Stan Bowman smirked when the conversation shifted to goaltending.
The Edmonton Oilers general manager has been in the job just under 16 months. He knows the crease — especially in a Canadian market — is always a hot topic.
And it’s particularly scalding right now in Alberta’s capital.
Stuart Skinner has allowed 11 goals over his last three starts, including four in Saturday’s embarrassing 9-1 home loss to the Colorado Avalanche before getting pulled.
The Oilers rebounded with a 5-4 overtime victory Monday against the Columbus Blue Jackets thanks to a pair of jaw-dropping goals from Connor McDavid on a night that saw Skinner stop 15 of the 19 shots he faced.
Coming off its second straight Stanley Cup final appearance in June, Edmonton owns a 7-6-4 record through 17 games with Skinner and Calvin Pickard between the pipes.
Skinner, the team’s current No. 1 option, had a .905 save percentage and a 2.62 goals-against average in 2023-24, but has watched his numbers head in the wrong direction since. The 27-year-old had a .896 save percentage and a 2.81 GAA last season before starting off the current campaign with a 2.91 GAA and an .883 save percentage.
There have been calls from fans and media for Bowman to make a trade, but speaking Tuesday in Toronto after the NHL’s annual November GM meeting, the executive said his netminders have been far from the only issue in a wobbly start.
“Our goalies have been average — haven’t been elite and they haven’t been bad,” Bowman told The Canadian Press. “Sort of the way our team has been. I don’t know if they performed really any differently than our forwards and our defence. We’re just not clicking as a group.
“That position gets more attention. I’m not sure it’s more of a problem.”
Bowman said the onus is on the entire roster to simply play better.
“We’ve had ups and downs throughout with both goalies, the defence and the forwards,” he said. “It would be probably clearer if (goaltending was) costing us games night after night, but that’s just not it.
“We’ve had other things that have been costing us just as much.”
Edmonton stumbling out of the gate is a familiar story. Edmonton sat 5-11-1 through 17 games in 2023-24 and was 9-7-1 last season before both times turning things on and making memorable runs to the final.
“We’re kind of up and down,” Bowman said. “We haven’t really had any consistent (stretches). Usually, each year we get on a run where you win six, seven eight in a row, … [but] we haven’t been able to get going. It’s win one, lose one, overtime loss, overtime win. We’re trying to find that.”
The Oilers brought in some new faces over the summer that have taken time to adjust, while heart-and-soul winger Zach Hyman has yet to suit up after suffering a serious wrist injury in the second round of last spring’s playoffs.
Bowman, in short, appears willing to be patient.
“Unfortunately, it takes time to sort through that and have everyone find their roles,” he said. “But we’re not connected the way we probably should be after 17 games.”
The Edmonton captain put on a show in Monday’s extra-time victory by first turning Blue Jackets defenceman Denton Mateychuk into a pretzel on a spinarama goal before using his speed to blow past the opposition for another highlight-reel finish.
Bowman has grown to appreciate McDavid, who he signed to a team-friendly contract extension before the start of the regular season, and what motivates the star centre even more than he did from afar.
“That singular focus which propels him every day,” Bowman said. “[Monday] night was probably the representation of where he basically said, ‘We’re not going to lose this game.’ He made some just unbelievable rushes to score huge goals when the game was looking pretty bleak. He basically wasn’t going to let our team be denied.
“You read about it and you see it from a distance, and then when you’re part of it up close, you take a step back and you’re like, ‘Wow, this guy’s something.”‘
