J’ai toujours été un fan des Oilers mais je me suis vraiment vraiment intéressé au hockey juste après que nous n’ayons pas eu ces deux-là, comparé à Jarry et Ingram, comment allait-il ? Aurait-il rendu l’équipe meilleure ou pire lors de notre finale de la LNH contre la Floride ?
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Plus_Dare_7010
38 Comments
We win both cups with any version of Mike Smith during his Oilers tenure.
They played goalie. Sometimes stopped the shots. Sometimes didn’t. Sometimes injured but not most of the time.
Mike Smith was honestly super solid, just the odd insane play that made you question his sanity.
Both hot and cold and not reliable enough.
The last really good year of tending this team had was that one year of Cam Talbot
Oilers fans didn’t realize how good they had it, compared to what they have now. Completely unacceptable that you have Connor McDavid, who just signed a team-friendly extension for the ages, and you are giving him Skinner, Jarry, Ingram and Pickard. Unreal….
Mike Smith was excellent. His puck playing ability masked a lot of defensive issues because anytime he can freely get the puck cleanly behind the net the break out of the zone was completely free*
* But sometimes, he’d goof and give a freebie away playing the puck by making a dumb pass. I always maintained though that number of goals Mike Smiths puck playing prevented offset the number it gave up 10-1
Smith was sink or swim. When he was on he was outstanding. Extremely unorthodox, but just unbeatable on a good night, and an absolute gamer. On a bad night, you’d question if he should still be playing in the NHL.
Koskinen got too much hate because he was paid too much to be a backup, but he was still a solid backup. People didn’t realize how bad it could get when they thought Koskinen was unplayable.
At the time people flamed Smith sometimes. But in hindsight, he was wonderful
Smith was a good goalie. But by the time we had him, he was old, and time catches up to everyone.
He was excellent that 2022 playoff run to start off, dominating LA and solid against the Donkeys. But you could see age catching up to him, and by the WCFs, he was just done.
Koskinen… Uh, let’s just say the best thing he ever did for the team was get Chiarelli fired.
I never thought our goaltending would be this bad.. I miss Smith… I miss Skinner. As always… Loyal to the Oil 🧡
more reliable than what we have rn
People oversell Mike Smith’s Oilers tenure. He was every bit as inconsistent as anything we’ve had since, and sure, he made some cool plays with the puck, but 75% of the time when he played the puck he was just giving it straight to the other team and scrambling to get back to the net. Him letting the puck past him from the opposing blue line in the playoffs wasn’t even surprising when it happened. Everyone was like « Yup. That’s Mike Smith for ya. » He made some spectacular looking saves, but they were diving saves that were only necessary because he was wildly out of position a lot of the time.
Im not an Oilers fan, but I have a good memory. Koskinen was horrible, he was as big of a meme in that era as Skinner later. Smith was too old for the job, he had good periods time to time, his numbers were great but he was stickhandling too much and sometimes he did this braindead decisions on the ice that led to cheap goals. Smith was much better playing in Arizona or Calgary. He wasnt clutch, but good for RS. Koskinen was not good for anything, he was a goalie for european leagues where he played really good, but Edmonton ended his carreer and he did not have a good return to Europe and is retired now for some time.
I don’t think I’ve seen another goalie play the puck more than Mike Smith. He’d get out of the crease at every opportunity.
Mike Smith is the all time leader in save percentage for oilers goalies.
Coached our defence on what to do so he could play the puck to them and limit chances against.
He’d had the odd giveaway. He’d have the odd bad goal like every goalie.
We had our best season ever winning% wise in 20-21 with him.
If we had him these past 2 playoff runs, I think we win. We had better teams.
Koskinen was solid enough. When he stepped in as the starter when smith was hurt, we could win games still.
My grandmother still hates Koskinen with a passion lol. I didn’t think he was THAT awful. But jesus, the guy let in the weakest goals and cost us so many games. Smith was a nice change of pace
I don’t want to hear a single fucking peep out of anyone anymore about goaltending! This fanbase has successfully chased out every goaltender for years only later to praise them after spending years shitting on them until they leave.
I love this team but we don’t deserve shit for goaltending with the way we treat them all.
They were a good duo. Smith occasionally made a bad play or had a bad game. Koskinen was slightly worse in stats but more consistent.
