Stuart Skinner tips his cap to Pens' Blomqvist: 'He was incredible'

Edmonton Oilers goalie Stuart Skinner wasn't very busy Friday, facing just five shots in the first period of his team's 4-0 win over Pittsburgh, and he spent a lot of his downtime being in awe of Penguins rookie Joel Blomqvist.

"All I thought was how good this goalie on the other end is doing," Skinner told reporters postgame. "He was incredible, he was just moving so well, making some incredible saves. So, huge kudos to him and the way that he played and how he battled."

Blomqvist faced 50 shots - the most by any goaltender so far this season - and turned aside 46 of them. He saved 1.47 goals above expected at all strengths, according to Natural Stat Trick.

The Oilers couldn't solve Blomqvist until the midway point of the second period, when Leon Draisaitl broke the deadlock on the team's 34th shot of the contest. Blomqvist made 37 stops on 39 shots through the first 40 minutes alone.

"You stay in the game pretty well when there's shots coming at you all the time," Blomqvist said. "You can't really choose what's going to come in the game at you, so you need to be ready for everything."

He added, "I need to stop every one."

The start was Blomqvist's fourth of his young career. Despite the Penguins' struggles in front of him, he's posted a .911 save percentage and two wins while saving 2.81 goals above average and 2.22 goals above expected at all strengths, according to Evolving-Hockey.

Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan praised the 22-year-old's "terrific" performance on Friday, but he didn't have anything positive to say about the rest of his players.

"It's concerning because we're just not good enough right now," he said. "We didn't play hard enough, we didn't play together as a group, we weren't good enough."

Sullivan continued, "It's team defense, we didn't have the puck enough. ... It's a collective effort. We gotta do a better job hanging onto pucks in the offensive zone."

The Penguins mustered 27 shots against the Oilers and were similarly overwhelmed in every other statistical category. Edmonton took 90 shot attempts compared to Pittsburgh's 56 and won the high-danger chances battle 26-9 at all strengths.

Sullivan already turned to Blomqvist over Tristan Jarry twice in non-back-to-back situations this season. Alex Nedeljkovic got two straight starts once he returned from injury, but Pittsburgh went back to Blomqvist on Friday.

"That's the goal, always, for a goalie - to be the goalie that gets the most opportunities out there," Blomqvist said.

The Penguins will be rolling with the Blomqvist-Nedeljkovic tandem for the next stretch after assigning Jarry to the AHL on a conditioning loan Saturday. Jarry has put up a paltry .836 clip and bloated 5.47 goals against average in three games this season.

Pittsburgh will look to snap its four-game skid Saturday against the Vancouver Canucks.

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