After the first two games of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoff series between the Edmonton Oilers and Los Angeles Kings, no Oilers player was under more pressure than Stuart Skinner. And in Games 3 and 4, no Oilers player stepped up more than Skinner.
The Edmonton goaltender was sensational on Sunday (April 28), stopping 33 shots as the Oilers beat L.A. 1-0 at Crypto.com Arena to take a commanding 3-1 lead in their best-of-seven series. Skinner’s first career NHL Playoffs shutout came on the heels of his strong performance in Game 3 on Friday (April 26), when he made 27 saves in a 6-1 victory for the Oilers.
Related: Oilers Shut Out Kings 1-0 in Game 4, Grab 3-1 Series Lead
He is just the fifth goalie in franchise history to allow one or fewer goals in back-to-back playoff starts, and his 33 saves Sunday are the third most by an Oilers netminder in a postseason shutout.
Skinner’s play in L.A. alleviated a lot of concerns in Oil Country, giving reason to believe that the Oilers can ride this unproven 25-year-old goalie all the way to the Stanley Cup.
Skinner Struggles Early in Series
The Oilers and Kings split the series’ first two games, both of which were at Rogers Place. Edmonton opened the series with a 7-4 win on April 22, before Los Angeles bounced back two days later with a 5-4 victory in overtime.
Offensively, the Oilers were firing on all cylinders. Eleven goals in two games usually would translate to a 2-0 series lead. But at the other end of the ice, Edmonton’s play wasn’t that great, particularly between the pipes, where Skinner had been beaten by a couple shots that he should have stopped.
This was troubling for many Oilers fans, who watched Skinner struggle throughout his first NHL postseason last year. In the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs, he went 5-6 with a goals-against average (GAA) of 3.68 and a save percentage (SV%) of .883 while being pulled from a start four times.
While Skinner had another strong regular season in 2023-24, going 36-16-5 with a 2.62 GAA and .905 SV%, a troubling trend was developing of his play dropping off once the playoffs started. If he couldn’t get on track, Edmonton’s postseason was going to end quickly.
Skinner Rebounds in Games 3 and 4
Edmonton jumped out to a 3-0 lead after the first period in Game 1, taking some of the pressure off Skinner. After Los Angeles cut the lead to 3-1 early in the middle frame, he came up with big saves to maintain Edmonton’s two-goal lead. He was locked in right from the start of what eventually turned out to be a blowout win for the Oilers.
Sunday’s contest was a different story. Faced with the possibility of falling behind 3-1 in the series, L.A. charged out of the gate, outshooting the Oilers 10-4 in the first period. Skinner stood tall, getting his team to the intermission tied at 0-0 despite being grossly out-chanced.
Skinner was even better after Oilers blueliner Evan Bouchard scored on the power play midway through Game 4 to give Edmonton a 1-0 lead. He made a number of big stops in the third, robbing L.A.’s Alex Laferriere and Travis Moore, and got some help from his teammates, who blocked three shots in the final 37 seconds of the game.
When the final horn sounded, the Oilers had been outshot 33-13, including 13-3 in the third period. Edmonton tied the franchise record for fewest shots on goal in a playoff game, and still managed to skate away with a pivotal win.
Skinner might not have outright stolen a victory for Edmonton, but the Oilers certainly wouldn’t have won without the 25-year-old netminder having the best postseason performance of his NHL career.
Skinner Can Become a Playoff Performer
In 16 career NHL postseason games, Skinner is 8-7 with a 3.35 GAA and .893 SV%. Those numbers aren’t anywhere close to his career stats during the NHL regular season, in which he has a 72-36-10 record, a GAA of 2.69, and a SV% of .910.
But Skinner has been absolutely lights-out the last two games, and he wouldn’t be the first netminder to turn into a clutch performer after falling flat in his early playoff forays. None other than Grant Fuhr, the Hockey Hall of Famer whose No. 31 hangs in the rafters at Rogers Place, had a disastrous playoff debut in 1982, going 2-3 with a 5.05 GAA and .853 SV% as Edmonton was shockingly upset by the Kings in the best-of-five Smyth Division Semi-Final.
The next time Fuhr was a starter in the postseason, 1984, he was backstopping Edmonton to the first of five championships in a span of seven years.
The Stanley Cup is exactly what today’s Oilers hope awaits in their not-to-distant future. The only way Edmonton gets anywhere near hockey’s holy grail is if Skinner continues to perform a lot more like he did in Games 3 and 4 than in Games 1 and 2. Next up: Game 5 at Rogers Place on Wednesday (May 1), when Skinner and the Oilers can punch their ticket to Round 2.