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 Kr55
Messages: 10570
Registered: May 2002
Location: Edmonton
6 Cups
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[Updated on: Wed, 15 May 2024 16:13]
"We need to get better immediately. That starts today"
- Lowe, 2013
"Next year I would forecast as another developmental year"
- MacT, 2015
5 x $5,000,000
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Kr55
Messages: 10570
Registered: May 2002
Location: Edmonton
6 Cups
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| Mike wrote on Wed, 15 May 2024 09:55 |
| Adam wrote on Wed, 15 May 2024 12:00 |
| halfafrog wrote on Tue, 14 May 2024 22:36 |
No fricken way. None of those were bad goals on Pickard. One went off Nurse and one off a skate. He stopped every puck he saw. Made the big saves when he had to.
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It wouldn't be for anything Picard did - I'd go back to Skinner because he's the only one I think can actually MAYBE carry the team for two more rounds. It was great the way that worked out, but going back to him says - hey, we just needed to have him reset and now we believe in him and it'll be fine.
I don't think the Oilers will do that - I think Picard will be back in goal. But I think they SHOULD play Skinner because, frankly, they need him. And if we get past Vancouver, we'll need him even more. I don't like Picard's chances against either Dallas or Colorado.
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I understand what you're saying, but I disagree 100%. They have to go back with Pickard. With a short leash, but he was as good as any playoff game Skinner has played, and much better than most of them.
The 2 goals that went in he had no chance on. I thought he was moving quite well and looked composed and confident. I see no benefit putting Skinner back in.
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Skinner can come back if Pickard falters. If Skinner can have 4 super weak sauce games in a row and cost the team a couple key wins, I think Pickard can have at least 1 unfortunate night.
Considering how ice cold and zero confidence we know SKinners play can get, including multiple huge sinker games in each of the 4 series he has played. 2/8 games this playoffs he managed .900. 5/12 last playoffs. 13/20 games under 0.900. I don't think he has quite earned the automatic starter reputation yet. Let him be hungry to get his job back. Guy still has a lot of developing to do to keep his focus and confidence up.
[Updated on: Wed, 15 May 2024 18:30]
"We need to get better immediately. That starts today"
- Lowe, 2013
"Next year I would forecast as another developmental year"
- MacT, 2015
5 x $5,000,000
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inverno76
Messages: 2327
Registered: September 2005
Location: Prince Albert, Saskatchew...
2 Cups
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I really noticed whenever Vancouver got shot from the face off circle they attack Pickard’s blocker. The book is out on him, but I think they want low blocker and our dmen really took the bottom of the net away.
Pickard answered every shot and although it’s Skinner’s net, Pickard’s borrowing it possibly for the rest of the series.
Too piggy back on Adam’s comment about switching to a passive forecheck, we did that in game 1 too. Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.
Why go away from a winning strategy. Vancouver had no ice and no offence until we let the foot off the gas.
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inverno76
Messages: 2327
Registered: September 2005
Location: Prince Albert, Saskatchew...
2 Cups
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I’d love to hear what the Oilers really think of Spec. What a loser, and then you get guys like Gregor defending him.
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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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Kr55
Messages: 10570
Registered: May 2002
Location: Edmonton
6 Cups
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| inverno76 wrote on Wed, 15 May 2024 19:28 |
I’d love to hear what the Oilers really think of Spec. What a loser, and then you get guys like Gregor defending him.
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I didn't realize that Spector asked that right after the questions to Bouch and Pickard about what kind of guy Pickard was in the room, and then Pickard asked about how positive his reputation in the room seems to be everywhere he goes.
Then Spector trying to bring everyone back down by making Pickard reflect on a potential past where he may have been imagining his career would end without ever being able to touch playoff ice in the NHL. Then a bonus doozy, asking Pickard if he imagined that if he got to be in a playoff game, and he was holding a lead late in a game, if how it actually felt matched up to his past imagined experience. Seriously, wth? lol
"We need to get better immediately. That starts today"
- Lowe, 2013
"Next year I would forecast as another developmental year"
- MacT, 2015
5 x $5,000,000
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| Skookum Jim wrote on Tue, 14 May 2024 23:01 |
| kungpaobenji27 wrote on Tue, 14 May 2024 21:42 |
WHEW!!!! Glad they went back to separating #97 and #29 at ES.
Wouldn't mind going back to Skinner in the near future of these playoffs if needed...but this "benching" is honestly a part of the maturation & development process....and it SHOULD have happened in last year's playoffs against Vegas. Keep your head up Stu!
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Holloway.. way better than Foegle.. guy has wheels, puck smarts, and stick skills..
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Agreed. I think the Oil should pass on Foegle next year. Save that money for the big contracts.
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