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 Adam
Messages: 7130
Registered: August 2005
Location: Edmonton, AB
6 Cups
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Here is where I am at on this. Calvin Pickard is a 32-year old who has bounced between being an NHL backup and a minor league netminder. His numbers have been bad most years in the NHL and while they’re better this year, it relies almost entirely on playing well against the weakest teams in the league. When faced with the good teams he tended to get blown out. He also has virtually no playoff pedigree at any other level.
I’m happy for him and his win yesterday and if we chose him to start I’ll be cheering hard to see him do well.
However, it is pretty much completely unprecedented for a goalie like that to come and backstop a team to a Stanley Cup. There is just nothing in his history that suggests that he can do it. It would be a tremendous story if it happened - basically the hockey version of Rocky beating Apollo Creed as a blue collar brawler. But it’s just completely unlikely.
Now, anyone paying attention knows that I’ve never been a big fan of Skinner. After his first NHL games I was saying that I don’t know that that’s really the goalie of the future and hoping the Oilers had backup plans. After last year I was hoping he’d win the Calder and we would immediately trade him while his value was at its highest since Campbell is likely unmovable. I sure look right, right now. I also was calling all season for the Oilers to add someone else, anyone else, so that we weren’t relying on the guy who blew last year for us or a minor league third string guy. I look right there too.
It is a tremendous indictment on our management team that in the most important season yet our season hangs on choosing between the younger goalie who looks like he has confidence issues and the career minor-leaguer signed to be the third string guy. It’s a truly awful predicament for the coach to be stuck with.
But I think as bad as that choice is, there’s only one guy who has a chance of taking the team all the way, as long a shot as it seems right now. That it’s the guy pulled in 25% of his playoff starts is again pretty incredible and even the most ardent fan of Ken Holland should probably admit at this point that he’s a complete bleeping failure for putting us in this situation.
If it was me, I would gamble that a night off watching helped Skinner and that going back to him shows enough confidence to turn it around for him. I’m gambling on that higher ceiling and hoping that that bet pays off.
Honestly I think that the Oilers will ride Pickard for another game. For Knoblauch it seems the safer choice - at least with fans and for the Oilers that’s usually what matters most. But I’d make another call if it were me because, as crazy and unfortunate as it is, I think the team pretty much has to ride or die on Stuart Skinner this year.
Whoever it is, if the Oilers play the way they did last night and severely limit chances while taking the play for Vancouver for 60% of the night then we should be fine this round (although obviously that isn’t guaranteed and another bad goalie performance by either guy could be disastrous). If we advance, that next round looks really challenging though.
"Thinking that a bad team's best players are the reason the team is bad is the "Tambellini re-signing Lennart Petrell" of sports opinions." @Woodguy55
#FireBobbyNicks
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Review:
Vancouver @ Edmonton (Game #4) |
By: OilFans on Tue, 14 May 2024 22:00 |
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Re: Review: Vancouver @ Edmonton (Game #4) |
By: g2k on Tue, 14 May 2024 22:17 |
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Re: Review: Vancouver @ Edmonton (Game #4) |
By: MJ on Tue, 14 May 2024 22:19 |
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Re: Review: Vancouver @ Edmonton (Game #4) |
By: g2k on Tue, 14 May 2024 22:21 |
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Re: Review: Vancouver @ Edmonton (Game #4) |
By: feepa on Tue, 14 May 2024 23:09 |
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Re: Review: Vancouver @ Edmonton (Game #4) |
By: Adam on Tue, 14 May 2024 22:20 |
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Re: Review: Vancouver @ Edmonton (Game #4) |
By: Mike on Tue, 14 May 2024 22:22 |
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Re: Review: Vancouver @ Edmonton (Game #4) |
By: Kr55 on Tue, 14 May 2024 22:37 |
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Re: Review: Vancouver @ Edmonton (Game #4) |
By: Adam on Wed, 15 May 2024 09:00 |
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Re: Review: Vancouver @ Edmonton (Game #4) |
By: Mike on Wed, 15 May 2024 09:55 |
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Re: Review: Vancouver @ Edmonton (Game #4) |
By: Kr55 on Wed, 15 May 2024 18:22 |
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Re: Review: Vancouver @ Edmonton (Game #4) |
By: Adam on Wed, 15 May 2024 19:31 |
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By: Kr55 on Tue, 14 May 2024 22:18 |
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Re: Review: Vancouver @ Edmonton (Game #4) |
By: Kr55 on Tue, 14 May 2024 23:09 |
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Re: Review: Vancouver @ Edmonton (Game #4) |
By: Kr55 on Wed, 15 May 2024 01:30 |
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Re: Review: Vancouver @ Edmonton (Game #4) |
By: Kr55 on Wed, 15 May 2024 19:40 |
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By: Kr55 on Tue, 14 May 2024 23:13 |
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By: Kr55 on Wed, 15 May 2024 08:36 |
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Re: Review: Vancouver @ Edmonton (Game #4) |
By: Kr55 on Wed, 15 May 2024 08:55 |
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Re: Review: Vancouver @ Edmonton (Game #4) |
By: Adam on Wed, 15 May 2024 09:22 |
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Re: Review: Vancouver @ Edmonton (Game #4) |
By: Kr55 on Wed, 15 May 2024 16:11 |
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