[Article] NHL Teams Taking Advantage of Major Weakness with Oilers Goalie Stuart Skinner

[Drive-By Body Pierce]

 

NHL Teams Taking Advantage of Major Weakness with Oilers Goalie Stuart Skinner

 

Stuart Skinner has been struggling to find consistency early this season, and even after a win last night against the Islanders, the opponent found a way to exploit a major weakness of the Oilers goalie.

Recently, goalie analyst Steve Valiquette revealed that Stuart Skinner ranks as the worst goalie in the NHL off of rush chances, because his side to side movement is so weak.

The first Islanders goal of last night's game was a perfect example of that weakness costing the Oilers. Skinner's side to side movement in the crease was visibly slow, and left him no chance to make the save. Most NHL goalies are able to at least get over and be competitive to make saves off the rush.

 

 

And that's the key issue that drives concern from Steve Valiquette. The last teams to appear in the Cup Final have had a trend of having strong rush offence. If that's Skinner's biggest weakness and it's public knowledge, teams will be targeting Skinner for easy goals off the rush.

 

 

For the most part in his career, Skinner has been able to survive this weakness and post league average results - which should be good enough for the Oilers.

However, is other teams become aware of Skinner's weakness and his performance dips to below league average, there will be cause for major concern. So far this year, Skinner's save percentage is a brutal .881.

 

Hopefully Skinner can find a way to remedy this weakness in his game, otherwise it will be difficult for him to retain his role as a starting goalie. The Oilers may want to shop the market for a tandem goalie to play alongside Stuart Skinner.

 

 

 

https://www.oilersdaily.com/nhl-team/edmonton-oilers/nhl-teams-taking-advantage-of-major-weakness-with-oilers-goalie-stuart-skinner

Edited November 15 by Drive-By Body Pierce

[Elias Pettersson]

Poor McBaby. He’s never gonna win a cup…

[Coconuts]

Silovs or Lankinen for whichever 2025 or 2026 1st Philly doesn't get once Demko's back 

 

Use it at the draft or flip it later at the deadline 

[Kevin Biestra]

I hope they stick with him and he turns into their Dan Cloutier.

[Curmudgeon]

6 minutes ago, Coconuts said:

Silovs or Lankinen for whichever 2025 or 2026 1st Philly doesn't get once Demko's back 

 

Use it at the draft or flip it later at the deadline 

 

With respect, but why would Vancouver want to do anything that might improve their biggest divisional rival ?

[Drive-By Body Pierce]

I feel like Silovs is in a similar boat. For some reason he struggles with high blocker-side shots from a distance.

 

 

... thankfully he's the Canucks' 3rd string now. Seems easier to correct than side to side movement speed, too.

Edited November 15 by Drive-By Body Pierce

[Coconuts]

3 minutes ago, Curmudgeon said:

 

With respect, but why would Vancouver want to do anything that might improve their biggest divisional rival ?

 

No guarantee we meet them in the first round anyway, LA and Vegas will probably make it too if I had to guess

 

Bringing in another 1st also gives us currency we could use to improve our roster prior to the deadline

 

I was mostly joking though, I don't think we'd get a 1st for either of them, goalies don't tend to fetch as much via trade

Edited November 15 by Coconuts

[Drive-By Body Pierce]

1 minute ago, Coconuts said:

 

No guarantee we meet them in the first round anyway, LA and Vegas will probably make it too if I had to guess

 

Bringing in another 1st also gives us currency we could use to improve our roster prior to the deadline

 

I was mostly joking though, I don't think we'd get a 1st for either of them 

 

Keep Lankinen, and maybe get a better return for the younger Silovs?

[Coconuts]

4 minutes ago, Drive-By Body Pierce said:

 

Keep Lankinen, and maybe get a better return for the younger Silovs?

 

Honestly, I've mused over extending Lankinen. I get that there's an age gap between him and Silovs but if management views our window as being sooner than later maybe that's not an issue? I think there's a good chance Silovs may have lost out on the backup job in Vancouver for the foreseeable future, Lankinen has been great for us. Having a tender who can allow Demko to play fewer games would be a boon.

 

That being said, I question Silovs's NHL level trade value. Even including playoffs his overall sample size is pretty small. 

[Drive-By Body Pierce]

31 minutes ago, Coconuts said:

 

Honestly, I've mused over extending Lankinen. I get that there's an age gap between him and Silovs but if management views our window as being sooner than later maybe that's not an issue? I think there's a good chance Silovs may have lost out on the backup job in Vancouver for the foreseeable future, Lankinen has been great for us. Having a tender who can allow Demko to play fewer games would be a boon.

 

That being said, I question Silovs's NHL level trade value. Even including playoffs his overall sample size is pretty small. 

 

There is the benefit of his world stage success with Latvia, as well as the playoffs last season. 

 

Perhaps we are at a "sell high" moment, if Demko is legit healthy, before the chance of Silovs extending his poor performance streak?

 

 

... can't rule out that it could be Lankinen/Silovs for a further extended time as well, at least until Demko shows he can play high level for several games.

