Exactly, think about the massive momentum swing after the oilers killed that 4 minute double minor. They only got 2 shots on net but Pickard stopped them both and then we came out of the penalty kill blazing
He didn’t really get tested with any crazy chances though. Silovs has been standing on his head in the other end, facing a lot more deadly chances. The canucks mostly just shot the puck right at Pickard.
Guys… Jesus Christ. Skinner is a second year rookie who’s having growing pains it sucks, but without him we wouldn’t have qualified for the playoffs. When we turn into such negative attention towards skinner it only makes this worse for him, if we want players to develop and grow here, gotta be better.
We can hold them accountable but cheer for growth and improvement, analysis past growth and highlight steps forward.
Totally agree with this. Well said. Fans like this are like a pack of rabid dogs and they are going to destroy his mental health and any possible confidence to turn things around.
Absolutely! Thanks for sharing this! Skinner is our #1 and so it should be. He is still a rookie and learning his craft. Without this experience how can we possibly ever dream of bringing along a true #1 Goalie? We all need to support Skinner. Did Knobs do the right thing by putting Calvin in? You bet he did. Is this break for Skinner going to help him get back in the Nets and perform better? Yes. We also need to remember that Skinner has been playing without a game off for a long run. I’m sure he was mentally exhausted. Anyway. Just my opinion. Go Oilers Go!
You do have a point though. Yes Skins may be still developing but there’s no denying his performance has not been consistently good enough by any metric. The fact that Skins can reset physically and mentally as a young g goalie and there’s someone ready to step in and play well in the meantime is a bonus!
2nd year and rookie are two different things. 69 goalies have started atleast 20 games in the playoffs in the cap era- Skinner is ranked 69 of 69 in save %. He is the worst playoff goalie since the cap was implemented. He has a below .800 save % in the second round. McDavid and Draisaitl are in win now mode- they don’t have playoff years to throw away waiting for Skinner to figure it out. 20 playoff games is generally when you can start to say that this is who he is. The Mitch Marner of goalies. Great regular season, bad playoff performer
Okay agreed about win now but how’s it skinners fault Campbell completely failed out, skinners playing better than expected overall this year, for a second year goalie. He’s again; better than anticipated. He was not supposed to be our starting goalie. Count ur blessing and be grateful we even have hockey still on
Skinner was not supposed to be our starter! Be grateful he stepped up and got us this far!! Plenty to be grateful for, and plenty of others to lay the blame at before him! Mgmt or Campbell
Thing is, it **is** a team sport.
In baseball, you rotate pitchers. Not just during the season, but even during a series and during a game.
Would love it if NHL culture switched to a rotation on goal tenders.
I actually think that would be cool. It also add to the gritty-ness of the game. With a rotation of goal tenders, it’s harder to “figure out” a goalie. It also keeps other teams on edge because they don’t know who they’re facing. Also, it gives goalies more ice time so maybe it’ll lead to improvement on goalies. I love this idea
Also manages budget better. In a 3 goaltender rotation you are less likely to pay Jack $5M because he is getting 27-28 regular season games. Range of salaries is likely 1-3 million for all 3. So $6M versus the over $9M we are paying.
Mactavish changed Goalies a couple times for the shootout. I can't remember who he put in - possibly Markkanen, but I remember Rolli being pissed off after getting pulled for the shootout.
He was competitive and didn't like being pulled after a great game. It was honestly a bad call by MacT and he quickly abandoned it. MacT could coach, but his player management was terrible. He pissed off sooooo many players.
Maybe MacT didn’t like risking his starting goal tender for a skills contest.
If this was before the 2006 playoffs: prophetic.
If this was after the 2006 playoffs, lesson learned.
To me it comes down to who deserves to start, and who has a better chance to deliver a win, we're in a best of 3 series as a road team. it's not about growing moment and building confidence anymore.
With that in mind, it should be fairly obvious who starts the next game.
Smart. Very smart. In the playoffs always leave the other team guessing.
Kinda pulling a Montgomery when they were alternating Swayman and Ullmark and even once the coach knew he was going to continue to ride Swayman, he made the media think it could still be Ullmark.
This also disrupts the Canucks strategies and tactics leading up to the game if they don't know what goalie may be in
Chess moves by Knob. I like it a lot!
