I must admit I find myself a little caught off guard by just how one-sided the response to this news appears to be.

Edmonton Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch has apparently made an extremely unpopular decision on Sunday, this in spite of the fact that it appears to be pretty standard practice for not only the Oilers themselves, but for just about every team across the entire National Hockey League.

On Sunday, veteran Oilers reporter Mark Spector revealed that Kris Knoblauch would be going with goaltender Stuart Skinner for today’s game against the New York Rangers. Now when you consider the fact that the Oilers just played on Friday in a 2-1 win over the New York Islanders, a game in which Calvin Pickard was between the pipes for the Oilers, it makes sense that Knoblauch would swap back to Skinner for a second game in just 3 days.

Unfortunately the response from the Oilers faithful, many of whom appear to have lost all faith in Stuart Skinner as a goaltender, appears to have been almost universally negative. Here are only a few examples:

Most it would seem would have prefered to see Pickard get another start, especially coming off of such a strong performance against the New York Islanders. In that game Pickard stopped 24 of the 25 shots he faced on his way to a .960 save percentage for the night, playing a significant role in the Oilers picking up that win.

Pickard’s numbers this season are actually better than Skinner’s as well, although neither goaltender will be including this season in their career highlights. Pickard has recorded a 2.67 goals against average and a .898 save percentage over 25 games while Skinner has a 2.88 goals against average and a .896 save percentage over his 45 appearances for the Oilers this season.

Is Knoblauch making the wrong call here? And even if you do agree that Pickard should get the start, is it as bad a decision as some of the responses suggest? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.