Post-Game Talk: Time to cut the moustache

Skinner should have been an NHL back-up goalie through the winning window. It's frankly a miracle he didn't melt down when the big money guy flamed out when all the obvious red flags came home to roost. His playing style isn't a good fit for an attacking team that tends to tilt the ice but is also prone to big gaffs when their team structure breaks down. They need an athletic, veteran goaltender who can bail out when required..

Skinner's lack of athleticism is an inherent weakness that was going to place a ceiling on his abilities. Unfortunately that's compounded by poor hockey sense which shows in slow decision making and puck tracking. That's either an inexperience, development component that will improve or a fatal flaw. His technique breakdown follows when his team structure breaks down in front of him and in situations where his poor athleticism and reads require quick reactions like lateral movements. Now if he's a back-up through this precious window phase, as was the plan, there's cover to enable realistic development to see if they have an average starting goaltender after three years. Defaulting him into a starting goalie with no established tandem 1A/1B is poor management.

Off to the next saviour with people talking about Rodrigue saving the day. This organization should have at minimum grabbed a reliable short-term tandem guy like Cam Talbot at the deadline. Use your assets to buy retention for coverage in the game's most important position.
Sometimes the best explanation is the simplest explanation.

He just doesn't have the athletic abilities that many other NHL goalies do. Witness his attempts to slide from post to post. It tells a story.
 
I think I have a solution! Stu can grow his moustache until it becomes so large that it fills the entire net. That might take a few years, so we'll just need to exercise patience...
 
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There's a point where it's not a lack of finish and more that the team just sucks at scoring goals outside of a few select players. You and I have had this discussion all year. This inability to finish scoring chances also cost them in the Finals last year.
They had 8 goals in the last 2 games and created a ton of chances so the timing of this post just doesn't jive with what's actually happening.

Yes, the offense dried in the games in Florida but, by and large, this team has been carried by their offense and defense (last year after Knob took over) and has had one constant weak spot throughout the entire time especially this season. It's just really undeniable at this point. I used to be on the "Skinner isn't as bad as folks make him out to be" train but I'm off that train now, he's been brutal this season and especially downright horrendous against playoff teams. The evidence is overwhelming pointing to this.
 
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I think I have a solution! Stu can grow his moustache until it becomes so large that it fills the entire net. That might take a few years, so we'll just need to exercise patience...
Maybe he can sew nets from them.

He didn’t have a good game and a bad sign is he didn’t get the positional saves he should make. Played too small without any athleticism. Probably where his frustration came from.
 
Strudwick and Rishaug have gone full Minister of Disinformation. Ekholm who has been a warrior and a star 8 nights out of ten since coming to the team? Throw that guy under the bus. Nurse? Bouchard? Throw those f***ers under the bus too. Skinner, who has been an absolute shitshow in at least half of his starts all season long? Defend that guy like he’s your own son. Never say anything worse than ‘you’d probably like a save there’.

Old Struddy must have forgot what an awful defender he was. Guy was so bad that he was afraid to pursue a puck into a corner because he knew damn well he didn’t have the mobility to get back to the front of the net after he got walked. He’d just stand off to the side of the net waving his stick and hoping for the best. This guy couldn’t carry Bouchard’s jock. Never mind Nurse or Ekholm.

I’ve had it with that podcast. Tell the truth or get off the air.
The thing is, Bouchard and Ekholm have had a lot of defensive struggles this season so it's fair to point out their errors but the difference is that they historically bring a ton of positive to the table to mask those errors. Skinner, at best, is an average starter and I'm talking the two seasons prior to this one, not this year when his best has been far more sparse than the previous ones, so there's a reason why pretty much the entire fanbase is criticizing the goaltending above all else. The GYB guys constantly fail to acknowledge that and, as you say, just give a passing "maybe a save should have been had there" before absolutely roasting Bouchard especially for endless hours or talking about this huge problem apparently of Oilers players not bashing heads when their goalie gets bumped, as if Dallas for instance ever does any of that or most teams in the league nowadays and as if it really matters anyway in the context of winning hockey games on the regular.

