Stuart Skinner addresses his performance in Game 3.

The Edmonton Oilers have already confirmed that they will once again be without goaltender Calvin Pickard in Game 4 of their second round series against the Vegas Golden Knights, a fact that has left many fans feeling uneasy given the shaky performances we have seen from Oilers goaltender Stuart Skinner in the 2025 Stanley Cup playoffs.

Skinner made his first appearance in 7 games on Saturday night with Pickard unable to go due to injury, and unfortunately for Skinner it proved to be another loss, one in which he made 24 saves and allowed 4 goals for a save percentage of .833 on the night.

Following the game the Oilers netminder was asked if rust had played a factor for him, a notion that Skinner dismissed with the exception of the opening minutes of the game.

"I felt like the game was pretty quick in the first probably 5 minutes and then I kind of settled down," admitted Skinner.

Skinner instead indicated that it felt good to be back in the lineup.

"The energy was really high, it was nice to go back in there," said Skinner.

That being said Skinner was obviously not happy with a losing effort, but seemed to be in relatively good spirits despite the loss.

"Not the resulted that we wanted obviously, but we'll get better and move forward."

Of course everyone wanted to know about the terrible play that cost them the game, a catastrophic mistake from Oilers star forward Leon Draisaitl, but Stuart made no effort to blame his teammate.

"I thought he was gonna shoot it right away, I thought he didn't have that much time, so I kinda just sprawled, went out there, and stayed with him an extra half second," said Skinner. "He catches us with 0.4 seconds left.... devastating."

Skinner instead shrugged it off and seemed to be looking ahead to Game 4

"Good bounces, tough bounces it happens for everybody so you just move forward."

Despite the losing effort, Skinner expressed confidence in his goaltending and felt he had done enough to give his team a chance to win the game.

"That's a goalie's job, just give your team a chance to win every night," admitted Skinner. "I thought I did."