Stuart Skinner Gets Chance To Shine Tonight For Oilers
If there was ever a game for Stuart Skinner to play his best game of the playoffs it would be tonight.
The Edmonton Oilers will be hosting the Dallas Stars tonight as they look to take a 2-1 lead in the Western Conference Final Series. The Oilers in the past have been a very good team at home, in the playoffs the story is no different. The Stars though have also been good on the road, one player who has the ability to move the needle in the Oilers favour is Stuart Skinner.
While Skinner has not played badly throughout the playoffs, he did have a bit of a struggle in the Canucks series, in that time Pickard came in and played well. Since then Skinner has played fine, but he is going to have to play more than fine for the Oilers to hoist the cup. Tonight would be a perfect time to start that.
I have yet to say at the end of an Oilers game that Skinner stole that game. While there have been lost games for the Oilers where we were saying the opposing goalie stole a game. It leads to games where the Oilers are the better team, but yet they lose the game and in a 7 game series one game can mean a lot.
There is history that shows Jake Oettinger is capable of stealing a game, but there is no history of Skinner stealing a game. I know he is capable of it as we have seen streaks in an individual game where he seems unbeatable, but a period later that play is gone. An NHL game is 60 minutes and I have yet to see Skinner play a remarkable full 60.
He may have a shutout against the Los Angeles Kings early in this playoff run, but in that game, he wasn’t tested a large amount. In a game against a much stronger team in the Dallas Stars, they will get their chances over a game. He will need to keep the Stars at bay tonight, especially early on in the game. The less life the Stars have early in this game the better.
The Athletic predicts Oilers 2nd round pick in 2024 NHL mock draft. The Athletic predicts Oilers 2nd round pick in 2024 NHL mock draft. dark. Next
While Skinner may not need to steal the game tonight as the Oilers do have the skill around him to win a game without him playing perfectly, it will definitely make things easier for them to win the game if he plays well. The one thing he can’t do is play badly though, nothing takes the wind out of a team's sails like a goalie who lets a weak goal in.
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