Game 1 of the 2024 Stanley Cup Final will see the Edmonton Oilers battle the host Florida Panthers at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise on Saturday (June 8).
With a few days before the best-of-seven series gets underway, Edmonton has been afforded some time to prepare for the Panthers and nurse the bumps and bruises that have accumulated over three rounds of spring hockey. This could prove very beneficial for the Oilers as they attempt to win the NHL championship for the first time since 1990.
But the situation could have, and probably should have, been much different. The Oilers could have been at American Airlines Center tonight (June 4), playing in Game 7 of the Western Conference Final against the Dallas Stars.
The reason the Oilers are not in Dallas is that they defeated the Stars 2-1 at Rogers Place on Sunday (June 2) to win the series in six games. And the reason they beat the Stars in Game 6 is one masked man: goaltender Stuart Skinner.
“He was unbelievable tonight. We’re not sitting up here talking about a win if it wasn’t for him,” Edmonton captain Connor McDavid said while wearing a Western Conference champions hat in the post-game press conference on Sunday night. “We’re on a plane for Dallas if it wasn’t for Stu.”
Skinner Steals Win for Oilers in Game 6
The Oilers netminder stood on his head in Game 6, stopping 34 of 35 shots to backstop Edmonton to its first conference championship-clinching victory in 18 years. Skinner was under pressure all game, as the Oilers fired just 10 shots on Dallas goalie Jake Oettinger, setting a franchise record for fewest shots ever in a regular season or postseason game.
Skinner’s iconic performance on Sunday was the exclamation point at the end of the statement that he has been writing for the last two and half weeks, going 6-2 since returning to the lineup after sitting out Games 4 and 5 of Edmonton’s second round series with the Vancouver Canucks.
There was a great deal of unease in Oil Country on May 18, when Skinner was given the nod to start Game 6 against the Canucks as Edmonton faced elimination. Two rounds later, Oilers fans should be left feeling nothing but faith in the 25-year-old.
“He’s still such a young goalie, but he’s gone through so much,” McDavid continued during Sunday’s press conference. “A lot of people doubt him, a lot of people don’t say the nicest things about him, but he is an elite goaltender in this league, he really is. He showed that tonight, he showed that over the course of the year and the playoffs. He loves proving people wrong, and he certainly did that.”
Skinner Was Shaky in His Playoff Debut
To be fair, there was as much reason to doubt Skinner as there is now to believe in him. He has been quite good during the regular season thus far in his NHL career, going 72-36-10 with a 2.69 goals-against average (GAA) and .909 save percentage (SV%), but through his first 20 NHL playoff games, his level of play was simply not up to the standard of a starting NHL goaltender.
Last year, in his Stanley Cup Playoff debut, Skinner went 5-6 with a 3.68 GAA and .883 SV%, while getting pulled from four of his 12 postseason starts.
This spring started better for Skinner, who posted a 2.59 GAA and .910 SV% while picking up his first NHL playoff shutout as Edmonton eliminated the Los Angeles Kings in five games in Round 1. But he struggled in the first three against Vancouver, posting a 4.40 GAA and .793 SV% as Edmonton fell behind 2-1 in the series.
That’s when Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch turned to backup Calvin Pickard for Game 4, and the veteran goalie delivered the biggest performance of his NHL career, stopping 19 of 21 shots in Edmonton’s 3-2 victory at Rogers Place that tied the series at two wins apiece.
Pickard played arguably even better in Game 5 at Rogers Arena, making 32 saves, but the Oilers lost 3-2 to fall behind 3-2 in the series. With Game 6 back in Edmonton, the moment of truth arrived. Knoblauch placed his trust in Skinner, and the rest is history.
Skinner Comes Up Big in the Clutch
Skinner made 14 saves as Edmonton smashed Vancouver 5-1 to force a winner-take-all Game 7. Then the Oilers went into Rogers Arena and eliminated the Canucks with a 3-2 win, as Skinner blocked 15 shots to backstop Edmonton to its first Game 7 victory on the road in 26 years.
Against Dallas, Skinner was brilliant. He allowed more than two goals just once in six games, posting a 1.91 GAA and .922 SV% over the course of the Western Conference Final.
Trailing 2-1 in the series, Edmonton fell behind 2-0 just 5:29 into Game 4. From that point on, over the final 174:31 against Dallas, Skinner allowed just two goals.
This is one of the greatest stretches of clutch goaltending in Edmonton’s storied Stanley Cup Playoff history. But those who are surprised by it might not be familiar with Skinner’s history.
Before he got to the NHL, the Edmonton native always rose to the occasion when everything was on the line: at age 14, he backstopped the South Side Athletic Club to both the Alberta Major Midget Bantam Hockey League and Western Canada Bantam Championship titles in 2013.
In junior hockey, Skinner propelled the Swift Current Broncos to the 2018 Western Hockey League (WHL) championship, leading the WHL Playoffs with a 2.20 GAA and .932 SV% and a record-tying six shutouts. He already has championship experience at the professional level, appearing in every postseason game for the Bakersfield Condors when the American Hockey League (AHL) team won the John D. Chick Trophy in 2021. And now he’s the starting goalie of the Stanley Cup finalists.
Oilers Goalies Go Through Growing Pains
No one is immune to growing pains. Even legendary Oilers goaltender Grant Fuhr, a first-ballot Hall-of-Famer whose No. 31 hangs in the rafters of Rogers Place, was not good in his playoff debut, going 2-3 with a 5.05 GAA and .853 SV% as Edmonton was shockingly upset by the Kings in the 1982 Smyth Division Semi-Final. The next time Fuhr was a starter in the postseason, he backstopped Edmonton to its first championship, a gentleman’s sweep of the New York Islanders in the 1984 Stanley Cup Final.
This is not to suggest that Skinner is Fuhr, but he might actually be more important to Edmonton’s Stanley Cup hopes in 2024 than Fuhr was to the Oilers winning it all 40 years ago. Oilers fans, from the doubters to the believers to the in-betweeners, will soon find out, and they can’t wait.
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