 

 

Edited November 15 by Drive-By Body Pierce

[PeteyBoeser]

Ya well he will get better and looks like Oilers will pass us tonight or tie up. We shouldn’t laugh at other teams 

[King Heffy]

1 hour ago, PeteyBoeser said:

Ya well he will get better and looks like Oilers will pass us tonight or tie up. We shouldn’t laugh at other teams 

Better is still not necessarily NHL quality though.

[PeteyBoeser]

1 minute ago, King Heffy said:

Better is still not necessarily NHL quality though.

Yeah we he has more wins than us 

[GrammaInTheTub]

12 hours ago, PeteyBoeser said:

Yeah we he has more wins than us 

Incorrect. He has five wins and five losses. So if anything he has more losses than we do. 

[IBatch]

On 11/14/2024 at 10:08 PM, Drive-By Body Pierce said:

I feel like Silovs is in a similar boat. For some reason he struggles with high blocker-side shots from a distance.

 

 

... thankfully he's the Canucks' 3rd string now. Seems easier to correct than side to side movement speed, too.

His weakness is mostly point shots or distance shots.   Aside from that he's pretty good. 

[higgyfan]

2 hours ago, IBatch said:

His weakness is mostly point shots or distance shots.   Aside from that he's pretty good. 

 

Saddly he was rushed into the nhl due to the Demko injuries, which has interfered with his

development process.  Hopefully Demko will return soon and Silovs could return to AHL,

He's still young enough to continue his development. He still has good potential, but will

need some time to build up his game again,

[MikeBossy]

Skinner's biggest weakness is Evan Bouchard - watch almost ever goal against and he is on the ice. Can't wait for them to lock that pylon up long term at $10 million +. And Coiler fans say he is better than Hughes......

 

[Kevin Biestra]

13 minutes ago, MikeBossy said:

Skinner's biggest weakness is Evan Bouchard - watch almost ever goal against and he is on the ice. Can't wait for them to lock that pylon up long term at $10 million +. And Coiler fans say he is better than Hughes......

 

 

Bouchard and Hyman have both really come back down to earth so far this season.

[Rekker]

What? All I heard about all summer was Skinner being a Team Canada goalie. Lol 

[Rekker]

On 11/14/2024 at 7:51 PM, PeteyBoeser said:

Ya well he will get better and looks like Oilers will pass us tonight or tie up. We shouldn’t laugh at other teams 

Better? Based on what? Hope?

[King Heffy]

1 hour ago, MikeBossy said:

Skinner's biggest weakness is Evan Bouchard - watch almost ever goal against and he is on the ice. Can't wait for them to lock that pylon up long term at $10 million +. And Coiler fans say he is better than Hughes......

 

Bouchard really needs to be put in the ECHL and told that the only way he gets ice time there is if he starts attempting to learn how to play defence.  

[Snoop Hogg]

Watch them put in a claim for Campbell

[Kevin Biestra]

22 hours ago, Snoop Hogg said:

Watch them put in a claim for Campbell

 

Pokey Reddick to wardrobe.

[Blue]

On 11/14/2024 at 7:28 PM, Drive-By Body Pierce said:

 

NHL Teams Taking Advantage of Major Weakness with Oilers Goalie Stuart Skinner

 

Stuart Skinner has been struggling to find consistency early this season, and even after a win last night against the Islanders, the opponent found a way to exploit a major weakness of the Oilers goalie.

Recently, goalie analyst Steve Valiquette revealed that Stuart Skinner ranks as the worst goalie in the NHL off of rush chances, because his side to side movement is so weak.

The first Islanders goal of last night's game was a perfect example of that weakness costing the Oilers. Skinner's side to side movement in the crease was visibly slow, and left him no chance to make the save. Most NHL goalies are able to at least get over and be competitive to make saves off the rush.

 

 

And that's the key issue that drives concern from Steve Valiquette. The last teams to appear in the Cup Final have had a trend of having strong rush offence. If that's Skinner's biggest weakness and it's public knowledge, teams will be targeting Skinner for easy goals off the rush.

 

 

For the most part in his career, Skinner has been able to survive this weakness and post league average results - which should be good enough for the Oilers.

However, is other teams become aware of Skinner's weakness and his performance dips to below league average, there will be cause for major concern. So far this year, Skinner's save percentage is a brutal .881.

 

Hopefully Skinner can find a way to remedy this weakness in his game, otherwise it will be difficult for him to retain his role as a starting goalie. The Oilers may want to shop the market for a tandem goalie to play alongside Stuart Skinner.

 

 

 

https://www.oilersdaily.com/nhl-team/edmonton-oilers/nhl-teams-taking-advantage-of-major-weakness-with-oilers-goalie-stuart-skinner

 

Stu is not an AHL starter. He doesn't have the athleticism to be an AHL starter. He just ended up in the NHL because of what happened to Campbell. And he just faked it till he made it. And the Oilers win games in spite of him being there. I feel bad for the guy. He's way in over his head. 

 

After every playoff game, John Garett was commenting on Skinners goaltending on the Sekeres and Price post game show. Almost every time, Garret was pointing out basic technical mistakes that Skinner was making. 

[Blue]

On 11/14/2024 at 8:51 PM, PeteyBoeser said:

Ya well he will get better and looks like Oilers will pass us tonight or tie up. We shouldn’t laugh at other teams 

This thread is not about the Canucks. Take your weak ass doom somewhere else. It is about Stu Skinner.