Maybe, just maybe, all Stuart Skinner needed to finally settle into his new town and team was a new mask.
The ex-Edmonton goaltender, who was traded from the Oilers to the Penguins back on December 12th, made his fourth appearance of the year for Pittsburgh on Tuesday night, where he and his team treated fans to an unexpected 5-1 win over one of the Carolina Hurricanes, leaders of the Eastern Conference.
It was his first game between the pipes for Pittsburgh dawning a more appropriately themed mask, one now featuring his current team’s colors and logos. The mask, designed by a local artist named Scott Williams, now much better suits the rest of his uniform.
Skinner had wore his mask from the Oilers for the first two games he played as a Penguin, before temporarily switching to a blank white helmet with a small Penguins logo for a game.
But whether it was new mask magic or some of the typical inconsistencies that have followed Skinner around, he put up a superb performance for the Penguins to help them close out the year on the right note.
Skinner made 27 saves on 28 shots, his only goal against coming from former Penguin Mark Jankowski. By that point, the only thing it really did was spoil Skinner’s shutout bid; the Penguins had a four goal lead after that goal. And although this team is prone to blowing leads of that magnitude, especially in the third period, that was not the case Tuesday night.
But Skinner was probably just more happy to have some good tape in black and yellow. Before this game, Skinner had an abysmal .831 save percentage in his three games with the Penguins. He surrendered five goals in his debut against his old team, three in a dull loss to Montreal, and four in a 6-3 loss to Toronto.
So, to hold one of the NHL’s best scoring teams to one goal on 28 shots is a huge win for the Pittsburgh career of Skinner.
His .964 save percentage was by far his best mark as a Penguin. It’s tied for his second best mark of the entire season, along with another 27-for-28 save game with Edmonton. Ironically, that was his last game as an Oiler.
But besides that and the two shutouts he compiled earlier in the year, that was probably the best Skinner has looked this season. You could even see him playing more confident hockey towards the end, flashing the leather to make a save on Carolina’s Sebastian Aho midway through the third.
This was a big game for the Penguins. After losing eight games in a row in December, the Penguins finally got in the win column, and eradicated a curse in the process, when they won in a shootout over Montreal back on the 21st. But, they dropped their next game after that, failing to generate much, if any, momentum.
They came out of the holiday break with a 7-3 rout of Chicago in their own building, and now have a game where they unleashed a barrage of five goals against Frederik Anderson and the Hurricanes.
But this was also a huge game for Skinner. He was maligned in Edmonton for years due to his inconsistency, and it was not an easy transition so far to Pittsburgh. None of his starts prior to last night looked even competitive, let alone dominant like this.
So, can the new Penguins netminder use a game like this to build some momentum? Skinner is one of the few goalies in the NHL who is truly unpredictable.
Some nights, he looks simply unplayable. Others, he looks like a guy who could take you to the Stanley Cup final. He’s been deemed both.
For Skinner, the issue is finding out how to string more of the dominant starts like these together. It was part of the reason he was shown the door in Edmonton, and although the Penguins, as a roster, still seem interested in making the playoffs, he will undoubtedly have some more time to try and establish himself in Pittsburgh than he would have in Edmonton this year.
It will be interesting to watch the next few starts for Skinner after this game. Will he revert back to the guy we saw when he first came over? Or will this start a string of impressive play for the 27-year-old?
Fifth Avenue Sports 
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