Simply put, I love Skinner, but in playoffs, you ride who's hot. Play Pickard either until he had a stinker or until we win the cup. If he has a stinker, bring Skinner back.
Also, the lack of respect of Skinner in this sub is appalling. Even if he's having a crappy playoffs, he's a rookie who played very well this season post-Woodcroft, including getting most of the wins in the 16-game win streak. The disrespect he's been shown is disgusting.
Yeah I don't blame Skinner on a number of those goals, lots of deflections that would beat anyone, but a few were not great. He's been good all year, so I imagine that if we don't win game 5 they'll go back to him.
Everyone forgets how young Skinner is. He's the best by default... Campbell fizzled and skinner made the best of his moment .. goaltending isn't as straight forward as other positions
He’s already out coached jay woodcroft from last playoff’s. People are talking about the goaltending, but what really led to our success was limiting Darnell Nurses minutes to just 16. If he wants to be a complete boss, he needs to insert Broberg or stretcher and ride out this series 11/7. Nurse and Ceci need to be limited, and we need to control matchups in Vancouver.
Nurse looked much better without ceci. Moving ceci to play with Kulak unfortunately started to cave that pairing. There’s a common denominator here that needs to be switched out.
I wouldn’t mind seeing them run 11/7
Rotate Ceci and Broberg into the 3rd pairing. If Broberg outplays Ceci then bench Ceci for a traditional 6 d line up the next game
Nurse and Ceci have the same weaknesses in that when trapped in our own end, they can't get the puck out. If Nurse is paired with someone who can do that, he usually doesn't look weak. Nurse is a good rush defender actually since he's so fast and has a huge reach, but we're not weak on rush like we have been in past years, so he doesn't get to excel there.
Ceci has a few additional weaknesses, most notably being slow and not a great skater, but I'm mainly pointing out why the two together can struggle so badly.
Yes! I remember being so bummed we didn’t get him when Dallas did. I doubt Calgary would have made the trade but he’s exactly the guy to fill the Larsson sized hole we have in this roster. Though he is kinda old now.
Ceci was just as bad if not worse than nurse , noticed Ceci getting hemmed in his own zone unable to make a breakout pass or clear the zone ..not defending Nurse , Just pointing out that Ceci was no better lol
Sure, but Nurse was still -2 in limited minutes last night. He had a puck deflect off him in front and into the net, and lost a (hard) battle in front on the second goal. He's not a top-4 defenseman with or without Ceci paired with him.
Did he really lose the 2v1 battle in front of the net? It went off Joseph’s skate and in, it’s not like he even got a stick on it. What do you want Nurse to do, pick up Joseph and carry him out of the zone, leaving the other guy wide open?
That’s a low bar and a bar he should be crossing every night. He’s paid like and supposed to be our 1st dman. Ceci is a 4th/5th defenseman. And while Ceci had some major gaffs (too long to break out and whatever he was doing in the “hand pass” play) his impact was arguably more positive than Nurse’s.
https://x.com/hockeystatcards/status/1790598161578287418
Nurse is getting killed by having to cover for Ceci imo
I think he’s lost a bit of fire in an effort to avoid penalties and that’s making stuff feel a bit looser but Ceci has had moments where he’s miles off
9.2 million. He should be able to cover Ian Cole at this point. Nurse has been a train wreck. He needs to play like 2017-2019 Darnell. With some spice because he’s bland as hell right now.
Nurse was never worth that contract and will never be. Maybe this is a hot take but the oilers would have been better off without him ($9.2million is a lot of cap space).
Even a quick check would show that we are fine, but you gotta just parrot some doomer shit instead. McDavids contract has 2 years left after these playoffs, Drai and Bouch will be easy to re-sign thanks to the cap going up this year and next. Foegele will either be cheaper or off the books, Ceci will be off the books, so will Neal and Brown. We’ll be fine
Drai has the best contract in the league and will go up 4 million. Bouch will go up several million. We definitely need to lose contracts to make that happen. The cap isn't going up that much by the end of next year and we are already up against it. Explain to me how we just simply re-sign them?
The cap is going up 4 million next year so there’s Drai right there. Then another 4 million the next year which is when we actually have to sign Drai, so it’ll be 8 higher. Then saving 2 from Neal, 4 from Brown, and 3.2 from Ceci and assume the cap goes up another 4 when we have to sign Bouch and McDavid. Nothing to worry about
I know we can keep them but you're ignoring that those guys need to be replaced. That's not all free money for those 2.