There's a common denominator. Compare the Oilers starting goalie to other playoff teams then compare their defense to other teams. The defense holds up way better than the goalie does.
 
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They had 8 goals in the last 2 games and created a ton of chances so the timing of this post just doesn't jive with what's actually happening.

Yes, the offense dried in the games in Florida but, by and large, this team has been carried by their offense and defense (last year after Knob took over) and has had one constant weak spot throughout the entire time especially this season. It's just really undeniable at this point. I used to be on the "Skinner isn't as bad as folks make him out to be" train but I'm off that train now, he's been brutal this season and especially downright horrendous against playoff teams. The evidence is overwhelming pointing to this.
Again they didn't score last night until the game was over. It was garbage time by that point. Too little, too late, as is usually the case with the team. They also had a drastic edge in power play time as well. If only they scored on their first two chances, maybe we're having a different conversation.

I'm just tired of the "Well we played really well but didn't finish" narrative. It's happened so many times this year that it's just the norm. It's who this team is.
 
Sooooo, Carter Hart or bust in the offseason. Pending he is acquitted of course. Should come quite cheap, considering. Add him to Perry, Kane and Bowman...make us the ultimate villains...but potentially championship villains. I don't know...it's a hail mary that we might need to consider
 
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Also hamstrung by the cap with the Kane situation, they had to assume that coming back this season was a possibility and everyone would be screaming bloody murder if they had to go over the cap with a healthy player and have an overage roll into next season.

Did we have cap space to bring in Blackwood? Also limited trade assets would mean had we added Blackwood, we couldn’t do as much at the deadline, trade one gaping hole for another.
Blackwood was making 2.35 at the time of the trade. Pickard would have either been sent down, or included in the trade, bringing the space to 1.35M. Send Kapanen to the AHL and we would have been there. We wouldn't have had the cap space to sign Klingberg without shuffling more money around though.
 
Sooooo, Carter Hart or bust in the offseason. Pending he is acquitted of course. Should come quite cheap, considering. Add him to Perry, Kane and Bowman...make us the ultimate villains...but potentially championship villains. I don't know...it's a hail mary that we might need to consider
I just hope there are options to improve. I'm not sure who, but we have to be able to do better.
 
The thing is, Bouchard and Ekholm have had a lot of defensive struggles this season so it's fair to point out their errors but the difference is that they historically bring a ton of positive to the table to mask those errors. Skinner, at best, is an average starter and I'm talking the two seasons prior to this one, not this year when his best has been far more sparse than the previous ones, so there's a reason why pretty much the entire fanbase is criticizing the goaltending above all else. The GYB guys constantly fail to acknowledge that and, as you say, just give a passing "maybe a save should have been had there" before absolutely roasting Bouchard especially for endless hours or talking about this huge problem apparently of Oilers players not bashing heads when their goalie gets bumped, as if Dallas for instance ever does any of that or most teams in the league nowadays and as if it really matters anyway in the context of winning hockey games on the regular.

There's a common denominator. Compare the Oilers starting goalie to other playoff teams then compare their defense to other teams. The defense holds up way better than the goalie does.

"Average at best" means you are below average. It's ok to just admit it.
 
Again they didn't score last night until the game was over. It was garbage time by that point. Too little, too late, as is usually the case with the team. They also had a drastic edge in power play time as well. If only they scored on their first two chances, maybe we're having a different conversation.

I'm just tired of the "Well we played really well but didn't finish" narrative. It's happened so many times this year that it's just the norm. It's who this team is.
Yeah they didn't score until late because the opposition goalie outplayed the Oilers goalie in the first half of the game again, what exactly am I not saying here that you're not understanding?
And the game clearly wasn't over because they had multiple opportunities to tie it.

You know what I'm tired of ?"Not Stuart Skinner's fault". Or some placing the blame on other factors.
Of course it's not entirely his fault, there were some breakdowns on those goals against, but this is seemingly every game with him whether the Oilers are playing well or not so it's the consistency of this goalie never making big saves. The numbers don't lie, he's statistically in raw numbers and metrics one of the worst starters in the league.
At least in previous years, he had a solid save pct. despite below average advanced stats. There are other factors involved in teams' losing games but he is almost always one of the main factors when the Oilers lose a game.
 
