Stuart Skinner reveals a lot in an exclusive interview with The Hockey News.
Stuart Skinner reveals a lot in an exclusive interview with The Hockey News.
EDMONTON -- Stuart Skinner is fresh off of his first playoff shutout win.
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The Edmonton Oilers dispatched the Los Angeles Kings by a 1-0 score - primarily because of the performance of the aforementioned Skinner. It was truly a team effort, but the team recognized the importance of the game that their number one goalie put together.
"Stuart was very solid," Kris Knoblauch mentioned in his post game comments to the media present at Crypto.com Arena. He continued, "that's an understatement of how well he played - he made a lot of key saves for us."
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I had a chance to sit down with Skinner before the end of the regular season - to chat about a few things hockey (and not hockey) related. A few things that he said stood out to me that he said about Fatherhood, being a husband and how that affects his play as an NHL goaltender.
Stuart Skinner Dishes on the Balance Between Being a Father, Husband and NHL Goalie
Skinner is one of the calmest and most approachable people I've ever met - hockey player or otherwise. He has a great demeanor and an excellent head on his shoulders.
When balancing being the father of a young child and a starting goalie, Skinner talked about the difficulty (and magic) of balancing the two, "it's a hard thing to balance. Work demands a lot of your time - even when you get to go home there are moments where you're just thinking about hockey."
"I actually find it really helpful having a family and also being a father. It helps you really focus on spending time with your wife - getting to know her even better - and also your son and being able to be with him and see him do things."
"It's a very magical experience."
For Skinner, the parallels of being a goalie and being a father are not lost on him. It really comes down to, "trying to savor those moments and trying to be really present."
Family is a huge priority for Skinner. Being a husband and a father is of a higher importance to him than being a hockey player - because he won't play hockey forever, "at the end of the day hockey doesn't last forever. At the end of it you've got your family to take care of you - you've got your family to hang out with."
When it comes to his family, watching his 14-month old son grow has become a great joy in his life, "I've got a kid now, he's 14-months old. So I get to spend time with him [and] get to watch him figure out how to play mini sticks. Read him a lot of books. When the weather allows we like to go to the park and just hang out."
"Most of the time [I'm] just trying to spend time with the family. You don't get a ton of time in the season to really savor those moments."
For Skinner it ultimately comes down to his desire to be the best he can be with all that he does, "[with] hockey I get to work on my game - do video to try to be the best that I can be on the ice. When I go home I want to be the best husband, I want to be the best father I can be."
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