Edmonton Oilers legend Grant Fuhr on where Stuart Skinner can improve
By Woz
10 months agoEdmonton Oilers legend Grant Fuhr knows a thing or two about goaltending.
While monitoring the crease back in the 1980s and 90s, Fuhr has continued to follow the game closely and see the way modern goalies play. On Tuesday, he was a guest on Kevin Karius’ show on Sports 1440, and was asked for his thoughts on Stuart Skinner.
“A lot of it is just the mental makeup, it’s confidence,” Fuhr said. “He’s got all the skills in the world, it’s just a matter of playoffs being a little bit different animal than the regular season and it takes time to adjust to that.
“A lot of young guys struggle their first playoff but then you figure it out, it’s just a matter of, you have to get comfortable with being put in that position and being in that atmosphere.”
Right now he believes experience is the best for Stuart Skinner to learn and improve.
“You learn in front of 18,000 people where every mistake you make a little red light pops on,” he said, “and that’s kinda the unfortunate part of the position but at the same time, he’s been in the position now, he’s played in the playoffs, he’s going to be more comfortable going into the playoffs this year, so I expect him to have a really good playoff.”
The Hall of Fame goaltender offered a unique perspective as well on what the fan and player relationship was like back when he played and how that helped in the long run.
“You know what it was, Glen (Sather) always told us that ‘you need to be a part of the city, you need to be a part of the fans’ and our guys embraced that where we had no issues going out in the town, you had no issues spending time with the fans and having the fans be close to you,” Fuhr said. “The young guys that I’ve played with, you try to explain to them to be a part of the city and you get a little more leeway for the odd mistake and such if you are a part of the city.
“There’s some pressure in Edmonton because there’s expectations, but at the same time you should have expectations, so if you put expectations on yourself then a fan’s expectations should be lower than what yours is.”
You can hear more from Fuhr with Kevin Karius on Sports 1440 every Tuesday morning.
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