Edmonton Oilers' Playoff Woes: Goaltending Challenges

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00:00Back-to-back Stanley Cup champions. The focus for me, not necessarily on the Panthers. I mean,

00:03they're right in the middle of what a dynasty run should be. Three straight Stanley Cup final

00:06performances here, two Stanley Cup champions. Maybe they do in the future, which we'll get to

00:10in just a moment. But I do want to focus here on the Edmonton Oilers. And sometimes, you know,

00:14old habits just creep up. You take a look at Stuart Skinner's regular season, 26 wins for him

00:19on the season, which was 18th. But a goals against average of 2.81, 31st in the NHL,

00:23save percentage, 896, 35th in the NHL. Did we always know this was going to be a problem for

00:29Edmonton once they got to the playoffs, Jill? Absolutely, Donnie. This has always been the

00:34talk of the Edmonton Oilers. They have so much talent. You know, they do have Connor McDavid.

00:38They have Leon Dreisaitl. Their forward units are fantastic out there. Their defense has improved

00:44from a lot of season. And that's why I did think they had a fighting chance this year. But one

00:47thing that we always knew to hold true was the goaltending has been an issue for Edmonton.

00:52And it hasn't just been an issue in the Skinner days here. This has always been a team that never

00:57has enough funds, I do believe, to attract that top goaltender out there. And they need

01:02a goaltender like Bovroski, a goaltender that can maintain a 9-0-2 save percentage during the

01:07playoffs. Because otherwise, the Edmonton Oilers will face this kind of adversity each and every

01:12year, getting to the Stanley Cup Finals as the team does wear down. You see those forwards running out

01:18of energy out there. You've got to have that strong goaltender between the pipes. And with Edmonton

01:23having to go back and forth between Skinner and Pickard, which I think they should have really started

01:27Skinner in game five, we might have seen them have a little bit more of a stronger game. But they've

01:33proven they just don't have the goaltending. And it's always been the question mark for this team

01:36coming in. But you have to not knock only goaltending. You have to knock the defense. And the defense

01:41needed to give him more support. They needed to get out there. Some of those goals, like that first

01:46goal by Reinhardt, that defense, I tell you, they let Reinhardt break right through. And they didn't

01:52provide any resistance.