Stuart Skinner deserves a break despite horrific outing for Oilers

There’s no denying Stuart Skinner was terrible against the Lightning, but the Oilers goalie has been playing well overall lately and deserves some respect.

The Oilers managed to make history on Thursday night versus the Lightning, but unfortunately for them, not the sort they wanted to. Rather than equalling the team record for consecutive wins, they set one for the most shots on goal, with 57.

In fairness, the four goals the Oilers managed to score would be enough to win a game the majority of the time. However, it’s not often you have to deal with allowing seven at your own end of the ice, as they did in the 7-4 loss to the Lightning.

For that, the blame falls squarely on the shoulders of Stuart Skinner, something which he never has an issue with accepting as a stand up guy. Speaking to the media postgame, he said:

"“I think the guys played a heck of a game, I don’t think anybody in this room should be upset except for me to be honest. I think I ended up losing us the game, and that’s something that I’ll take on and I’ll be better for it.”"

As you’d expect in the world of social media where anyone can have a voice, Skinner has received a lot of criticism as a result of how he performed versus the Lightning. Everything from he’s no better than a backup, to he needs to be assigned to Bakersfield, to he should be moved.

Certainly the Edmonton native did have one of the worst starts of his NHL career to date. He allowed five goals on just 22 shots, with him definitely being at fault for at least three, if not four.

Unnecessary negativity

However, Skinner deserves a break and shouldn’t be getting nearly as much criticism as he has done. Everyone has bad games. Everyone.

Plus, in a classic case of people having short memories, it’s almost as if critics have forgotten what the 25-year-old had done of late, prior to Thursday night. In his previous 12 starts he had gone 10-2-0, producing a .914 save percentage and 2.30 Goals Against Average in the process.

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Yes, the Lightning game did bring back memories of earlier in the season, when the team was embarking on one of their worst starts in team history. However, this doesn’t mean Thursday night represents some kind of regression for Skinner.

Again, this is just one game. The 2017 third round draft pick is still a quality goaltender, who usually provides a sense of confidence and stability for the players in front of him.

Strong mental fortitude

One thing we do know, is that Skinner won’t let the loss to the Lightning get him down. Unlike Jack Campbell, he has more self-assurance and if anything, turns around any negatives and uses them to his advantage.

This is clearly the type of mindset you want for your man between the pipes. The talent is also undoubtedly there, for a player who came out of nowhere last season, to finish runner up for the Calder Trophy.

Speaking to the media on Friday after an optional practice, Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch has full faith in his goalie. He said:

"“Skinner understands that wasn’t his best game, (but) he’d been playing so well and a lot of him playing well, was us playing with more structure. Our forwards (were) helping out in defence, our defence helping out our goaltending, allowing him to play better. I have no suspicion that he won’t bounce back and play well when he does go back in net.”"

In this respect, Calvin Pickard will get the start on Saturday night versus the Panthers. However, Skinner remains the Oilers’ number one goaltender, something which one bad start won’t change.