The young Edmonton Oilers netminder revealed his approach to handling a starting goaltender's workload.
The young Edmonton Oilers netminder revealed his approach to handling a starting goaltender's workload.
The Edmonton Oilers are in the midst of an 11-game winning streak - the longest in franchise history. Everything seems to be going right for them from one night to the next. The penalty kill has been top notch. They have gotten contributions up and down the lineup.
The biggest one is the play of netminder Stuart Skinner.
Skinner has been tremendous - especially over this last segment of games. He has started 14 of the teams last 19 games. This scenario is less than ideal, but the Oilers are making the most of it.
Last year Skinner took on a huge workload when Jack Campbell struggled, and Skinner has learned some lessons from his experiences in 2022-23:
"I learned last year that it's really important to obviously take care of your body," Skinner told The Hockey News. Not only did he learn some things from experience, but he was able to pick the brain of a veteran player to gain some insight.
"I remember having a conversation with Jack Campbell last year about playing a lot of games in a row and after you play a lot it can be fatiguing on the body."
He didn't reveal much, except to say that he now has a "couple tricks up the sleeve" to keep his body fresh. Skinner later told The Hockey News, "the big thing is sleep."
"I always try to get eight hours."
The Oilers have a goalie-friendly schedule for the month of January. Kris Knoblauch is aware of this and they are "managing his (Skinner's) workload." He also stressed that the coaching staff "has a plan" and are always assessing the situation in net.
"The plan was for him to have a significant amount of games in January."
The schedule compacts quite a bit over the last half of the schedule. This will be something to monitor for fans. Will the team acquire another goalie? Will they keep the tandem they have? The team has a bit more runway left before they have to address this.
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