"Numbers lie": Oilers goalie Skinner not bothered by .750 save percentage
Edmonton Oilers goaltender Stuart Skinner made a strange comment about his play on Saturday night.
The Oilers wound up losing to the Vancouver Canucks that night by a score of 4-3 despite outshooting the Canucks by a 40-16 margin.
Skinner wound up with a save percentage of .750 as a result of the loss. Despite this, the 24-year-old Edmonton native told reporters after the game that he was happy with his performance.
“Numbers lie, I thought I played well besides getting 16 shots and letting four in,” said Skinner. “It happens, and I am going to grow and move on.”
"Adversity never kills you, it makes you a lot stronger."
Stuart Skinner shares his perspective on tonight’s defeat.@Enterprise | #LetsGoOilers pic.twitter.com/mlZXGYUC0M
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) October 15, 2023
The comment, on its surface, is a bit of a strange thing for Skinner to say, considering not allowing goals is the whole job for an NHL goalie. However, if you were able to watch the game and get some context, the comment starts to make a little more sense.
Edmonton’s defensive corps didn’t do a whole ton to help out their starting goaltender on Saturday night. The first goal saw Andrei Kuzmenko deflect the puck through traffic, the second was another tip-in from Nils Höglander, and the third goal was the result of a 2-on-0 rush.
The only “bad” goal that got past Skinner was the eventual game-winner scored by Sam Lafferty on a partial break. In this way, the .750 save percentage could be perceived as a bit misleading on Skinner’s overall performance.
Sam Lafferty crashing in and cashing in đź’Ş pic.twitter.com/0esvLUTu6v
— Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) October 15, 2023
Much of Edmonton’s early season struggles have been attributed to a combination of poor goaltending and defensive execution. There are also some question marks as to why the team seems to be having a hard time killing penalties.
Changes were made to the forward lines at Monday’s practice ahead of tomorrow’s game in Nashville in an attempt to spark more offence. As for whether Skinner will be able to get back into the Edmonton net, that has yet to be announced by head coach Jay Woodcroft.
Context certainly helps to understand the somewhat strange comment by Skinner, but perhaps this is just the latest piece of information we can file into the “Why hockey goalies are so weird” section of the NHL.
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