Oilers goalie Skinner’s focus is on his own game, not the naysayers

Stuart Skinner might want to take out his frustration with a goalie scrap, maybe text Mike Smith to see how it’s done, but Skinner has never dropped the mitts even in junior, so he’ll have to make due with fighting to make more saves.

He knows he has to be better.

The angry folks in Oilers nation say he has to be a LOT better.

With them, their daily, loud anthem is ANYBODY BUT SKINNER.

Every day there’s another stopper the fan base wants GM Stan Bowman to trade for, frankly anybody in their minds who has a set of pads and mask, and a membership in the NHL Goalie Union. Jordan Binnington? Come on down. Tristan Jarry? How fast can you get here? Elvis has left the building in Columbus and Mr. Merzlikins is on his way. Yeah, that Finn in Buffalo, UPL, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, even if his game has dropped off over the last two years? Bring him in.

Fact is, Skinner is playing up to his $2.6 million AAV contract right now. He’s not $6 million like Binnington, who actually has the same stats this year as Skinner. Or over $5 million like Jarry in Pittsburgh and Merzlikins in Columbus.

Skinner has an .878 save percentage, just behind Binnington’s .881 in St. Louis.

Skinner finds himself in the same leaky boat as Devan Dubnyk. Dubnyk was really struggling in 2014 before GM Craig MacTavish put him out of his misery. He traded the goalie to Nashville for Matt Hendricks and also acquired netminder Ben Scrivens from Los Angeles for a third-round pick.

“We really felt for everybody it was time for a change with Devan,” said MacTavish back then.

It stated an odyssey for Dubnyk, who had become the Oilers fans’ piñata. Eventually, after a short stay with Predators, the Canadiens’ organization and the Coyotes, he got to Minnesota and starred.

Here, the fan base is totally down on Skinner, the hometown guy, who has to make more saves.

“You can definitely feel it, the energy (changing) in the building. You can certainly hear the boos. Can’t really do much about that, can’t control what other people think. They can do whatever they want,” said Skinner.

“My job is to keep truckin’ along here,” he said.

Even when the wheels are coming off and while the Oilers have many stumbling issues right now — defensive-zone coverage, not enough compete in 50-50 puck battles, not getting mad as a team when they’re getting clobbered, not enough offence outside of 97 and 29, Jack Roslovic and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.

But again this fan base wants somebody else in net, anybody else. That must hurt, right? As a goalie, and as somebody who grew up here with pictures of Oilers on his wall. Canadian market, tough to hide as a goalie. This isn’t Columbus, here.

“That’s happened before, right?” said Skinner, who knows the Dubnyk story.

Oilers fans have been historically hard on goalies not named Grant Fuhr and Andy Moog, Billy Ranford or Dwayne Roloson. They liked Cam Talbot a lot until they didn’t. They always thought there was somebody better than Tommy Salo.

“It’s happened a few times here. I was here for that (Dubnyk). I felt for him. Happens around the league, though. Goalies need to make big saves at big times. I decided to choose that. I’m going to get my kids to be forwards, for sure,” laughed Skinner.

That’s always been Glenn Hall’s mantra, too, when asked about the heat goalies are under. Nobody backed them up against a wall when they were 10 years old and said it’s go in net or you can’t play.

“Sometimes when it gets really bad, you wish you had made another choice, but, nah, I love it man. It’s the best thing in the world being a goalie,” said Skinner.

“I’ve learned so much not just on the ice, in life. It’s about character, being able to pull yourself out really tough spots, being a good teammate even when you feel the world’s crashing down on you. It’s easy to be selfish and you learn a lot about not being that way. It’s not about just one guy, it’s about every guy.”

But, like most goalies he’s not pointing fingers, except at himself.

He’s the ultimate standup guy, even if nobody’s a standup goalie anymore.

He gave up four goals in eight shots in the first period against Dallas Tuesday, but when asked how much of that was on him and how much was on the shoddy work in front of him, he took the high road. Next question.

“My job is to show up consistently and the results show it hasn’t gone that way. It hasn’t been very favourable. That’s life, isn’t it? Sometimes life isn’t fair,” he said.

There are goalies who show their displeasure with what happened in front of them when goals go in with a dismayed shrug of the shoulders. Or post-game, they talk about goals going because there was a screen. Couldn’t see the puck.

“It’s human nature to want to take yourself off the hook,” he said.

“That’s the easiest thing to do when things are tough, pointing the finger. But our team isn’t in the business of that. It’s trying to lift everybody up, so we get out of this. We’ve created that culture in here. Sometimes you want to point a finger but you catch yourself. I’m certainly not doing that. I want to be better for this group.”

He’s accountable, almost to a fault. Like standing in for 10 minutes of questions Thursday when some goalies would be telling the PR staff they weren’t talking. Skinner speaks between games, after losses, on game-day mornings.

Accountability is admirable, of course.

But talking about what should or could be can also be hollow.

Bottom line: he has to stop the puck, more than he is.

When asked if Skinner wants to be here long-term with the incessant “get us somebody else in net,” he swatted the question away like it was a 60-foot shot.

“Of course I do. It is what it is. I can’t control what they (fans) are saying.”

Oilers defenceman Mattias Ekholm, always a strong voice when the walls are closing in, knows that Skinner and his partner Calvin Pickard are under the gun. It’s as loud as a firing squad.

“It’s the full team and especially us as defencemen to help them out, clear people out. Make sure Stu and Picks see the pucks. We take a lot of pride in that and we know we haven’t been to our standard and have to be a lot better,” he said.

“We have to be more consistent with not giving up the net front, defending. It’s been way too many breakaways, way too many uncontested, unblocked shots from the middle region in front of the net,” he said.

Skinner has to make some stops he shouldn’t. That’s part of the job description. He’s not making enough of them, timely saves, early in games keeping it 1-0 going to the dressing room after 20 minutes instead of 4-0. Late in games when the team has a one-goal lead.

But, Knoblauch has seen some very lamentable team defence in front of the goalies.

“We need some layers that opposing players have to go through to get a scoring chance. We need more structure, a security blanket, what happens after a save,” said Knoblauch.

“If you only saw the stat line that said four goals on eight shots (Skinner), you would be saying ‘What happened?’ But if you watched the goals, you would be saying, ‘He didn’t have much chance on those,’ ’’ said Knoblauch.

The shot by Nathan Bastian to make it 3-0 was a good one, well placed but it was a fourth-line player, and Skinner probably wants that one back.

“But if you’re playing well in front of a goalie it makes it so much easier,” said Knoblauch, who knows a frustrated forward can blow off steam by running a player and a defenceman can work over a checker, but what’s the outlet for a goalie?

“Stu is one of the bigger guys, he might be able to do some damage,” in a fight, joked Knoblauch.

“A player makes a mistake and they can make up for it next shift, with a big hit. A goalie has to wait for the next shot. Their mental fortitude has to be so strong. They have to let things go,” said Knoblauch.

“Stu always takes accountability and lots of times he didn’t get help. He doesn’t point blame. The guys respect that in him,” said the head coach.