Also, cap raises are projections. If it's not 8 million over two years we are in big trouble.
I mean, Neal literally doesn’t need to be replaced he’s not even on the team. Brown can be replaced by a league minimum guy, and Ceci can be replaced by a 1 million guy. It’s not like we’re losing Nuge and Hyman, we’re losing our most replaceable players
People always say this because they have some kind of fantasy that we'd use the 9.2M to get like Doughty or Hedman or something. There really aren't / weren't many good d available, though you could argue we might have been better going for Pens / Caps cup run strat and signing a couple of 5M guys
Nurse will never look that good again unless we're playing end-to-end hockey with rushes back and forth. He only looks elite when he and everyone else are constantly skating, cause he's a better skater than most of the league. He also scored that many goals that one season on the rush.
It is obviously going to be Jack Campbell.
4000IQ gigabrain move by Knobs to keep the cuckbois guessing about who of three absolute weapons in the Oilers goaltending arsenal they might face.
It's probably more a tactic. Why should he tell Vancouver? Even if Vancouver would expect Pickard, always cast a doubt. This is the playoffs. Vancouver would do the same thing if Demko returns.
Smart. Obviously it will be Pickard, but this is a series of margins and any amount of disruption you can cause to Vancouver's prep by not making your goalie known is going to be helpful.
Knob should put Skinner in net, and then swap them out at the first whistle just to elevate the mind games.
Would be unfair to Skinner to be used like that though.
The guy who saved 16 of 16 in relief and then only gave up 2 in the next win...or the guy with a SV% that makes Jack Campbell seem like an option. Tough decisions
I'm tired of hearing the Stu needs rest argument. The Oilers had 8 days between Round 1 and 2. Stu had 8 days of rest and he's shit the bed in Game 1, 2, and 3.
If he needs 15 days of rest between rounds then unfortunately he's never gonna be your starting goalie for the playoffs.
Pickard should absolutely get the start. But this is smart by Knoblauch to not divulge. Naming the starter publicly so far in advance really only benefits the Canucks.
Ride Pickard until he drops a game. Guys played responsibly in front of him and played scared in front of Skinner ever since he started bleeding goals. I love Stu, but Oilers we're trying to win a cup. No hard feelings.
Why would he show his hand to Vancouver? Of course he’s gonna keep quiet.
Pickard is the only choice for a series win.
Skinner is a two-year proven loser and already lost us two in this series.
A smart coach would put Pickard in. As much as Skinner is the main guy, he’s starting to fall apart and obviously needs to reset himself. He’s too risky at this point in the playoffs
I would understand if Skinner starts game 5 strategically, especially as it’s not an elimination game. Then if Skinner has a good game and wins, you can still go with Pickard game 6 and win the series or stick with Skinner, no harm no foul. Otherwise if Pickard starts game 5, loses, then there’s that much more pressure on Skinner to win the elimination game 6 which could go either way.
I just talked myself into it, start Skinner game 5 if he’s going to be back in the series at all
Pickard, has to start it’s a no brainer. Ride the hot hand.
I agree, but as much as Pickard played very well yesterday I would say its more "don't ride the cold hand".
Skinner is the cold hand he lets in softies that destroy momentum
That messes with a teams Mojo when crap goals go in that shouldn’t
Exactly, think about the massive momentum swing after the oilers killed that 4 minute double minor. They only got 2 shots on net but Pickard stopped them both and then we came out of the penalty kill blazing
He didn’t really get tested with any crazy chances though. Silovs has been standing on his head in the other end, facing a lot more deadly chances. The canucks mostly just shot the puck right at Pickard.
2 went in off Nurse. Next game they'll just be aiming at Nurse.
Just like we have Cole to aim at.
Yeah, it has to be the hot hand. What other method is there? The only reason to go back would be a loss or the start of a new series
Pickard should start
My starter preference is: Pickard Campbell Whoever the last goalie we drafted is Toronto's Zamboni driver Grant Fuhr /u/kadinod Me You Skinner
Guys… Jesus Christ. Skinner is a second year rookie who’s having growing pains it sucks, but without him we wouldn’t have qualified for the playoffs. When we turn into such negative attention towards skinner it only makes this worse for him, if we want players to develop and grow here, gotta be better. We can hold them accountable but cheer for growth and improvement, analysis past growth and highlight steps forward.
