Joined: Mar. 2017
Posts: 23,753
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Why do Oilers fans hate Koskinen so much?
At the beginning of this past season Smith was injured and Holland screwed up the backup situation repeatedly, and it meant the that Koskinen had to play every game of a wicked schedule (12 games in 24 nights traveling thousands of miles through 4 timezones) which isn't something ANY goalie can stand up under. It wasn't fair to Koskinen but Tippett had little choice but to keep throwing him over the boards, so his results were poor over that stretch. I don't fault Koskinen for that, he did his best in an impossible situation.
With that in mind, I took a look at his last 2 seasons combined, but I pulled those 12 games out of the equation to get a look at how he performs under normal circumstances: his save percentage was .916, which is better than Smith's .912 and only a hair below Khudobin's .918 (who was playing behind a much better defense).
Even if you include those January games Koskinen still posted a .910 over the past 2 years. He's not chopped liver.