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 Jay
Messages: 1340
Registered: January 2007
Location: Edmonton
1 Cup
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| Adam wrote on Fri, 25 April 2025 11:48 |
Pickard reportedly starting tonight.
Here's hoping it goes well.
Also - whoever in the organization has been informing all the goaltending decisions has to be changed. The history here is incredible.
2023 - Skinner is pulled three times in a row versus Vegas. Team decides that he's the starter and that all we need behind him is a back-up in his 30s who hasn't been over .900 sv% in years.
2024 - We go to the Finals, but along the way, Skinner struggles so badly against Vancouver that he needs to be sat in favour of Pickard's first ever playoff starts. In the summer, the team decides that they're still the tandem to take this forward.
Fall 2024 - both goalies fumbling out of the gate, especially Skinner. Goalies getting moved with some regularity. Oilers decide no - all good. We got the guys we need.
2025 - After two dreadful starts, Skinner sat in favour of Pickard's third ever playoff start. No matter what happens from here on out in this post-season, all of that prior decision-making is just exposed as a complete bleeping disaster.
Whether they believed in Skinner or not, Pickard shouldn't be the one they're tapping now. They should have upgraded at some point to someone who you might possibly be able to count on here. I mean, imagine if we'd gotten Logan Thompson or Mackenzie Blackwood in the last year, and Pickard was pushed to the AHL or lost on waivers? We're in such a better position.
I believe the Oilers can win. The Kings are beatable and we have the best players. But the goaltending is a tire fire and such an obvious one that I don't know how you don't fire someone over those decisions.
EDIT to add - I forgot but we didn't just bet on Skinner in 2023-24...we also believed that Jack Campbell just worked really hard in the summer so he was going to be viable again last year...oops.
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2023 Skinner was pulled against LA too.
I'm glad Pickard is starting tonight. I said at the start of the playoffs that it was never 'if' but 'when' Skinner would be pulled. The only question was how big of a hole would they be in when they finally realise (hopefully for the last time) that he is a massive liability. Hopefully it's not too late and they can still dig their way out of this.
Let's hope the Stewart Skinner as a number 1 experiment is finally over. He seems like a good guy and can probably carve out a career for himself as an AHL starter or an NHL backup if he finds the right situation but he needs to be wearing a ball cap from now on.
"Initiative comes to thems that wait"
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