Madison Square Garden has long been called one of the world’s most famous arenas and lately, it’s become Stuart Skinner’s favorite. On Tuesday night, the Edmonton Oilers netminder delivered a masterclass under the bright Broadway lights, stopping all 30 shots he faced to secure a 2-0 shutout over the New York Rangers.
The game saw a continuation of Skinner’s quietly dominant trend against one of the NHL’s top teams. With the win, he now holds a 4-1-0 career record versus the Rangers paired with a stingy 1.80 goals-against average and a .941 save percentage.
Stuart Skinner is unbeaten at MSG
During the post-game interview, Skinner couldn’t hide a grin when the conversation turned to Madison Square Garden, an arena that has consistently brought out his best work. He is now unbeaten in his career starts there and Tuesday’s highlight-filled shutout extended that streak.
When asked whether something about the Garden seems to lift his game, Skinner leaned into the question with a quick smile.
“It’s a great building to play in,” he said with a grin. “MSG, I mean, it’s one of the top dogs for arenas, I’d say.”
The performance was backed by the Oilers flawless penalty kill. Skinner stopped nine shots while shorthanded and he credited the victory to the group in front of him. “The guys made my job a little easier,” he said praising the defensive effort and timely clears that kept Edmonton in control.
The Rangers, meanwhile, have now been shut out in three straight home games, a stat Skinner didn’t know until teammate Calvin Pickard mentioned it after the final whistle.
“Calvin [Pickard] told me that right after the game and I was pretty shocked,” Skinner said. “They played really well, made some amazing plays and had good looks. They were battling hard.”
Skinner confident Oilers deserved the two-points
Stuart Skinner credited the team for earning the win, noting it was a “man’s game” and that the guys fully deserved the two points. He pointed to the energy that started in the morning as a big factor saying the team had a smooth rhythm in practice with strong tape-to-tape passes and a sense that everyone just “knew” what to do.
“Oh, it’s always really big. I think it’s great for our morale in general, being able to fight one off, battle, grind and win a game in a hard way. That was a man’s game out there, and the way the guys played, they deserved the two points tonight.”
Reflecting on the tight contest, Skinner said winning a hard-fought early season game like this is important for morale and it feels good to see the team can come out on top.
So far so good for this season start! Other than the miscommunication goal from the first game? Stuart Skinner has been doing really well. Maybe a combination of being leaner and the goalie coach change, so it’s a better season start for sure!
I’m glad for Stu and the guys, and I’ve seen Bouchard make some good defensive plays, but that giveaway behind the net wasn’t great, but I feel the really bad part was afterwards, Bouchard skated to the side of the net, instead of the front and should have tried to take away the 5-hole shot so Stu could focus on any higher shots.
Luckily, Stu was in a good position and made the stop, but that could have ruined the shutout.
It kind of reminds me of that one goal against the LA Kings playoffs game where Jake Walman was able to stop a clean breakaway, but Bouchard went to the side of the net and observed the play happening in front of him, just a lapse in judgement.
For the rest of the game though? I agree that the defense did a pretty good job for the most part in keeping good shots away from the Rangers and making them have to take risky plays to even get a chance. That’s the kind of defensive clinic the Oilers will need to keep up if they want to potentially clinch the division.
Let’s go STUUUUUI!!!!! Let’s go Oilers!