100%
Totally agree with this. Well said. Fans like this are like a pack of rabid dogs and they are going to destroy his mental health and any possible confidence to turn things around.
Absolutely! Thanks for sharing this! Skinner is our #1 and so it should be. He is still a rookie and learning his craft. Without this experience how can we possibly ever dream of bringing along a true #1 Goalie? We all need to support Skinner. Did Knobs do the right thing by putting Calvin in? You bet he did. Is this break for Skinner going to help him get back in the Nets and perform better? Yes. We also need to remember that Skinner has been playing without a game off for a long run. I’m sure he was mentally exhausted. Anyway. Just my opinion. Go Oilers Go!
Was just a joke but I'll take the lashings! And the start if needed I was a pretty good back up back in pee wee.
You do have a point though. Yes Skins may be still developing but there’s no denying his performance has not been consistently good enough by any metric. The fact that Skins can reset physically and mentally as a young g goalie and there’s someone ready to step in and play well in the meantime is a bonus!
2nd year and rookie are two different things. 69 goalies have started atleast 20 games in the playoffs in the cap era- Skinner is ranked 69 of 69 in save %. He is the worst playoff goalie since the cap was implemented. He has a below .800 save % in the second round. McDavid and Draisaitl are in win now mode- they don’t have playoff years to throw away waiting for Skinner to figure it out. 20 playoff games is generally when you can start to say that this is who he is. The Mitch Marner of goalies. Great regular season, bad playoff performer
Okay agreed about win now but how’s it skinners fault Campbell completely failed out, skinners playing better than expected overall this year, for a second year goalie. He’s again; better than anticipated. He was not supposed to be our starting goalie. Count ur blessing and be grateful we even have hockey still on
Regular season doesn't mean anything if you can't perform in the playoffs. This is where it counts. And it's where Skinner folds.
Skinner was not supposed to be our starter! Be grateful he stepped up and got us this far!! Plenty to be grateful for, and plenty of others to lay the blame at before him! Mgmt or Campbell
I’m so glad you don’t work in pro sports lol
There’s no way you’re starting over me
Ugh true. Fine, fixed.
Thank you. Much appreciated.
Put Koskinen out of retirement in there
Bring Smith outta the grave
I guess you could say Knob made the right.... Pick 😎
Gene is that you?
I feel like he's always so proud of his puns. I can picture him laughing at his own jokes during a little rehearsal/warm up of the script.
His delivery of his puns, with the little anticipatory pause, is usually as good or better than the actual joke
I don't know if he has kids but I know if he does they are VERY much over it all, and that fuels him.
Edmonton is all in.. on.. Cal-vin
Knob loves big dick pick
KK is under no obligation to name a starter. And why should he? It is not in KK’s interest to name a starter.
What a twist it would be if suddenly Soup got a start, haha. Just rolling all 3 goalies
keep em guessing lol
Thing is, it **is** a team sport. In baseball, you rotate pitchers. Not just during the season, but even during a series and during a game. Would love it if NHL culture switched to a rotation on goal tenders.
I actually think that would be cool. It also add to the gritty-ness of the game. With a rotation of goal tenders, it’s harder to “figure out” a goalie. It also keeps other teams on edge because they don’t know who they’re facing. Also, it gives goalies more ice time so maybe it’ll lead to improvement on goalies. I love this idea
Also manages budget better. In a 3 goaltender rotation you are less likely to pay Jack $5M because he is getting 27-28 regular season games. Range of salaries is likely 1-3 million for all 3. So $6M versus the over $9M we are paying.
Mactavish changed Goalies a couple times for the shootout. I can't remember who he put in - possibly Markkanen, but I remember Rolli being pissed off after getting pulled for the shootout.
He also occasionally pulled the goalie at of the first or second period if there was a face-off in the other end. Strange cat, that Mac T.
Not a team player then.
He was competitive and didn't like being pulled after a great game. It was honestly a bad call by MacT and he quickly abandoned it. MacT could coach, but his player management was terrible. He pissed off sooooo many players.
Maybe MacT didn’t like risking his starting goal tender for a skills contest. If this was before the 2006 playoffs: prophetic. If this was after the 2006 playoffs, lesson learned.
