EDMONTON, Alberta -- It took a while for Stuart Skinner to confront the anguish of losing Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final last season.
"Definitely. Internally, there was something buried. That's kind of an easy way to do it, instead of thinking about it and trying to process it. I stuffed it down," Skinner recalled. "I normally open up the wound pretty quickly, but it took me a little while into the summer. It bit me in the butt halfway through."
Now that he has tackled that pain, the experiences that devastated Skinner last season have put him in a position to potentially lift the Stanley Cup this season.