PWHL’s strong first season coincides with growing appetite for women’s sports
Less than a year since getting off the ground, the Professional Women’s Hockey League has staged its inaugural season with 72 games around North America televised or streamed and attendance records broken over and over, putting the sport in the spotlight like never before.
EDMONTON — Stuart Skinner has had the “privilege” of having his stick snap in his hands on a clearing pass in a crucial playoff game, watching helplessly as the puck ended up in his net.
And he was “fortunate” enough last week to skate behind his net late in Game 5 against the Los Angeles Kings, then have a front row seat as Alex Laferriere deposited a whacky carom off the glass into the vacated Oilers goal.
True fortune, this.
“I’ve been able to experience what those feelings are like; I’ve been able to experience the frustration, the big timing of those goals,” he said Monday, before adding, “Both those games, I was able to win.”
The topic in the Edmonton Oilers‘ meeting Monday was not about avoiding mistakes or bad bounces in their second-round series that begins Wednesday evening in Vancouver against the Canucks. Because they are both inevitable, and an experienced playoff team knows that only too well.
It was about reacting to them the right way. About how that reaction will separate a winner from the loser.
Nobody knows more than the Oilers’ starting goalie.
“You can have a lot of bounces go your way, or a lot of bounces can go the other team’s way. Being able to respond is absolutely everything,” Skinner said. “Being able to bounce back from those, it’s a difficult thing to do. But the more and more it happens to you, it’s actually a blessing in disguise. Because you get better at reacting to those things.”
What has he learned, specifically, about handling a mistake, a bad break, or a blown shot in the Stanley Cup Playoffs?
“I wouldn’t do this with all your feelings,” he counselled, “but at the moment you stuff it down. Stuff it deep down. Then, when you get a chance to unwrap that after the game, that’s the time to think about how maybe you could have reacted better.
“That’s the fun thing about sports — you never know what’s going to happen,” he reasoned. “This next (playoff) round is going to be my fourth, and that’s just another thing that I get to put in the book and get better from.”
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Today, with some combination of Arturs Silovs and Casey DeSmith lining up in the Canucks crease for this series, in the box marked “GOALTENDING,” Skinner puts the check mark on Edmonton’s side of the ledger.
If it were Thatcher Demko standing in the Canucks goal, that check mark would be on the other side — despite the fact that Demko can not claim the playoff experience that Skinner has. If Skinner can make that advantage play out, the Oilers will be well on their way to Round 3.
A year ago, Skinner went from being stellar in a Round 1 win over the Kings, to a patchy Round 2 versus Vegas. He is wiser and calmer his second time through the playoff wringer, as the series opener at Rogers Arena awaits.
“You could you can make it into just another game, or you could make it into this really huge deal — a life-and-death scenario. So it’s really up to the person. Whatever is going to make you play better.
“It’s the same puck size, it’s still rubber, and I’ve still got to stop it.”
This all-Canadian meeting is indeed a privilege — to play in, to cover, to watch in-person or on TV.
And although he was the Oilers No, 3 goalie when they met Calgary in Round 2 a couple of springs ago, Skinner knows what is in store for him.
“When we play in Vancouver, you’re gonna hear a lot of booing. Booing Skinner,” he said. “When L.A. was in here, (Cam) Talbot had 20,000 fans saying his name. Going into Vancouver, that’s going to be a challenge for me.
“You’re going to be hearing a lot of booing for our whole team in general, a lot of heckling Skinner, and … it’s pretty cool,” he decided. “It’s pretty cool that the fans are gonna have so much fun doing it.
“That means I’m doing what I’ve always wanted to do my whole life. It’s going to be an absolute privilege to get heckled.”
This is it, what every Canadian kid wanted from the day they sat down in front of a Stanley Cup Playoff game to cheer their team on.
“Canada versus Canada,” Skinner marvelled. “When you grow up in Canada, you watch all of those games growing up…
“I’m very excited, and very fortunate to be in this position. It’s gonna be a lot of fun.”
More fun the second time around, no doubt.
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