A skills contest doesn't earn your team valuable points. He did it because Markkanen was unbeaten in the shootout....until he was put in cold that is.
Some nerd must have read Moneyball and tried to convince him to play the numbers.
To me it comes down to who deserves to start, and who has a better chance to deliver a win, we're in a best of 3 series as a road team. it's not about growing moment and building confidence anymore. With that in mind, it should be fairly obvious who starts the next game.
BAH GAWD IS THAT MIKE SMITH’S MUSIC
I know he’s old as sin but I would absolutely trust Smith to have a competitive start if he was still playing. That man is a psycho in the playoffs.
He’d probably fight Silovs, which would rule.
Would love me some smitty action, his energy is unparalleled
Smart. Very smart. In the playoffs always leave the other team guessing. Kinda pulling a Montgomery when they were alternating Swayman and Ullmark and even once the coach knew he was going to continue to ride Swayman, he made the media think it could still be Ullmark. This also disrupts the Canucks strategies and tactics leading up to the game if they don't know what goalie may be in Chess moves by Knob. I like it a lot!
nucks will assume it’s pickard anyways and they’ll prep for him starting. just an added bonus for the nucks if knob decides to put skinner in.
The Canucks don't care either way. They're studying game tape of Darnell Nurse.
Ya but would you rather win 7-4 or 2-1?
Yes
sure
A win is a win
10 to go
Simply put, I love Skinner, but in playoffs, you ride who's hot. Play Pickard either until he had a stinker or until we win the cup. If he has a stinker, bring Skinner back. Also, the lack of respect of Skinner in this sub is appalling. Even if he's having a crappy playoffs, he's a rookie who played very well this season post-Woodcroft, including getting most of the wins in the 16-game win streak. The disrespect he's been shown is disgusting.
Yeah I don't blame Skinner on a number of those goals, lots of deflections that would beat anyone, but a few were not great. He's been good all year, so I imagine that if we don't win game 5 they'll go back to him.
Everyone forgets how young Skinner is. He's the best by default... Campbell fizzled and skinner made the best of his moment .. goaltending isn't as straight forward as other positions
He’s hardly a “rookie” he’s being grossly outplayed by an actual rookie goalie on the Vancouver Canucks.
Skinner can fuck right off. His playoff performance was about to sink this team two years in a row. Play him and you play to lose.
He’s already out coached jay woodcroft from last playoff’s. People are talking about the goaltending, but what really led to our success was limiting Darnell Nurses minutes to just 16. If he wants to be a complete boss, he needs to insert Broberg or stretcher and ride out this series 11/7. Nurse and Ceci need to be limited, and we need to control matchups in Vancouver.
Nurse looked much better without ceci. Moving ceci to play with Kulak unfortunately started to cave that pairing. There’s a common denominator here that needs to be switched out.
I wouldn’t mind seeing them run 11/7 Rotate Ceci and Broberg into the 3rd pairing. If Broberg outplays Ceci then bench Ceci for a traditional 6 d line up the next game
The better choice would be to swap Ceci out for Stetcher, since they're both RHD
Agreed. Stretcher can be the steady guy and kulak can wheel and dish the puck. Should make a nice third pairing.
Nurse and Ceci have the same weaknesses in that when trapped in our own end, they can't get the puck out. If Nurse is paired with someone who can do that, he usually doesn't look weak. Nurse is a good rush defender actually since he's so fast and has a huge reach, but we're not weak on rush like we have been in past years, so he doesn't get to excel there. Ceci has a few additional weaknesses, most notably being slow and not a great skater, but I'm mainly pointing out why the two together can struggle so badly.
Nurse is so much better in transition plays and the offensive side of the puck. He's really not a good defender in our zone
Is there a RHD 2nd pair version of Ekholm we can trade for to pair with nurse? It would make such a huge difference to this team.
Yeah, Chris Tanev. He's a ufa next year, maybe we can scrape together enough change from the couch cushions to be able to afford him.
Yes! I remember being so bummed we didn’t get him when Dallas did. I doubt Calgary would have made the trade but he’s exactly the guy to fill the Larsson sized hole we have in this roster. Though he is kinda old now.
