago, where no one could agree on exactly what colour they were seeing.

 

[Kinibo]

delete

 

[Spawn]

Tell that to the Rangers. The Panthers made them look like swiss cheese.

The Oilers are a better team than the Rangers outside of in net.

Minus a blip against Vancouver he was solid, especially in the back half of series. Happy that Stu will be back next year with another years experience under his belt.

Tough to win when you score zero or one goal in 3/7 games in a series regardless of who your goalie is.

This “back half of series” stuff is very misleading.

@CupofOil pointed out his game 4-7 stats which were certainly elite. Although I’d argue that he cost the Oilers in game 7 against Florida and very nearly blew the game in the 3rd against Vancouver in game 7.

But take a look at the first half of his series each round:
Round 1: 2-1, .890 sv%
Round 2: 1-2, .793 sv%
Round 3: 1-2, .897 sv%
Round 4: 0-3, .868 sv%
4-8 overall, .867 sv%

Every single series he didn’t start on time. Every single series he was responsible for at least one loss in the first 3 games setting the team behind the eight ball and needing to play catch up.

Imagine if the Oilers were able to enter the finals with 3-4 fewer games of grind because Skinner couldn’t start a series on time.

Imagine if the Oilers won game 3 of the finals and had 2 kicks at the can to close out the series instead of 2?

Again, the requirement out of Skinner isn’t be unbeatable every game. It’s simply not to be dog shit for half of every series.

 

[TheNumber4]

By series:

.910 vs LA
.833 vs Vancouver
.922 vs Dallas
.909 vs Florida

Skinner nearly blew it for the team against the Canucks but he otherwise delivered good enough goaltending to win.

Saros against Canucks .900

Canucks are one of the lowest shot volume, highest shooting percentages of the entire regular season and playoffs. The Nucks also had something against these Oilers, a chip on the shoulder or something, they had our number all year in terms of torching our defence and goalies.

Skinners save percentage is deflated due to that. He played much better than his numbers indicate. Especially in games 4-7 where he was all world. And he outplayed Otter and Bob in a head to head. With Skinner backstopping we got to Game 7 of the cup finals. He gave us a chance to win. He was good enough.

 

[rec28]

I think he found another gear during the latter half of the playoffs, but still has to weed out the inconsistency that naturally comes with a young goalie only 2 years into his NHL career (and who wasn’t even supposed to be a starter this season). I still don’t see elite in his future but I now think he has it in him to become better - even substantially better - than average (previously thought he would peak at average).

Folks critical of his play need to take a breath and realize that he was thrust into this position. I have nothing but admiration for the way he was able to rise to the occasion overall. He’s still so young and this was an incredible learning experience for him that can only lead to improvement. Blame the org for failing to bring in an established starter while in “win-now” mode and feel free to critique individual plays, but quit directing such useless and unfair vitriol at the man himself.

 

[Salvaged Ship]

I think he found another gear during the latter half of the playoffs, but still has to weed out the inconsistency that naturally comes with a young goalie only 2 years into his NHL career (and who wasn’t even supposed to be a starter this season). I still don’t see elite in his future but I now think he has it in him to become better - even substantially better - than average (previously thought he would peak at average).

Folks critical of his play need to take a breath and realize that he was thrust into this position. I have nothing but admiration for the way he was able to rise to the occasion overall. He’s still so young and this was an incredible learning experience for him that can only lead to improvement. Blame the org for failing to bring in an established starter and feel free to critique individual plays but quit directing such useless and unfair vitriol at the man himself.

Well said, completely agree.

 

[TheNumber4]

I do appreciate them.

But you don't get to throw Skinner to the wolves because NO ONE SCORED A GOAL.

Skinner gave this team a chance to win. They didnt. If this team burried their chances in game 1 they would have won it too. They didn't.

Truth

 

[Donner]

Skinner is a fine goalie for the future. Hes still young and has development room. He can have hot/cold stretches but that is most goalies

Goaltending, imo, is an area we dont need to spend assets on to improve

 

[Stoneman89]

The Oilers are a better team than the Rangers outside of in net.


This “back half of series” stuff is very misleading.

@CupofOil pointed out his game 4-7 stats which were certainly elite. Although I’d argue that he cost the Oilers in game 7 against Florida and very nearly blew the game in the 3rd against Vancouver in game 7.

But take a look at the first half of his series each round:
Round 1: 2-1, .890 sv%
Round 2: 1-2, .793 sv%
Round 3: 1-2, .897 sv%
Round 4: 0-3, .868 sv%
4-8 overall, .867 sv%

Every single series he didn’t start on time. Every single series he was responsible for at least one loss in the first 3 games setting the team behind the eight ball and needing to play catch up.

Imagine if the Oilers were able to enter the finals with 3-4 fewer games of grind because Skinner couldn’t start a series on time.

