The Edmonton Oilers are smack dab in the middle of their contending window with their two megastars in Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. Those two players do incredible heavy lifting for an incredibly top heavy team. They are good enough to carry their team to victory… assuming they get some base level competency from their goaltending. They have not.

Stuart Skinner has been struggling in his postseason career to this point. Struggles that Penguins fans are very familiar with. You can have a Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin or a Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, but you won’t outscore your goaltending issues when they are as bas as it has been for Edmonton and formerly Pittsburgh.

That sound you hear? It's the #Oilers Stanley Cup hopes swirling - because it's not possible to win with this goaltending.

Stuart Skinner has been one of the worst playoff goalies of the salary cap era. And it's no longer a small sample size.

Link: https://t.co/Gk9zQKFmG1 pic.twitter.com/DceDD2jiAi

— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) May 13, 2024

Skinner’s .881 save percentage puts him squarely with Marc-Andre Fleury’s playoff sample from 2010-13, which was .880. A sample that sunk some pretty good Penguins teams with the most glaring example coming in 2011-12.

What made it even worse is that the Pens were an above-average defensive team in the playoffs from 2010 to 2013, and Fleury's expected save percentage based on quality of shots against was 91.8%.

The guy allowed on average one goal above expected /per game/ for /31 games/.

— JFresh (@JFreshHockey) May 13, 2024

There’s certainly opportunity for the Oilers to come back and win their series over Vancouver, but they won’t if the goaltending stays the way it is. The Penguins already proved that a little over a decade ago.

We have some current Penguins over in Prague competing in the World Championships.

🐧 World Championship highlights from the weekend:
- Sweden captain Erik Karlsson scored twice in their win over Poland
- Jesse Puljujarvi had a goal and two assists in Finland's victory over Britain
- Michael Bunting recorded three points (1G-2A) in a pair of wins for Canada

— Pens Inside Scoop (@PensInsideScoop) May 13, 2024

These are all Dubas additions to the roster. It would be really helpful if these players are able to come in next year without being new to the franchise and have their footing from day one of camp. The team very much needs them to and I think we will see better results from Karlsson. Puljujarvi’s recovery from hip surgery is a wild card. It does seem to be heading in the right direction. Michael Bunting was very good right away from being traded. He will be a nice complement to whatever center he is with next year.

On the flip side Alex Nedeljkovic started for Team USA who lost in overtime to Slovakia by a score of 5-4. Nedeljkovic gave up four goals on 16 shots for a .750 save percentage. In the grand scheme of things this doesn’t matter in the least bit. Nedeljkovic is an unrestricted free agent. HE was the Penguins go to goalie down the stretch. It will be interesting to see how his market comes together. Very likely the Penguins won’t be willing to pay the price it will take. Joel Blombqvist on the up and up might make the Penguins less desperate to get in a bidding war.

Thanks for reading!

Join the Discussion: » 1 Comments » Post New Comment

» Penguins re-sign depth forward

» Fire up the Sheldon Keefe speculation

» Penguins heading to Worlds and tonight's draft odds

» Penguins have their fall guy in Todd Reirden

» Fenway Sports Group making big changes to digital product