The Edmonton Oilers know a thing or two about early-season struggles. The two seasons before this one, they stumbled out of the gate, falling flat on their face. Infamously, Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid hopped on the 32 Thoughts Podcast and explained that “it felt like we couldn’t play hockey.”
On Tuesday night, the Oilers handed the New York Rangers a 2-0 defeat. Stuart Skinner stopped all 30 shots he faced to earn his first shutout of the season. It was a great bounce-back effort from the Oilers’ netminder after an unfortunate result in his last game against the Calgary Flames.
When speaking to the media after the game, Skinner had some thoughts on how the Rangers played. He summed up their play in one word.
Stuart Skinner and the New York Rangers
A lot of what happens in hockey comes down to luck, and sometimes you lose games that you should have won. That’s why Skinner was “shocked” about the struggles the Rangers have gone through to date this season.
“To be honest, I didn’t know,” Skinner told the media after the game on October 14. “Calvin (Pickard) told me that after the game, and I was honestly pretty shocked because of how they did play.”
“Looking at them, I wouldn’t imagine you’re saying that they are snakebitten.”
Skinner went on to give the Rangers their flowers, complementing their talent and competitiveness.
“They made some amazing plays,” Skinner continued. “Got some really good chances. They were fighting, they were battling.”
The Oilers’ goaltender wasn’t sure what to say about the other two home games where they were blanked. However, he did credit his team when discussing his shutout in this game.
“I don’t really think there is much to say. I don’t know how the other two games went,” Skinner revealed to the media. “But for this game, just the way that we all played together, all six guys on the ice, helped keep the puck out of the net.”
Oilers Team Defense Won the Battle (& Stuart Skinner Helped)
GettyStuart Skinner
The 2-0 shutout was a team effort. The Oilers did what they could to help out their starting netminder.
As a team, they finished the game with 23 blocked shots. Trent Frederic, Vasily Podkolzin, Evan Bouchard, Mattias Ekholm, Brett Kulak, and Ty Emberson each had three blocked shots. That is a prime example of the team defense mentality that helped win the game.
According to MoneyPuck, the Rangers finished the game with 3.83 expected goals (xG). Coming out of the game with a zero instead is reflective of how dialed in Skinner was from the first puck drop.
It was a tight defensive game all around, as both Skinner and Igor Shesterkin were two of the three stars of the game.
Stuart Skinner’s New Approach Paying Dividends
GettyStuart Skinner summed up his feelings on the New York Rangers.
Skinner did things a little differently this past summer. He decided to drop some weight and entered camp leaner than last year.
The result? He’s near the top of the league in several goaltending categories after two starts in three Oilers games.
He is ranked seventh on MoneyPuck with a 3.2 Goals Saved Above Expected (GSAx). The six goalies above him are Charlie Lindgren, Spencer Knight, Jusse Saros, Thatcher Demko, and Shesterkin.
Among goaltenders who have played two or more games, Skinner has some encouraging stats. He ranks third in goals against average (GAA) with 1.44 GAA, fifth in save percentage (SV%) with .942 SV%, and is one of five goaltenders to have recorded a shutout in the first week of the season.
Rangers fans might be up in arms over setting the worst type of record, but the same can’t be said of Oilers fans.
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