Imagine if the Oilers won game 3 of the finals and had 2 kicks at the can to close out the series instead of 2?

Again, the requirement out of Skinner isn’t be unbeatable every game. It’s simply not to be dog shit for half of every series.

You could say the exact same thing about the rest of the team. Hopefully, next year, they realize you can't sleepwalk into a season or a series.

 

[elmeroil]

After watching Bob who's an all star all world goalie look pretty ordinary in a good portion of this series, I have a new found respect for what Skinner did. Bob is 35 and very seasoned. Yes, Skinner let some bad goals in all playoffs but after being pulled in the Canucks series I thought he really stepped up his game.

He started making saves that he didn't early on and the trust his teammates have in him trumps everything else. I'm going to take Connor's words about Stuart to heart a lot more than what I think of him.

I'm not going to be president of the Skinner fan club or anything but he was one goal away feom possibly winning the cup. Next year and the year after will show us if he's for real but at 25 he definitely has the potential to take off and be a top goalie in the league for 5 - 10 years.

 

[SupremeTeam16]

The Oilers are a better team than the Rangers outside of in net.


This “back half of series” stuff is very misleading.

@CupofOil pointed out his game 4-7 stats which were certainly elite. Although I’d argue that he cost the Oilers in game 7 against Florida and very nearly blew the game in the 3rd against Vancouver in game 7.

But take a look at the first half of his series each round:
Round 1: 2-1, .890 sv%
Round 2: 1-2, .793 sv%
Round 3: 1-2, .897 sv%
Round 4: 0-3, .868 sv%
4-8 overall, .867 sv%

Every single series he didn’t start on time. Every single series he was responsible for at least one loss in the first 3 games setting the team behind the eight ball and needing to play catch up.

Imagine if the Oilers were able to enter the finals with 3-4 fewer games of grind because Skinner couldn’t start a series on time.

Imagine if the Oilers won game 3 of the finals and had 2 kicks at the can to close out the series instead of 2?

Again, the requirement out of Skinner isn’t be unbeatable every game. It’s simply not to be dog shit for half of every series.

Imagine if the team scored more than 1 goal through the first 8 periods of the final. Imagine if they scored more than 1 goal in the last game.

If that happened then we wouldn’t have to imagine having a goalie that allows a goal or less a game.

 

[Behind Enemy Lines]

Ending your season in the Cup Final 7th game and a 1 goal game is an overwhelming success from where this team began.

Instead of Season 2 of "The Apprentice" which was the organization's original plan with the Campbell $25 million dice throw, Skinner, by necessity was required to become an important part of this team's success. Team defense and PK took it up next level and their kryptonite concern with inexperienced goaltending held up to playoff diamond cutter pressure.

Skinner passes with flying colours on the mental strength, grit and resiliency huge element required of the goaltending position. Now he has to develop greater consistency of his play to raise the baseline of his game while reducing bad games. He needs to continue to improve his read and react, lateral movement, and play with the puck. Some of this is technical and some is experience. His natural athleticism is limited so refining all elements is critical.

He is arriving into a reasonable 1A who probably needs a quality tandem partner with whom to share the net and provide some cover for what still is an apprenticeship that turned into a CEO level responsibility after about thirty days on the job.

 

[Spawn]

You could say the exact same thing about the rest of the team. Hopefully, next year, they realize you can't sleepwalk into a season or a series.

Except the team wasn’t sleepwalking through series to start. They were frequently outplaying the other team and often losing solely due to goaltending being leaky.

 

[Stoneman89]

Except the team wasn’t sleepwalking through series to start. They were frequently outplaying the other team and often losing solely due to goaltending being leaky.

Except they lost the first game of the Finals because they were sleepwalking when they go scoring chances and didn't adhere to the scouting reports of shooting high on Bobrovsky. Bearing down on scoring chances and a PP that couldn't do squat did them in. Bobrovsky played well that game, but clearly they had him figured out 4 games in. Games 4-6 against Dallas, he outplayed the great Jake Ottinger, especially the elimination game where they couldn't get out of their own end after getting the 2 goal lead.

You need to take your negativity and go back to bashing Connor Brown. It's getting tiresome.

 

[TheNumber4]

Except they lost the first game of the Finals because they were sleepwalking when they go scoring chances and didn't adhere to the scouting reports of shooting high on Bobrovsky. Bearing down on scoring chances and a PP that couldn't do squat did them in. Bobrovsky played well that game, but clearly they had him figured out 4 games in. Games 4-6 against Dallas, he outplayed the great Jake Ottinger, especially the elimination game where they couldn't get out of their own end after getting the 2 goal lead.

You need to take your negativity and go back to bashing Connor Brown. It's getting tiresome.