I grew up a Coyotes fan, became an Oilers fan when Smith moved. (Unfortunately that means there was also a season as a flames fan (barf)). Oilers Smith with the current team and we beat Florida at least one. Coyotes Smith with the current roster and we’re going 16-0 in both playoff runs.
Do people forget how many first shot of the game goals Mikko used to let in?
It’s been so long since the Oil have had a true reliable number one
Like Alberta weather….day to day hour to hour
Mike Smith would have 2 cups if he had a few more years in him
Just look at those save pctgs tell the story. We’d kill for those today lol
Smith was good. Above league average stats while he was here while being paid barely anything. This fanbase moronically convinced itself we couldn’t possibly go into the playoffs with Smith again. Lead to the horrific signing of Campbell.
Same shit happened with Stu leading to the braindead Jarry pick up.
Kosko was shit.
Smith was polarizing. If you thought Skinner was inconsistent, Smith was the Godfather of inconsistent Oilers goalies in the 2020s. You either get a Vezina candidate or completely unplayable goaltender. That is no exaggeration either. He was so good during the pandemic North division season.
Koskinen was hated on too much because of his contract. But man was he consistent. 164 Oiler regular season games, and a .906 SV%. Behind some of the weaker Oiler rosters of the McDrai era too. He wasn’t gonna win a Vezina or consistently bail us out of a bad game, but as long as the team in front didn’t play like garbage we had a chance to win that night.
Overall 7.5/10 duo.
Its a crime that Mcdavid couldnt have Prime Mike Smith as his goalie.
Still the problem is not goalie…its players in front of goalie.
Mike smith was a gammer! He’d give up an absolute muffin every game but was solid
In general if you look back a few years in terms of goals saved above expected/60
18/19
Koskinen -0.139
Stolarz -0.684
19/20
Koskinen -0.003
Smith -0.342
20/21
Smith +0.468
Koskinen -0.462
21/22
Smith +0.281
Koskinen -0.155
Skinner +0.074
22/23
Skinner +0.141
Campbell -0.542
23/24
Skinner +0.036
Pickard +0.005
Campbell -0.810
24/25
Skinner -0.031
Pickard -0.290
So Koskinen was not good. His save% looks fine because we had a different system back then that allowed a lot of easy to save shots. But he did not perform better than Pickard overall.
Smith, on the other hand, had a bad first year, but then the best two seasons of all of these goalies.
Skinner had a good 1st full year (22/23) and then was average. Campbell was the worst goalie we have had.
If you are looking at our current goalies so far this season (that includes Jarrys PIT games – for us he was way worse so far)
Ingram -0.091
Jarry -0.141
Pickard -0.243
The top 10 starting goalies in the league range from +0.300-+0.600 as comparison. So that is basically half a goal difference per 60 we have to make up in other areas, which is a lot.
I could rely on Smith straying from his position and giving me a coronary incident every game. I don’t miss that.
I enjoyed them. To beat Koskinen is was always top glove side and smith would go for skates that usually worked out to be bad
More reliable than Jarry and Ingram duo.
Mike was one of the best goalies we had
As a casual fan, I loved watching Mike Smith cuz his saves were crazy and his reactions were crazy too. I loved the goalie fight and the goal he shot across the rink. I still miss him. I wish I got to watch him in the playoffs for longer
Mike Smith was both the best goalie in the league and the worst goalie in the league. It was always a lottery what one you got on a game day.
Both were good for a starting tandem. Koskinen had no confidence so it seemed he would always let in the first sog and was good for a bad goal against. The bigger problem that still hasn’t been addressed is that the team defense was horrible in front of them.
I did a write-up a few years back after the Oilers were lit up by the Jets, but it it the goaltending wasn’t the problem, it’s that zone coverage and breakouts were so bad that they created high danger chances and hung our goaltenders out to dry.
Lots of very good takes in here — we can look back on things with some sobriety. Smith was great, crazy, volatile and injured — but wanted to battle, he was a winner.
I will say, that the issue with Edmonton these past few years is masked by blaming the goaltending — of which there have been quite a few good goalies that have suited up. The bigger issue is the system of play and accountability with two offensive superstars — the system is naturally going to cater to this strength. McDavid and Draisital are both a blessing and a curse.
Koskinen was ok until everyone realized he had no glove hand
Smith was fantastic at times, but every goal against WAS ALWAYS someone else’s fault