After another Stanley Cup Final goalie benching, NHL netminders discuss the dreaded yank: ‘A brutal feeling'

New York Times

2 days ago

The Edmonton Oilers' comeback in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final was electrifying.
It was incredible for the Oilers, who looked headed for a 3-1 series hole after an abysmal first period and instead will return home for Game 5 with the series tied. It was incredible for Leon Draisaitl, who added to his legend by scoring his second overtime winner of this Cup Final alone, sending Edmonton to a 5-4 victory. It was incredible for the thousands of Oilers faithful back in Edmonton, who partied well into Thursday night outside of Rogers Place.
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There is one player for whom it was less incredible, though.
Goaltender Stuart Skinner was the biggest reason this miraculous comeback was even possible in the first place. He made several key saves in the first period while the Panthers dominated over the first 20 minutes. He was the Oilers' best player, standing tall in the crease to keep the deficit to only three goals.
His reward?
One of the most embarrassing moments any goalie will face: the dreaded yank.
Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch spared Skinner the usual skate of shame, benching him for good during the second intermission after Skinner allowed three goals on 17 shots. It was the second straight game Knoblauch pulled Skinner from the net in favor of backup Calvin Pickard, and the third time he's done so this postseason.
'It's unfortunate for Stu to be pulled there,' Knoblauch said after the game. 'Our team was flat. We didn't give him any opportunities, again taking three penalties in the first period. Unfortunately we needed to change things up, and the change was great.'
It's hard to lay much blame at Skinner's skates for the three goals he allowed (we'll go over that in more detail later). Rather, the decision was made to 'spark' a team that was getting thoroughly outplayed for the fourth straight period. It helps that the backup happens to be undefeated this posteason, and this time it seemed to work – to the tune of four unanswered Edmonton goals.
Would the Oilers have re-focused after the intermission, and rallied for the win with Skinner still in net? We'll never know, but Pickard seems to think so.
'I felt for (Skinner) today,' Pickard said after the win. 'He came ready to play today and made some big saves early, we just didn't have it as a team early. I think (Knoblauch) just wanted to switch it up. If he was playing behind our team in the second, third and overtime he would've done what I did too.'
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No goalie is immune to the yank, whether performance-related or not. Skinner hasn't played great this postseason with a .894 save percentage, but every netminder experiences it. Many times, it's through no fault of their own. It's a unique situation that unfairly punishes a player for the good of the team, but it's nothing new. Coaches have been doing it for decades, and likely will for decades to come.
We thought it would be interesting to pick goalies' brains on the subject, so we asked a couple NHL netminders for their insight into the odd dynamic that has already unfolded multiple times in the Cup Final, and famously in the Western Conference Finals between Dallas and Edmonton.
'From a goalie perspective, the bottom line is you never want to get pulled,' Washington Capitals goalie Charlie Lindgren said. 'It's embarrassing. It's a brutal feeling. You always feel like you want to keep battling back.'
Sometimes the pull comes because the goalie himself doesn't have his best that night, and the coach thinks a switch gives his team the best chance to get saves. That, along with giving Pickard a chance to knock some rust off after his injury, likely motivated Knoblauch to pull Skinner in Game 3. Sometimes, though, the yank is to simply send a message to the rest of the team.
'It's never easy to be the guy who's coming out of the net and the night's over with,' Lindgren said. 'That's not a fun thing to go through. Instinctually, especially for goalies at this level, there's so much heart, so much battle and so much compete. You always think that the next shot is going to be yours. You're going to find a way to keep your team in it.'
Skinner was doing that on Thursday night: keeping his team in it. He made several great saves in the opening 20 minutes, and none of the goals he allowed were particularly soft.
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The first was a screened shot by Florida's Matthew Tkachuk on a 5-on-3 power play from less than 20 feet away. Skinner wasn't able to see the release as he scrambled to look around two of his own players and Aleksander Barkov in front, and the save would've been tough even if he had.
It's fair to criticize Skinner's rebound control on the second goal, as a shot spilled off his chest protector to Tkachuk's waiting stick in front of the net. But it was also a hard shot from point-blank range, and human reaction time has its limitations. I'd argue that on a shot from that spot, it's on the goalie to make the initial save and on the defenders to clean up the rebound, which Tkachuk instead netted for his second goal of the night.
The third goal was a one-timer by Anton Lundell on the doorstep on a pass from behind the goal. There wasn't much Skinner could do on that other than what he did: gain depth, make himself big and seal any holes. Lundell placed the shot outside of Skinner's blocker and inside the left post.
Having said all of that, the decision clearly worked. Pickard was good, as he's been all postseason, stopping 22 of the 23 shots he faced. He made a few timely saves — none bigger than a massive glove stop on Sam Bennett in overtime, clipping just enough of the puck to redirect the it into the crossbar moments before Draisaitl scored the winner.
But Pickard wasn't the difference in the game after the goalie swap. The Oilers looked like a completely different team over the final 51 minutes. In the first period Florida held commanding edges shots (17-7), scoring chances (22-5) and high-danger chances (13-2) according to Natural Stat Trick. In the final 51 minutes Edmonton flipped that, outshooting the Panthers 28-23, and out-chancing them 20-10.
'We wanted to come out strong tonight, but they put us on our heels early and we were kind of lollygagging around a little bit,' Draisaitl said.
Why professional players were 'lollygagging around' in the first period of a Stanley Cup Final game is an entirely different topic for another story. One thing is clear, though: Coaches believe benching their goalie sends a message to the team that can only be accomplished by such a drastic measure. The coach could easily sit the players in front of Skinner – the ones who were lollygagging – for a shift or two, but it doesn't have the same jarring effect.
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'When the goalie comes out, and he was the guy who started the game, and you're expecting to be a rock back there,' Lindgren explained. 'When he gets pulled it's a wake up call. You know your backup is going in. He's probably cold. He probably wasn't expecting to play. So it gives the players even more reason to sharpen up and better themselves.'
Lindgren's goalie partner in Washington, Logan Thompson, agreed.
'You're sending a message,' Thompson said. '(The starter) has been your go-to guy and he's gotten you to this point. I think it's a 'holy s—' moment for the rest of the guys saying, 'He's not going to bail us out tonight. We need to change something about us. We're clearly not helping him out.' '
An NHL goalie typically knows when the pull is due to his own play. He is well aware of which goals he should've stopped, and which ones he did everything in his process correctly, but still gave up.
'As the game is going on you usually have an idea of how you're playing and the quality of goals you're giving up,' Lindgren said.
Even with that understanding, goalies are hyper-competitive and hate being removed from the game in most cases.
'I think every goalie takes the blame when they get pulled, just knowing the nature of how competitive we are,' Thompson said. 'Most goalies always think they can do more or do better.'
In the case of Thursday's Game 4 in Florida, the move worked to perfection. Pickard wasn't asked to do much for the majority of his 51 minutes in the crease, but he made timely saves and improved to 6-0 in the playoffs.
There are plenty of cases in which it doesn't work. Look no further than Pete DeBoer's decision to pull Jake Oettinger from Game 5 of the Western Conference Final after allowing two goals that clearly weren't on him. Backup Casey DeSmith gave up another goal less than a minute after being thrown into the crease cold, and Dallas' season ended – as did DeBoer's tenure as their coach days later.
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It's such an interesting concept. In the vast majority of cases, the coach is choosing to tab an inferior player at one of the most important positions in order to play a psychological trick on the rest of the team. Even the goalies – who are obviously more opposed to the idea than most – can see the potential merit.
'I think there is probably a time and place for it,' Lindgren said. 'If the team is playing lackadaisical and maybe the effort isn't there or they're hanging the goalie out to dry, then I could see (how) getting him out of there … would shake up and wake up the team a little bit. I've seen it happen. There are definitely times where that has worked.'
There are also ways the process could be improved – namely involving the goalie coach, or even the goalie himself, more in the decision. Every situation is unique, but Thompson said he's never been consulted on a possible pull during the game. Some teams empower the goalie coach more than others, but there's no question they should have a say, considering the uniqueness of the position and the goalie coach's expertise.
In the end, though, it's always the head coach's call. He assumes all of the risk, and the reward. Sometimes, as with DeBoer, it's the last big call he makes on that team's bench. Sometimes it sparks the team to a thrilling comeback to even the series in the Stanley Cup Final.
(Photo of Pickard, left, and Skinner after Game 4: Steph Chambers / Getty Images)