EDMONTON — The Edmonton Oilers traded Stuart Skinner because they had to.
The dressing room, team confidence, a need for someone fresh in goal… They all added up to a pricey trade that — right from the start — seemed more a lateral move than a significant or obvious upgrade.
This morning, as Tristan Jarry stumbles towards the Olympic break, pulled on Saturday for the first time as an Oiler after allowing three questionable goals in a 7-3 loss to Minnesota, the Oilers would gladly take “lateral move” when folks are evaluating this goaltending transaction.
Thus far, it has not been anything close to lateral.
After a horrid performance against the Wild, however, Jarry more than hinted that his troubles were due to leaky team defence in front of him.
“It’s tough,” he began. “The chances we are giving up, some of the shots, they’re tough. It’s a lot of Grade A’s, a lot of breakdowns. So I think it’s tough (for him) to really think about your game at this point. It’s a whole team game.”
In the crucial second period around which this game turned, Edmonton outshot Minnesota 17-7 but was outscored 3-0. The high-danger chances in Period 2, according to Natural Stat Trick, were 5-4 for Edmonton, but we’re not sure any of the three goals allowed by Jarry came on particularly dangerous chances.
Mats Zuccarello scored right off a draw, one-timing a puck that came to him when Mike Hartman won the faceoff. There was no screen, Zuccarello was standing still as he shot it, and frankly, Jarry did not appear to be ready for the shot.
Then Jarry surrendered a goofy one by Quinn Hughes, whose shot hit a leg and deflected off the end boards right back to Hughes. The former Canuck stuffed the rebound underneath of Jarry, who once again was slow to react to what was not a Grade A chance.
Then Vladimir Tarasenko rifled one far side off the post and in off the rush — from not a great angle. We’ll chalk that up to a premier NHL shooter scoring a premier NHL goal — those will happen.
“It’s not terrible,” head coach Kris Knoblauch said of the Tarasenko goal. “You’d like to have a save there, but it’s not one that you’re thinking, ‘That was awful.’”
What a resounding review that was.
Skinner, in 12 starts as a Pittsburgh Penguin, has a save percentage of .895 and a goals-against average of 2.53. Jarry’s time in Edmonton has produced an .873 save percentage and a 3.59 goals against.
And all those Stu Skinner haters in Edmonton? You could hear a collective “Gulp!” all the way to Fort MacMurray when Knoblauch went to his reliever Saturday, as Jarry posted his worst performance as an Oiler.
“We were just on the wrong side of it tonight. There’s obviously a lot of goals that went in,” Jarry said. “Everyone knows when we play the game that we want to put on the ice, that will put us on the better side of things. But to be on that side, we just have to tighten up and eliminate some of the chances.
“We want to play fast, we want to play up, we want to play in their end. When we’re taking some of those chances, they come back at us, and it’s tough. We just have to make sure we’re managing the puck a little bit better.”
Here are Jarry‘s save percentages in his last five games: .882, .739, .867, .902, and .750. Add them all up, and that’s an .836 save percentage in his past five.
On Saturday, two good teams each gave roughly as good as they got. The only obvious difference in the game was in the crease, where Jesper Wallstedt stopped everything you would expect him to stop, plus a few more. Jarry made some exceptional saves — but allowed two pucks to get in that never should have.
That turned a 2-2 game at the first intermission into a 5-2 game after 40. The Wild aren’t San Jose — there would be no three-goal, third-period comeback on this night.
“We could get another save,” allowed Knoblauch, when asked about his goaltending. “The amount of chances (Edmonton gives up) isn’t that many. The quality of the chances is something that’s got to be addressed. It has to get better — more perimeter shots, less breakaways or two-on-ones, odd-man rushes, those kind of things that are leading to goals.”
So, the debate becomes: maybe it’s not the goalies at all. Perhaps a save percentage in the relatively high .800’s is all any goalie could ever have behind the kind of defensive structure the Oilers sport prior to the trade deadline.
Edmonton sits ninth from the bottom in the NHL in goals allowed per game (3.25). It’s never been their strong suit, and they’ve never had — if one even exists — a goalie who can bring their defensive stats in line with the type of payoff team they’ve been for about five years now.
Maybe they should trade for Wallstedt, whom the Oilers chose not to draft when he was sitting there in 2021.
Or start the Pickard kid…
OIL SPILLS — Leon Draisaitl’s first-period goal was the 1,034th point of his career, which ties Mark Messier for fourth most points in franchise history. He missed a couple of shifts when he left the bench to have his right hand looked at after a collision, but returned to play a regular shift the rest of the game … Evan Bouchard recorded his 60th point of the year, which is tied with Zach Werenski for the most by a defenceman this season.