Agreed with your assessment of game 1. Don’t really know how anyone could see it differently. We had a chance to win that game and game 7. We were given that chance by Stu. Sometimes we will capitilize on that chance like in the Dallas series, sometimes we won’t, unfortunately we didn’t in the SCFs.

 

[Canovin]

Except they lost the first game of the Finals because they were sleepwalking when they go scoring chances and didn't adhere to the scouting reports of shooting high on Bobrovsky. Bearing down on scoring chances and a PP that couldn't do squat did them in. Bobrovsky played well that game, but clearly they had him figured out 4 games in. Games 4-6 against Dallas, he outplayed the great Jake Ottinger, especially the elimination game where they couldn't get out of their own end after getting the 2 goal lead.

You need to take your negativity and go back to bashing Connor Brown. It's getting tiresome.

32 shots on Bob
17 shot on Skinner

There was no sleep walking. We just got out-goalied

They also outplayed the Panthers 5 games. Can't win them all.

 

[timekeep]

32 shots on Bob
17 shot on Skinner

There was no sleep walking. We just got out-goalied

low glove side for some reason??? Not where that goalie was weak.

I'm referring to our sniper selections.

 

[Stoneman89]

32 shots on Bob
17 shot on Skinner

There was no sleep walking. We just got out-goalied

They also outplayed the Panthers 5 games. Can't win them all.

As usual, you completely miss the point.

 

[SupremeTeam16]

Ending your season in the Cup Final 7th game and a 1 goal game is an overwhelming success from where this team began.

Instead of Season 2 of "The Apprentice" which was the organization's original plan with the Campbell $25 million dice throw, Skinner, by necessity was required to become an important part of this team's success. Team defense and PK took it up next level and their kryptonite concern with inexperienced goaltending held up to playoff diamond cutter pressure.

Skinner passes with flying colours on the mental strength, grit and resiliency huge element required of the goaltending position. Now he has to develop greater consistency of his play to raise the baseline of his game while reducing bad games. He needs to continue to improve his read and react, lateral movement, and play with the puck. Some of this is technical and some is experience. His natural athleticism is limited so refining all elements is critical.

He is arriving into a reasonable 1A who probably needs a quality tandem partner with whom to share the net and provide some cover for what still is an apprenticeship that turned into a CEO level responsibility after about thirty days on the job.

It’s pretty incredible how Skinner has come into a tough situation and not completely fallen apart. In my opinion there’s maybe 5-7 elite goalies in the league and the rest of them all over around the average mark and much of what separates them is situation.

I always think back to an interview Kevin Woolley did where he talked about how playing goalie for this version of the Oilers isn’t easy because for one the expectations are sky high, this is a team that expects to contend and win night in and night out. But also he said it’s a tough team to play behind because defensively they aren’t always consistent and while they improved greatly under Knoblauch it was still a team that maybe didn’t give up as much in terms of shots or chances but when they did have defensive break downs they resulted in some of the most dangerous chances possible. He talked about how difficult that is for even the best goalies because often you’re not getting a lot of work and not able to get into a rhythm but you’re expected to stop ten bell chances consistently.

I think the Ullmark trade is going to be a perfect example of the goaltender position. The guy has been one of the best goalies in the league the last few years. He won’t be the same in Ottawa.

 

[Spawn]

Except they lost the first game of the Finals because they were sleepwalking when they go scoring chances and didn't adhere to the scouting reports of shooting high on Bobrovsky. Bearing down on scoring chances and a PP that couldn't do squat did them in. Bobrovsky played well that game, but clearly they had him figured out 4 games in. Games 4-6 against Dallas, he outplayed the great Jake Ottinger, especially the elimination game where they couldn't get out of their own end after getting the 2 goal lead.

You need to take your negativity and go back to bashing Connor Brown. It's getting tiresome.

If you’re tired of it put me on ignore. That’s your problem, not mine.

 

[Canovin]

It’s pretty incredible how Skinner has come into a tough situation and not completely fallen apart. In my opinion there’s maybe 5-7 elite goalies in the league and the rest of them all over around the average mark and much of what separates them is situation.

I always think back to an interview Kevin Woolley did where he talked about how playing goalie for this version of the Oilers isn’t easy because for one the expectations are sky high, this is a team that expects to contend and win night in and night out. But also he said it’s a tough team to play behind because defensively they aren’t always consistent and while they improved greatly under Knoblauch it was still a team that maybe didn’t give up as much in terms of shots or chances but when they did have defensive break downs they resulted in some of the most dangerous chances possible. He talked about how difficult that is for even the best goalies because often you’re not getting a lot of work and not able to get into a rhythm but you’re expected to stop ten bell chances consistently.

I think the Ullmark trade is going to be a perfect example of the goaltender position. The guy has been one of the best goalies in the league the last few years. He won’t be the same in Ottawa.

Ullmark was good in a train wreck of a team in Buffalo