DENVER — The die may already be cast, but Stuart Skinner surely gave Team Canada brass something to think about if it hasn’t.
The Edmonton Oilers goalie had perhaps his best start of the season by making 27 saves in a 4-1 win over the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday. If it wasn’t perfect timing, it was as good as any given that this was his final appearance before NHL 4 Nations Face-Off rosters are due Monday.
“I gave my best effort for the win,” Skinner said. “That’s a difficult question for me to answer because I’m not thinking about a single thing with that.
“I mostly played well for the team — the Oilers.”
As Skinner said earlier in the week, though, those two things go hand in hand. And he needed a signature performance like this one — not just for any last Team Canada hopes but, more importantly, to get his season going in the right direction.
Don’t forget to hug your goalie 🤗 #LetsGoOilers pic.twitter.com/JwAbUEc8NO
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) December 1, 2024
Skinner entered the campaign as perhaps the top candidate to be Canada’s starter in February’s international tournament considering he won 14 games in the playoffs, helping the Oilers reach Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final.
But, like so many of his teammates, the first few weeks for Skinner had been underwhelming to put it charitably, or disappointing to put it more frankly.
He won just seven of his first 15 starts heading into Saturday’s contest, sported an .882 save percentage and allowed 7.45 more goals than expected, per Natural Stat Trick — eighth-worst in the NHL.
As Oilers GM Stan Bowman told The Athletic before Friday’s game, “goaltending has been inconsistent.” Skinner, as the No. 1 guy, bears the brunt of that analysis.
That Skinner is even in the running for a 4 Nations spot says a lot about the state of Canadian goaltending. As much as Skinner has downplayed his potential involvement in the 4 Nations, there’s undeniably more attention on him because he’s been in the mix.
For the most part, he hasn’t been an elite goaltender since October. But perhaps the worm is turning.
Skinner just helped the Oilers improve to 13-9-2 after losing their first three games of the season in regulation.
“The pressure of all that aside, he had such a good playoff and he’s such a key part of our team,” veteran defenceman Darnell Nurse said. “Our team had high expectations coming in to have a really, really good start. It wasn’t as bad as last year, but it didn’t pan out the way we wanted.
“We just stuck with it. He’s a testament to that.”
There’s maybe no one on the Oilers roster under more heat than Skinner. As someone who’s right there with him in that regard, Nurse’s advice is clear.
“Either you turn it, or you use it as fuel — one or the other,” Nurse said. “Sometimes, it’s good to get away from it. Sometimes, it’s good to read what everyone says and light a fire — and then you get to see them the next day.”
It looked like there was a fire lit under Skinner on Saturday. This performance was more along the lines of the best he’s had to offer over his two-plus full NHL seasons.
It was reminiscent of how well he played when he was the Calder Trophy runner-up as a rookie in 2022-23 thanks in part to his .914 save percentage.
It was just like how he shut the door time and time again when the Oilers racked up 16 straight wins almost a year ago.
It was akin to how he outduelled surefire American pick Jake Oettinger in the Western Conference final, highlighted by a dominant performance in the series-clinching Game 6.
“We believe in him,” Nurse said. “The amount of good hockey he’s played for us in some huge moments over the course of the last few years, he’s one of the best goalies — we believe — around.
“Sometimes, when you’re criticized or you’re under the microscope a little bit, you’ve got to continue to have that confidence in yourself and play and belief in yourself.”
Save for a sublime backhanded assist by Connor McDavid on Kasperi Kapanen’s first goal as an Oiler and Vasily Podkolzin scoring for the third straight game, the win over the Avs was all about Skinner’s work between the pipes.
“I felt good from the get-go,” Skinner said.
“You cannot even ask for more,” Podkolzin said.
Skinner held the fort during a shooting gallery in the first period. He made his best save of the game when he flashed his glove on a wrister from reigning Hart Trophy winner Nathan MacKinnon from just inside the circle at 9:30 of the second.
“The only reason I flashed it was because I didn’t really see much,” Skinner said. “It was really nice play by him. He stickhandled probably 100 times within that second and then kind of faked it with the pass, then a super-quick release.
“It was a reflex save on my part.”
The only blemish was a one-time goal off a cross-ice feed by Nikolai Kovalenko, a shot Skinner got a piece of with his mitt.
“It was a really hard hit on the glove,” Skinner said. “I thought I had it. I was almost going to celebrate, but I just saw it trickle in.”
He stood tall in the third period to secure the win.
Skinner’s uneven first 15 starts might have already cost him the chance to wear red and white in February. Saturday’s performance very well could have been too little too late.
But if there’s any uncertainty for Team Canada’s decision-makers, any reason to reconsider who their goaltenders should be, Skinner gave them an effort worthy of having one last discussion.
As Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said, “If I’m picking, he’s on that team.”
“I think of him as a really good goaltender,” he said. “There’s elite goalies who are winning trophies and awards. I think he’s right below that. He’s a darn good goalie.”
(Photo: Ron Chenoy / Imagn Images)