Sooooo, Carter Hart or bust in the offseason. Pending he is acquitted of course. Should come quite cheap, considering. Add him to Perry, Kane and Bowman...make us the ultimate villains...but potentially championship villains. I don't know...it's a hail mary that we might need to consider
I believe this is the plan
 
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Sometimes the best explanation is the simplest explanation.

He just doesn't have the athletic abilities that many other NHL goalies do. Witness his attempts to slide from post to post. It tells a story.
Over the last year he's started doing that stupid frog splash or lunging with his arms on cross creases because he knows he can't move an inch laterally and he's being taught to try and do something different, instead of actually working on it, losing weight...etc.

Laziest goalie in the league.
 
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Skinner had a bad game. That 3rd goal he has to save. The others I’m not going to fault him on as Nurse, Bouchard, Ekholm also all had bad games. Good news is those 4 all had bad games, we didn’t have Leon or Connor, and we still kept it a hockey game when the puck luck finally turned a bit.
 
Watched the game last night with a buddy who is more of a casual fan of hockey (huge soccer fan). He asked if the team’s bounceback play after Pickard was put in was them “sending a message”

Dumbfounding how management put their head in the sand all offseason and until the TDL about this
 
Yeah they didn't score until late because the opposition goalie outplayed the Oilers goalie in the first half of the game again, what exactly am I not saying here that you're not understanding?
And the game clearly wasn't over because they had multiple opportunities to tie it.

You know what I'm tired of ?"Not Stuart Skinner's fault". Or some placing the blame on other factors.
Of course it's not entirely his fault, there were some breakdowns on those goals against, but this is seemingly every game with him whether the Oilers are playing well or not so it's the consistency of this goalie never making big saves. The numbers don't lie, he's statistically in raw numbers and metrics one of the worst starters in the league.
At least in previous years, he had a solid save pct. despite below average advanced stats. There are other factors involved in teams' losing games but he is almost always one of the main factors when the Oilers lose a game.
When you're down 4-0 in the middle of the third period, the game is effectively over. They didn't tie the game. I'm not sure they've ever come back from that deficit in such a short time in their history. Few teams do. Hell Dallas didn't come back from that deficit a few weeks ago even though they came close.

My point is whether it's Oettinger, or Vladar, or Montembault or Allen or whoever, this is a recurring theme with the team. Play "well enough" but don't score, have a brain fart and that's that. I remember the 1-0 loss in Vegas. They played well but failed to produce even a single goal. The game in Dallas earlier this year they played well enough but failed to produce more than a single goal of offense. You don't get points for almost winning in this league, and one glance at the standings puts in a rather precarious spot.
 
I don't know why we are discussing the goalie...TDL is over, there is nothing we can do right now...our goalie situation is s*** and everybody outside of our management knows it.
All we can do is to not throw him under the bus (regardless of deserving)...we have to cheer for him/them no matter how hard it is.
I don't like our situation either, but it is what it is now until next season.
"The iceberg already hit, why are people discussing the iceberg, theres nothing we can do about the iceberg" haha. just kidding around, its no so bad. But jk aside people talk about it because its a huge X factor.
 
When you're down 4-0 in the middle of the third period, the game is effectively over. They didn't tie the game. I'm not sure they've ever come back from that deficit in such a short time in their history. Few teams do. Hell Dallas didn't come back from that deficit a few weeks ago even though they came close.

My point is whether it's Oettinger, or Vladar, or Montembault or Allen or whoever, this is a recurring theme with the team. Play "well enough" but don't score, have a brain fart and that's that. I remember the 1-0 loss in Vegas. They played well but failed to produce even a single goal. The game in Dallas earlier this year they played well enough but failed to produce more than a single goal of offense. You don't get points for almost winning in this league, and one glance at the standings puts in a rather precarious spot.
Every team has brain farts, that's hockey, but it's amazing how the Oilers brain farts almost always end up in the back of their net.
 
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