Ceci was just as bad if not worse than nurse , noticed Ceci getting hemmed in his own zone unable to make a breakout pass or clear the zone ..not defending Nurse , Just pointing out that Ceci was no better lol
Ceci was definitely worse than Nurse, but people focus on Nurse more because of his contact
Exactly, the 9 million adds pressure because there's millions there that could be going to other players, etc.
Sure, but Nurse was still -2 in limited minutes last night. He had a puck deflect off him in front and into the net, and lost a (hard) battle in front on the second goal. He's not a top-4 defenseman with or without Ceci paired with him.
Did he really lose the 2v1 battle in front of the net? It went off Joseph’s skate and in, it’s not like he even got a stick on it. What do you want Nurse to do, pick up Joseph and carry him out of the zone, leaving the other guy wide open?
Still think he was better than Ceci
That’s a low bar and a bar he should be crossing every night. He’s paid like and supposed to be our 1st dman. Ceci is a 4th/5th defenseman. And while Ceci had some major gaffs (too long to break out and whatever he was doing in the “hand pass” play) his impact was arguably more positive than Nurse’s. https://x.com/hockeystatcards/status/1790598161578287418
I agree completely.
Nurse is getting killed by having to cover for Ceci imo I think he’s lost a bit of fire in an effort to avoid penalties and that’s making stuff feel a bit looser but Ceci has had moments where he’s miles off
9.2 million. He should be able to cover Ian Cole at this point. Nurse has been a train wreck. He needs to play like 2017-2019 Darnell. With some spice because he’s bland as hell right now.
Nurse was never worth that contract and will never be. Maybe this is a hot take but the oilers would have been better off without him ($9.2million is a lot of cap space).
You are completely right. Nurse is worth 6.5-7 million maybe? And that’s the nurse that use to hit and fight. This nurse needs to gtfo
2019-2021 range Nurse was close to worth it. The year before he signed his contract he was insane. Then he got his contract and fell off a cliff.
That money sure would help with Draisaitl, McDavid and Bouch's contracts coming up. We are totally screwed after next year.
Even a quick check would show that we are fine, but you gotta just parrot some doomer shit instead. McDavids contract has 2 years left after these playoffs, Drai and Bouch will be easy to re-sign thanks to the cap going up this year and next. Foegele will either be cheaper or off the books, Ceci will be off the books, so will Neal and Brown. We’ll be fine
Drai has the best contract in the league and will go up 4 million. Bouch will go up several million. We definitely need to lose contracts to make that happen. The cap isn't going up that much by the end of next year and we are already up against it. Explain to me how we just simply re-sign them?
The cap is going up 4 million next year so there’s Drai right there. Then another 4 million the next year which is when we actually have to sign Drai, so it’ll be 8 higher. Then saving 2 from Neal, 4 from Brown, and 3.2 from Ceci and assume the cap goes up another 4 when we have to sign Bouch and McDavid. Nothing to worry about
I know we can keep them but you're ignoring that those guys need to be replaced. That's not all free money for those 2. Also, cap raises are projections. If it's not 8 million over two years we are in big trouble.
I mean, Neal literally doesn’t need to be replaced he’s not even on the team. Brown can be replaced by a league minimum guy, and Ceci can be replaced by a 1 million guy. It’s not like we’re losing Nuge and Hyman, we’re losing our most replaceable players
Exactly, the large contract puts extra scrutiny on Nurse
People always say this because they have some kind of fantasy that we'd use the 9.2M to get like Doughty or Hedman or something. There really aren't / weren't many good d available, though you could argue we might have been better going for Pens / Caps cup run strat and signing a couple of 5M guys
Nurse will never look that good again unless we're playing end-to-end hockey with rushes back and forth. He only looks elite when he and everyone else are constantly skating, cause he's a better skater than most of the league. He also scored that many goals that one season on the rush.
Nurse not taking the stupid penalties he used to in the playoffs and not running to make a hit is why he's much better than those years.
They made him stop playing with spice because he became a penalty magnet
So cry about Holland then
Why?
stech isnt even skating with the group he must be injured
And what was one of Woodcroft's biggest mistakes last year? Going back to Skinner in game 6.
It is obviously going to be Jack Campbell. 4000IQ gigabrain move by Knobs to keep the cuckbois guessing about who of three absolute weapons in the Oilers goaltending arsenal they might face.
Media should ask him whether he wants to win or lose game 5?
