The issue of goaltending for the Edmonton Oilers has been a focal point for fans throughout the season and has only gotten louder after a rough weekend for the team.
Stuart Skinner and Calvin Pickard combined to give up 11 goals in blowout losses to the Philadelphia Flyers and Washington Capitals, putting their five-game road trip after the 4 Nations break off to a rocky start. While some rusty play from the players in front of them played a factor in their struggles, the goalies did not do themselves any favours by each giving up at least five goals in their respective starts.
Former Oilers goalie Devan Dubnyk knows a thing or two about how to be a netminder in this market and understands what Skinner and Pickard are going through. He made an appearance on OilersNation Everyday on Monday to share his thoughts on the state of the Oilers’ crease and assess their play so far this season.
“Well, it’s always gonna be a question in Edmonton. We talked about it last time I was on the show. It’s s something that the team’s gonna have to deal with, and it’s how they respond. Watching those games, there’s definitely some rust. It’s a combination. There are some goals that needed to be saved there. But as a goalie, when you’re in there and it’s mayhem in front of you, that’s when those goals start to go in because you’re starting to see 10 guys on the ice on the other team and you’re thinking you look at that wrist shot on Pickard that you were just talking about.
Now watching that play, the last thing he’s thinking about is that wrist shot coming from the point. He’s thinking about other things. He’s drifting back in his net. He obviously let himself lose sight of the puck, which are all things that are our job. But when things are chaotic in front of you, you can start thinking that there’s going to be three, four passes, or it’s going to hit a shin pad. All these things are going to happen. And then you forget to do all the little things to be set here. The puck comes out to the blue line, and you can watch his feet. He comes out, and he’s thinking something else. He starts drifting backwards here, drifting backwards, and he lets himself lose the puck. Obviously the puck was probably snapping around a little bit previously in this game, and he’s thinking, he’s just not thinking that shot’s coming, and that’s just not being sharp. But that’s the kind of things that can happen
The play that Dubnyk was referring to is Jakob Chychrun’s goal where he fired a shot from long range that Pickard never saw and let get past him. Dubnyk went on to add that while it is the goalie’s job to do his best to read the play, the lack of structure from the team defence in front of the netminder has an impact on their confidence and it will take a collective effort for the goalies to feel good about their game.
Pickard may have allowed more goals over the weekend between the two Oilers netminders, but Skinner wasn’t much better as he too had a blunder that he would like to forget. Midway through the second period, a routine faceoff in the defensive end turned into a disaster when the chaos in front of him made Skinner lose sight of the puck and Sean Couturier who slammed it home from in tight into the open side.
Dubnyk said that Skinner should not have overplayed the initial shot from the slot from Matvei Michkov and instead kept his composure while getting a feel for what was going on around him at that moment.
”You can see he just oversets on this one and allows himself to lose sight of the puck, which is something else that happens when you’re not feeling comfortable with what’s going on in front of you. But you can see because he oversets on the initial shot, which turns out to be a pass. there’s no movement side to side because he essentially loses edges right here and then reaches for it. He doesn’t actually read the play, and he’s probably allows himself to get screened here as well, which, like I mentioned, when things feel chaotic in front of you, that’s one thing that you have to battle through is finding the puck.
It’s a tendency. It’s an instinct where you kind of just allow yourself. You lose sight of the pocket. Instead of working through it to find it, you kind of allow yourself to lose it and you just freeze up a little bit. And that’s a perfect example on that play where I think he might allow himself to lose it. Instead of making one extra movement to find it and feel the guy off. He just wants to make sure he stops it. And so he drops and then all he can do is reach because it wasn’t it wasn’t a far push to go if he’s relaxed and feels that guy off to his left.”
As far as what can be done to stem the tide and get things back on track, Dubnyk said it boils down to the team in front of the goalies doing a better job of having better structure in front of the goalies. He argues that when a team is focused on trying to prevent scoring chances, that leads to chaos in the defensive zone because players go out of position in a desperate attempt to keep the puck away from the net. It results in the goalie losing confidence in the structure because of the frantic action happening in front of them.
That’s why the former Oilers netminder feels this can be solved with a veteran presence on defence who can calm things down when things get crazy.
”Edmonton is a position that they should be looking to upgrade any way they possibly can because they are a strong Cup contender. But you kind of know what you get from the guys there, so, for me, it’s a veteran presence back there. Somebody stable that can calm things down when it does get chaotic.
Who that is – you guys are talking about salary cap and whatnot earlier – I don’t think it’s necessarily a big splash, but an older guy that is stable that can go on the ice when things are feeling a little chaotic and really settle the whole group down. I think it’s important for this team because things can just start to unravel and it goes five guys and a goalie on the ice when you don’t feel like things are in control.”
You can listen to the full segment with Dubnyk down below:
