Edmonton Oilers' Skinner relishes rematch against Florida Panthers' Bobrovsky

National Post

2 days ago

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Florida's Sergei Bobrovsky, 36, with his two Vezina trophies, his Stanley Cup ring and his 429 career regular-season wins, 10th most all-time. And at the other end of the ice we bring you Edmonton's decade-younger Stuart Skinner, 26, with his 104 wins and craving a manhole-sized championship ring on his big hands.
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Last June it was a mixed bag for both goalies in the Stanley Cup Final matchup.
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Bobrovsky, the fastest goalie in history to reach 400 total wins, in just 707 games, beating Henrik Lundqvist's 727, stopped 50 of the first 51 Oiler shots in Games 1-2 of the 2024 playoff in Florida and only gave up four goals in the first three Panthers wins. He looked unflappable, certainly on shots along the ice, and then he crashed and almost burned, giving up 15 in three straight losses to the Oilers before reverting to form in Game 7 in Florida and giving up just Mattias Janmark's breakaway in the first period. Skinner was beaten nine times in the first three games, all losses, but just five times in games 4-6, all Oilers routs, before only Carter Verhaeghe and Sam Reinhart scored in the Game 7, 2-1 Panthers' win.
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In the series, Skinner actually had better numbers. He lost the game that counted most but he had a .909 save percentage through seven games, so certainly gave his Oiler team a chance at the big prize. Bobrovsky, more up and down, was .899.
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But Bobrovsky won the last game and was smiling in the handshake line while Skinner was trying to mask his disappointment and not doing too well at it.
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'In the lineup I remember how kind he was to somebody who had just lost,' said Skinner, who also had some nice words for Bob, lodge brother to lodge brother.
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'You just congratulate the guy. It's goalie to goalie. I thought he stole a couple of games for them. That was my main message to him, telling him he was a huge part of them winning the Cup. And that he had made it really hard on us,' he said.
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'(Saying congratulations) is hard to do in the midst of feeling crushed, in the midst of crying, though. But you have to be a man about it in a moment like that. It's one of the best days of their lives. I'm not going to have a little pity party,' he said.
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'I hope it's different in the handshake line this time around. I mean that's the dream right? But we've got a lot of work to do,' said Skinner.
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'Yeah, great game. I watched it again to get the emotions out of it,' he said.
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'As a goalie my perspective is to give your team a chance to win. We kept it at one. That's just not me, it's our D, our forwards tracking back. But again, it's hockey. You need a bit of luck to win it,' said Skinner, who will try to change the script this time around.