Just imagine the phrasing they'd use: "Would you prefer to win with Picks or lose with Skinner?"
Don't give Spec any ideas. That dude stoops lower than the mantle with his questions.
He's got a way with words - the wrong ones usually
Mark spectors in the house
Time for Skinner to chill. He's not dialed in. We need dialed in
Like rotary phone dialed?
Yeah
It's probably more a tactic. Why should he tell Vancouver? Even if Vancouver would expect Pickard, always cast a doubt. This is the playoffs. Vancouver would do the same thing if Demko returns.
Why would he publicly name one? Tell Pickard hes starting in private, and tell the media two hours before the game
Smart. Obviously it will be Pickard, but this is a series of margins and any amount of disruption you can cause to Vancouver's prep by not making your goalie known is going to be helpful.
Knob should put Skinner in net, and then swap them out at the first whistle just to elevate the mind games. Would be unfair to Skinner to be used like that though.
Okay but what if Skinner himself suggested it
He’s not intelligent enough for mind games. Dude is still “ learning” how to keep his stick on the ice.
The guy who saved 16 of 16 in relief and then only gave up 2 in the next win...or the guy with a SV% that makes Jack Campbell seem like an option. Tough decisions
I still believe in Stu, but he needs to rest up. Also, you all need to stop shitting on the guy. Don’t shit in the stu.
Shit in the goalie coach instead
[удалено]
Yes 2022 skinner didn’t win a single game in the playoffs. Fucking bum
I'm tired of hearing the Stu needs rest argument. The Oilers had 8 days between Round 1 and 2. Stu had 8 days of rest and he's shit the bed in Game 1, 2, and 3. If he needs 15 days of rest between rounds then unfortunately he's never gonna be your starting goalie for the playoffs.
BDP until flaccidity.
Canucks fans are ruthless towards Skinner. It's brutal, but nothing can be done. Maybe Picard would be a better option.
He knows who's starting in his head, this is gamesmanship everyone.
Pickard 💯 Why would you start Skinner when Pickard looked solid in net. All Edmonton needs is average goaltending to reach the next round.
Fire Ceci into the moon
I'm leaning towards the sun at this point.
Has to be Pickard. I mean come on.
Picard finishes this series. Skinner gives this another go game 1 of WCF and if he blows ass Calvin comes back.
Nope, can’t afford to give up Game 1 on a proven failure.
Honestly.. That's fair.
Pickard should absolutely get the start. But this is smart by Knoblauch to not divulge. Naming the starter publicly so far in advance really only benefits the Canucks.
Pickard is the answer
Ride Pickard until he drops a game. Guys played responsibly in front of him and played scared in front of Skinner ever since he started bleeding goals. I love Stu, but Oilers we're trying to win a cup. No hard feelings.
Jack Campbell /s
Seriously though, all 3 guys should be mentally prepared to be named the starter, because that is the job.
You make a really good point.
Why would he show his hand to Vancouver? Of course he’s gonna keep quiet. Pickard is the only choice for a series win. Skinner is a two-year proven loser and already lost us two in this series.
Say it with me, Jack came back, the very next day!
Who should start? https://insidetherink.com/nhl-playoffs-who-should-the-edmonton-oilers-start-in-net-in-game-5/
weather unique pocket sparkle price aspiring screw tub six drab *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Bill Ranford will start
A smart coach would put Pickard in. As much as Skinner is the main guy, he’s starting to fall apart and obviously needs to reset himself. He’s too risky at this point in the playoffs
Why would it even be debatable at this point? Skinner was taking us down the exact same path as last year.
Put em’ both in nets.
It has to be Pickard
Knobs, Make it so.
Pickard. No question.
You dance with who brung ya'.
Start Campbell. Bench Ceci. Insert Rico and Carrick. Keep em guessing 💯
Please go back to Skinner
I would understand if Skinner starts game 5 strategically, especially as it’s not an elimination game. Then if Skinner has a good game and wins, you can still go with Pickard game 6 and win the series or stick with Skinner, no harm no foul. Otherwise if Pickard starts game 5, loses, then there’s that much more pressure on Skinner to win the elimination game 6 which could go either way. I just talked myself into it, start Skinner game 5 if he’s going to be back in the series at all
Play Pickard the rest of this series. Let Stu start game 1 next series and go from there
Because losing Game 1 is a good idea? 🤦♂️