Oilers' goaltender reveals his use of a mental health coach

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Ryan Hall
December 15, 2023 (8:20 PM)

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After giving the Oilers many fantastic performances over the past couple of weeks, goaltender Stuart Skinner came up with a clunker against the Tampa Bay Lightning when the Oilers lost 7-4 in front of the home crowd.

After the game, Skinner felt that the loss should fall on his shoulders and that this will make him better as a goalie in the NHL.

Certainly the Oilers #1 netminder will need to be sharper in his next game as he allowed five goals on 22 shots and was holding the lead until the lightning clawed themselves back into the game.

As Tony Brar showed in his article that Skinner is a battler and he will continue to try to push himself to be better and to shake off a loss like last night. The best in the business always can shake off a bad game.

In Brar's article, Skinner revealed the details of his usage of the mental health coach. No doubt, it's a good idea to employ one as the last line of defence in a hockey hotbed like Edmonton.

I started working with a mental health coach since I was 19 or 20 years old there are a lot of highs and lows. There are a lot of emotions in every single game, a lot of stress that goes into every single game. And I have a family to go back home to.

It's great to see Skinner take the initiative to protect his mental health in such a volatile role for the team, and hopefully, that coaching can help calm him and lead to success on the ice.

Unfortunately for Skinner, there's no room for error now as he is the uncontested #1 goalie with Calvin Pickard as the second-string goalie for the Oilers. With Jack Campbell continuing in the AHL, Skinner will need to dig deeper and opush past his doubt.

In 2023-2024, he has played 20 games and has a record of 11-8-1 with the goals against average of 3.04 and a save percentage of .885. Those numbers will rise as the Oilers continue to play their better defensive game.