Because they already have Pickard and Campbell waiting in the wings?
You either need great D & average goaltending (Colorado) or average D & great goaltending to win. Problem is the Oilers have average D and below average goaltending.
Agreed. But like I wrote, Oilers already have Pics and Campbell waiting on the bench / in the pressbox. Would having Allen sitting on the sidelines with them too improve the situation in any meaningful way?
100%. They were damn close in 2003, and Cloutier just absolutely imploded against Minnesota. Then the one year where he was actually playing above average... he got injured, and the Canucks lose in 7 to the Flames who went on to the finals (and beat the Wings and Sharks in 6).
How can this be true? In every post game interview the Skinmeister says he thought he played well
How can this be true? In every post game interview the Skinmeister says he thought he played well
Hard to disagree with that. Skinner has hit a level lower then expected these playoffs.
It's funny you quote high danger chances and don't actually look at high danger chance statistics lol. Yeah they had a bad breakdown on the 2nd goal and Foegele has a terrible turnover on the 3rd goal. Hilarious that people think this doesn't happen at least a few times each night to most teams. Draisaitl had 2 breakaways last night is that not terrible defensive breakdowns?
Because the stats don't support the idea that he should be letting in this many goals.
Yeah, overall I have been really impressed with the Oilers defensive game in these playoffs. The amount of shots and lack of quality scoring chances they are giving up each game is pretty good. Of course they have given up some good scoring chances, every team does in the playoffs but the difference is those other teams have goalies who can actually stop some of the quality scoring chances and most of the routine shots. Skinner has not even been reliable enough to make the average saves in these playoffs. I am nervous about every single shot on net no matter how weak it is against him.
I don't disagree at all on your eye test assessment of Skinner, but when he plays with confidence he actually challenges shooters. Now he's just retreating in his net and making himself small to cover the "bad goals", but in the process he's giving shooters even more to shoot at which is supposed to be where his strength lies as a big positional goalie. For all the talk about how "calm and cool" Skinner is, he sure wilts under pressure and loses his confidence at the worst times where his game goes to complete shit.
Agreed. What was weird last year is that despite a horrible regular season, campbell was great i. Relief of skinner every time they inserted him mid-gane but despite this they kept giving the mext staft to skinner. I have no delusians of pickard being great, but theyd be dumb not to give him a shot at this point. Stu is clearly cracked under pressure. Pickard might at least be stable mentally. They just need close to avg tending
I still don't think Knoblach changes goalies even if it's Allen as backup and not Pickard. It's pretty clear that Stu is his guy. Only now might we see a goaltender change. My guess is that we still don't though.
Problem with Skinner is he lets in those same bad goals (see game 1 and 2 of this series) and then also never makes the hard saves in the playoffs (see game 3).
Yep, I remember them keeping possession endlessly on the perimeter but they hadn't quite figured the league out at the time.
That was actually a pretty creative way to get an extra 30 seconds rest for McDavid's unit after they were just out there for 2 minutes to get the 4-3 goal.
