BURSTEDMONTON — Almost a year ago — on Dec. 14, 2023 — Stuart Skinner stood in front of his dressing room stall after a game against the Tampa Bay Lightning, looked right into the cameras and told the media the ugly truth.
“I ended up losing us the game.”
He wasn’t lying, really.
Skinner had let in a couple of greasy ones in a game that ended up as a 7-4 loss. But at one time it was 5-3, the Oilers had scored a fourth, and, well, “If I was able to make that last save, we might still be playing right now.”
He went on to try and explain the various ways that the Lightning had sifted pucks past him over the course of the evening, but eventually his voice trailed off.
“I’m not gonna make any excuses,” he said. “So, move on and look forward.”
Forward arrived on Tuesday, against the same opponent some 361 days later. The game was not similar — a low-event, 2-1 Oilers win — and neither was Skinner’s body of work.
How could it be, considering what he’s been through since that night?
How much has he grown since that mea culpa a year ago?
“Massively,” he began, after a steady-Eddie, 21-save performance. “I mean, the amount of things that I’ve been able to go through, personally — and us, as a team — through the last 12 months has been, crucial. In the sense of where I am now as a man, as a father, as a goalie. You know, in so many ways.”
On this night, Skinner’s even-keeled, professional game was a metaphor for an Oilers performance that oozed confidence and experience. They looked like a team that had played two months of these games not long ago, absorbing everything the high-scoring Lightning threw at them and calmly turned the chances aside, snuffing most plays before Skinner was even called upon to make a save.
This was a reminder of how Edmonton can play, how they did play, and how they’re going to have to play when the chips are down again come springtime.
“We’ve got to be able to win games like this — 2-1, 3-1,” said Leon Draisaitl, who had goal No. 20 (nine straight 20-goal seasons) and an assist. “It was certainly a good benchmark for us as to how we want to play these games and get them over the finish line.”
Beauty, of course, is in the eye of the beholder.
You win one of these by a 2-1 score, and it’s all about structure and grit.
“Tonight, in that third period,” said Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch, “I thought we played about as well as you can with the lead. It was a good, solid game and that takes a lot of maturity, a lot of composure. A lot of the stuff that we saw last year, playing a solid 60-minute game.”
You lose one of these and, well, down the hallway Tampa coach Jon Cooper begged to differ.
“That was a bad hockey game — actually, probably by both teams,” Cooper assessed. “There was a lot of talent on the ice and I don’t think either team kind of ‘had it.’ It’s just made worse that we didn’t get points out of it.”
“We held the Edmonton Oilers to 43 shot attempts. Not shots — shot attempts. You think, OK, you’re kind of doing the right thing,” he said. “That’s what just kind of makes it sting a bit. Because we were there — there were some points for the taking. We just couldn’t grasp it.”
Don’t tell the Oilers that this wasn’t a Picasso, however. Right now, with wins in six of their past seven, Edmonton has found a game that can beat the Rangers 6-2, or Tampa 2-1.
They’re five points back of Vegas in the Pacific, and the Golden Knights are in town Saturday in a stretch that sees Edmonton play three Division leaders in a row: at Minnesota on Thursday, Vegas Saturday, and hosting Florida on Monday. It’s a challenge they appear ready to meet head-on.
Skinner has gone five straight now without allowing more than two goals. The big boys are producing. The foot soldiers are blocking shots and defending hard, and Darnell Nurse has found a level — and a level of consistency — not seen around these parts in many a moon, if ever before.
“You (media) guys should talk about him more. He’s been really, really, really good. Like, high-end,” scolded Draisaitl. “You guys are really hard on him sometimes. He has been amazing, maybe our best D for a while now.”
“He is such a horse,” Draisaitl continued. “You can’t beat him off the rush. When he makes plays like that where he settles the puck down and makes strong plays it is fun to watch.”
When we all looked at the Oilers’ blue line back in October with a raised eyebrow, how many people had “career year by Nurse” on their bingo card? Toss in Brett Kulak’s emergence as a steady part-time partner, and the Oilers have seen their goals against per game (2.86) crawl up the league rankings to No. 8.
They’re pretty good again, these Oilers. Not perfect, but pretty good.
And so is Skinner, who took that shellacking a year ago, looked right in the mirror and became better for it.
It’s exactly what you need in a goalie. A guy who will accept blame when he’s not good, and a guy who will make sure that doesn’t happen very often.
“I picked this role because I love it, so I’m gonna keep on loving it,” he said last year. “This is only going to make me better.”
And so it did.
