The flop is not just by accident, it’s party by design
This in from NHL goalie expert Kevin Woodley, who covers the Canucks for NHL.com, his explanation of why goalie Stuart Skinner of the Edmonton Oilers is literally falling on his face in the Edmonton nets now and then.
Talking with Dmitri Filipovic on an excellent edition of the PDOcast, Woodley described the flexibility and strength issues that sometimes see Skinner lurch forward onto his face after trying to burst laterally across his net to make a save.
This issue got much negative attention online after Skinner stumbled in this way when massive Tage Thompson of the Buffalo Sabres scored the winning goal on Skinner on Monday evening, using his pterodactyl-like reach and safecracker hands to first fake glove side, then go stick side on a gorgeous goal.
It was a brilliant move that would have made many an NHL goalie look bad. It was seized on by Skinner’s critics as an example of his weak side-to-side movement in the nets.
Woodley described in detail what went wrong, noting that Skinner has struggled to make east-west movement saves off the rush all year, but that the Oilers have also struggled to prevent such shots lately.
The Oilers were a top three team across defensive categories last year, but since January 1, 2025, the team has crumbled, 26th overall in the NHL for expected goals against on rush plays based on shot quality.
This doesn’t let Skinner off the hook, Woodley said, but it’s not an environment set up for him to have success. “You happen to be giving up the chances that are his biggest relative weakness … and you’re giving them up in bunches right now. And he is not a guy to this point that has shown he is going to be able to consistently bail you out if you need Superman.
“If you play really well defensively, he can be really good behind you… But all those structural things that were happening defensively (last season) aren’t happening anymore.”
One issue, Woodley said, is that when Skinner goes down with his pads to the ice he’s got a “narrow butterfly.”
In the butterfly, the lower and flatter a goalie can get and seal his pads to the ice, and the farther out he can push his legs, the more net he can effectively cover. Goalies who are less flexible and less strong have a narrow butterfly, their feet not out to their sides, but more behind them when they drop into the stance. “So you don’t have that coverage side to side.”
When a goalie in a narrow butterfly pushes hard to the side, they have to lift their leg higher and re-establish their skate edge on the ice to push. “There’s just a lot more moving parts, there’s a lot more delays, and so the counterbalance on a lot of this, if you get caught in a rush and moving, is to pitch forward, because you’re not able to get everything underneath you. You’re in a rush. You end up lunging more. You see the forward flop sometimes when guys have the narrow butterfly, and they’re going east-west, and they need to extend.”
In fact, pitching forward in the butterfly used to be taught, Woodley said. “If you allow your torso to pitch forward to the ice, it allows you to straighten that leg, and you can … get another three, four inches of net coverage along the ice. So it was actually taught as a save mechanism.”
He said Hall-of-Fame goalie Roberto Luongo of the Canucks often flopped forward in this manner. They called it The Luo Flop.
Skinner has worked hard to improve his hip mobility and get lower in his butterfly, Woodley said, and he’s noticed improvement in this area.
On Thompson’s goal, the attacker put Skinner in a position where Skinner had to lunge, Woodley. “It didn’t look as smooth as some of these guys who are just so blessed with wide butterflies and easy access to edges.”
My take
1. First off, credit to both Woodley and Filipovic for an excellent interview here with in-depth information presented in a way most people can grasp, and done without any malice for Skinner, but sympathy for the big goalie’s current struggles and a nod to what he does well in the Edmonton nets.
Skinner is mired in a slump right now — just as he’s been prone to doing throughout his Oilers career — but we’ve seen him work out of slumps in the past and I’m confident he’ll find a way to do so again.
2. Skinner has been mediocre this year. He’s got to be better. But just as concerning has been the bad defensive habits of the Oilers that sees the team give up too many rush chances.
3. What do I constantly see in video review of all Grade A shots against the Oilers?
Experienced and veteran Oilers forwards dogging it on the backcheck; bad line changes from unfocused players leaving the team vulnerable to odd-man rushes; weak and risky decisions from d-men about when they should and shouldn’t pinch; a failure to recognize the Danger Man, the late playing coming into an attacking play who will come out of nowhere to shoot; too much gap in the d-zone from defencemen; too little harassment and angling in the neutral zone from Oilers forwards on the backcheck.
All these things add up to odd-man attacks and goal rushes against the Oilers.
Stuart Skinner isn’t the least of Edmonton’s issues right now, he’s just one of them. If his teammates are at all concerned about his play, they best think about their own. As iffy as Skinner has been at times in net in the past month, their defensive play has been as bad if not worse, and that goes from everyone from the top to the bottom of the line-up.
If the Oilers don’t focus on defensive fundamentals, they have no chance of playoffs success.
4. Skinner gets hell for falling on his face, but it’s now evident he’s giving up style points to try to make a save. We can all wish he was more flexible, but there’s no doubting his effort level. It’s not a pretty way to attempt to make a save but it’s the best he’s got, and he’s also the best hope the Oilers now have in net, having failed to upgrade the position this year.
If looking bad now and then trying to make a save is what works for Skinner, he should work it.
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