Skinner hopes to learn from Bobrovsky’s path to another Cup championship

SUNRISE, Fla. -- Stuart Skinner couldn’t help but be envious of his counterpart across the ice.

There was Sergei Bobrovsky, the Florida Panthers goalie, being mobbed by his teammates as they celebrated another Stanley Cup championship after a 5-1 victory against the Edmonton Oilers in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final at Amerant Bank Arena on Tuesday.

Across the ice was Skinner, the Edmonton goalie, receiving hugs of a more reserved nature from his teammates at the end of the game as condolences on another opportunity missed were shared.

His eyes remained fixated on the celebration across the ice, the unbridled joy as grown men let their emotions overcome them in the fog of victory.

“It’s tough; there’s not too much else to say,” Skinner said.

His teammates tried to pick him up. Veteran forward Corey Perry lingered for a long moment. If anyone knows this pain, it’s Perry.

He won the Cup with the Anaheim Ducks in 2007, in his second season in the League. He’s 40 now and has been to the Final in five of the past six seasons, with four different teams, and has walked off the ice second-best in each of those series.

“He brought tears to my eyes with what he was saying,” Skinner said. “I’m going to keep that for my heart.”

Afterward, Skinner said he was just starting to process the loss in Game 6 and the series, a process he said would continue in the days to come.

There are lessons to be divined from the hurt and the regret.

“For sure there are lessons -- lessons as individuals, how you can show up better, how you can react better in certain situations,” he said. “Also, as a team, we need to learn from this right away. Letting it happen two times in a row is devastating.”

Bobrovsky, a two-time champion, holds some lessons for Skinner, and that’s why Skinner looked that way in the midst of his hurt and disappointment.

It wasn’t long ago that people wondered if Bobrovsky would ever win.

He started his career well after a trade from the Philadelphia Flyers after his second season. He won the Vezina trophy twice (2013, 17) with the Columbus Blue Jackets, but advanced past the first round of the postseason once in seven seasons.

In 2019, he signed a lucrative seven-year, $70 million free agent contract with the Panthers, but success did not follow immediately. There were questions about Bobrovsky’s ability to succeed on the big stage and whispers about his contract being an albatross.

Now, after making it to the Cup Final for three straight seasons, and winning the past two, the critics have been silenced.

There’s an individual lesson there for Skinner to learn, he says.

“Bobrovsky lets in six or five (goals) and he’s doing the same thing the next day,” Skinner said.

That’s a byproduct of experience and mindset.

“This is my third year in the League,” Skinner said. “He’s 36, he’s been playing for 14 years and you can tell because nothing changes for him. You can tell he is in the same spot whether he lets in six or gets a shutout. He didn’t change for one second.

“I’d love to get in touch with him and ask him how I could fill his shoes and do that. I’m definitely hoping that’s my trajectory, but it’s going to come from me and my hard work.”

Skinner wasn’t bad in this series, but he wasn’t good enough.

He gave up three goals on 23 shots in Game 6. He was benched for Game 5, in favor of Calvin Pickard, and was pulled in Games 3 and 4.

The Oilers were down 2-0 in the second period of Game 6, but the hopes of a comeback remained strong. Then, Sam Reinhart, who finished with four goals in the game, redirected a shot by Aleksander Barkov at 17:31. Skinner flubbed the initial shot by Carter Verhaeghe, setting in motion the scoring play.

“It was a nothing shot,” he said. “I thought I put it in a place where it was going be OK; obviously, it wasn’t.”

Skinner had a .906 save percentage in Game 1, a 4-3 overtime victory. He didn’t come close to .900 again and finished the series with an .861 save percentage.

“Credit to him, credit to all the players,” Edmonton coach Kris Knoblauch said. “I thought they were very passionate and their hearts were in it and they wanted the team to have as much success as possible, Stu among them.

“I thought he gave us solid goaltending, and when he didn’t ‘Picks’ came in and made up for that. We didn’t lose this on Stu not playing his game at all.”

That is certainly the case as there were many culprits, but it was clear that Skinner was bearing the burden as he walked out of the same dressing room where his dreams were shattered last season in a Game 7 loss here in which he allowed just two goals.

This one, like the last one, will stay with him for a long time. He owns that; it comes with the territory.

“It’s weird being a goalie sometimes in a team sport because sometimes you feel like you are an individual in a team game,” he said.