There’s no speculation about this team’s focus this season — they’re looking to lift the Stanley Cup at the end of June (or, as defenseman Phil Kemp said earlier in camp, “they’re chasing 35 pounds of silver.”) Stuart will get in assignment to be the Oilers’ number one netminder, and in February he can represent Team Canada at the Four Nations Faceoff.

It’s an opportunity he’d be happy to take up, but not yet.

“It doesn’t matter,” he said bluntly. “I think the most important thing is to just prepare for the regular season here. We have two more games, so those are opportunities for us to prepare in the best way can get off to a good start.

“Obviously we don’t want to do what we did last year at the start of the season, so it’s our job to prepare the best way we can.”

So far, Skinner has appeared in two preseason games for the Oilers — starting in Winnipeg against the Jets on Sept. 25 and against the Vancouver Canucks at Rogers Place this past Monday. While he’s expected to see more action in the preseason, the workload ahead of him in the regular season isn’t something the netminder or his coaches are concerned about.

“I don’t think it would be (a problem) for Stu,” Kris Knoblauch said. “You see how well he’s handled adversity throughout the year. After a bad game, he’s always responded.

“I think he’s pretty smooth. He doesn’t get too high, too low or whatever. When he has a shutout performance, he doesn’t change. If he has a bad game, which there haven’t been very many, he’s the same guy the next day in training. So I think his mindset and the way he carries himself, I’m not really worried about that. Other goalies who are maybe a little more immature and can’t handle that pressure, I think you have to worry

“But I think with Stu, he’s pretty straightforward.”