What a week it was around the NHL, as we had a goalie fight in an outdoor game, and the schedule wound down before the Olympic break. In this week’s edition, we touch on that, as well as whether or not the Edmonton Oilers made a mistake trading for Tristan Jarry.

The outdoor goalie fight?

The outdoor game between the Boston Bruins and Tampa Bay Lightning was tremendous last week. What a game it was for anybody that didn’t tune in. We had a rare, although I guess not so rare because it was the second one in a couple of weeks, goalie fight, and it was an awesome one. Jeremy Swayman and Andrei Vasilevskiy teeing off at centre ice. And I love it. I love that they let him go. I love that it happened.

Vassy caught him with a few lefts. But the even more unique part of that whole situation is they both just put their gear on and went back playing. That’s the tricky part with goalie fights: it’s great to let them go, but most likely you’re losing your starting goaltender because it’s probably not the first fight, so they’re automatically thrown out. Well, in this situation it was the only fight. So we got to see them go toe to toe at centre ice. Both of them put their gear back on and got back in the net. Now I don’t know what that would be like. I know when I played, I like to be kind of calm and relaxed in there.

Being in a fight obviously gets the adrenaline and the heart rate through the roof, so trying to jump back in there and play right away was probably difficult. Vasilevskiy doing a better job than Swayman. Although Swayman played extremely well. But it was a great fight. I love that they both look they both looked for it. There wasn’t really much going on in front of the net.

Little bump to Swayman, little push, and he immediately looked down the ice. Vasilevskiy was on his way down and no hesitation. And I just loved it. The linesmen didn’t get in their way, gave the people what they wanted, and we had a good old-fashioned goalie fight.

Maybe we see these a little more often. Probably not, but, you know, in situations where they can fight and get back in the net, I think that’s better. Like I said, I think the only the only real, real deterrent on this is more that you’re losing your starting goalie for a game that, especially right now in the season, means a lot.

Did the Oilers make a mistake trading for Jarry?

Did they make a mistake? No. Is Stuart Skinner playing great in Pittsburgh? Absolutely. But we’ve talked about this kind of just needing to be a change of scenery. There was just no real end game for Stuart Skinner in Edmonton. And he needed a breath of fresh air. He needed to go somewhere else. Because there was just no way out.

The questions were constantly going to be coming back. It was too long of a stretch of inconsistency. There was no real win unless he went rattle off 40 wins in a row. Every time something went sideways a little bit, the questions were always going to come back. And so I don’t think it’s surprising to see Stuart Skinner playing well.

I’m excited for him, obviously. You know the teammates are as well because they’re in the Eastern Conference. So it’s not something they got to worry about standings-wise. And he was obviously a very loved player on the team. So you know the guys are going to be happy for him doing his thing in Pittsburgh. And Tristan Jarry’s been fine.

He’s he’s been good. Listen, there’s there’s ups and downs. It’s still new I know it’s been a little while for the trade. It doesn’t matter. It’s still new. He’s still learning learning how the guys play in front of them. Learning when they play well, when they don’t play well. And that’s really the thing, is that as a group, you know, is Tristan Jarry a top goalie in the league.? No, and neither is a Connor Ingram.

Are they great tandem? Yes, they’re a great tandem. And so if the Oilers aren’t going to play well defensively, these guys probably aren’t going to go steal them hockey games. They can and they will. But you know we’re not talking about a Sergei Bobrovsky or Andrei Vasilevskiy or Ilya Sorokin or or any of these guys who you can expect to do that.

I’m not panicking about the Oilers goaltending. I don’t think they made a mistake. I think that when the team plays better in front of them, these are both guys who are going to give you a good opportunity to win a hockey game on any given night. So I would expect that we’ll start to see talk on how well these guys are doing rather than having to answer these questions this week.

Tune into the full episode of Ask Dubey below…

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The outdoor goalie fight?

Did the Oilers make a mistake trading for Jarry?

Tune into the full episode of Ask Dubey below…

ARTICLE PRESENTED BY bet365

Recent articles from Devan Dubnyk

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