Edmonton Oilers: Can Any Of These Guys Stop A Puck

The Edmonton Oilers have a goaltending problem.

Well, to be fair, the Oilers have a lot of problems, but the one thing currently standing between a bad record and at least a decent one is a timely save or two. Failing to stop the 1st shot and the last shot of a game, over and over again, is not a recipe for success. So what to do? Well, here are the options, what with the Chicago Black Hawks visit to Rexall Place pending on Wednesday.

-Does Todd McLellan stick with the man who came into camp as the #1 guy, Cam Talbot, the guy who sure looked like an NHL starter in his short stint as one with the Rangers?

-Does McLellan turn to Anders Nilsson, who was spectacular in pre-season but who has been very average ever since.

-Does the coach turn to Veteran Ben Scrivens, who (if it’s possible) has been even worse in Bakersfield this season than he was in Edmonton last year?

-Does Peter Chiarelli pluck prospect Laurent Broissoit, currently the 2nd best goaltender in the AHL right now, and hope his numbers are for real?

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There are a number of things to consider, for the short-term and the long-term well-being of the hockey club.

In a Twitter poll which I posted immediately after Saturday’s loss to Los Angeles, I asked “Who do the Edmonton Oilers start versus Chicago Wednesday: Cam Talbot, or Anders Nilsson“? The response has come back 87% in favor of…Nilsson. Thank you for your votes and your comments.

Now, it’s fair to say that the results of this rather unscientific poll are skewed by raw emotion, being asked as it was right after Talbot had committed yet another behind-the-net give-away and immediately after that a 5-alarm rebound that was pounded behind him for the game winner.

But it was really more of a social experiment, asking it the way that I did, as it speaks to the frustration of the fan base.

To me, there is only one smart option, for the long term betterment of the Edmonton Oilers. And that is to run Cam Talbot right back out there again.

What? Have you lost your marbles, Leavins??

Yeah, well, you wouldn’t be the first one to suggest that, so get in line and grab a coffee as I try to explain the method to my madness:

Lets first agree that Ben Scrivens, as much as I admire the man personally, is done as an NHL goaltender, perhaps even as a professional one. And since Scrivens will spend the rest of the year in Bakersfield and does not NEED to play a lot, that clears the way for Laurent Broissoit to play…lots. He is currently dominating at the AHL level (8 GPP, 2.23 GAA, .933 Save %, 3 SO’s). But 8 games played is a very small sample. There is nothing to give us confidence (yet) that this run of his is real. For the good of the organization, give him more time.

That leaves Talbot and Nilsson. First, lets agree that Cam Talbot is the only one of these guys that has the pedigree of an NHL starter. His 57 game NHL sample, prior to this season (so, before playing in front of the Edmonton Oilers defence) included a 2.00 GAA and a .931 Save %. His Save % in the 3 AHL seasons prior to that were .913, .918 and .924. He was also a blue-chip college player. Pretty good.

With all due respect to Anders Nilsson, his pedigree just does not measure up. His even smaller NHL total (23 games) is 2.21, .898 (all with the New York Islanders) is unspectacular, at best. His three previous AHL seasons saw Save %’s of .921, .899 and .901. Not a good trend. Yes, he has one excellent year of “professional” hockey on his resume, last season in the KHL (38 GP, 1.71 GAA, .936 Save %).

The Edmonton Oilers organization paid according to those results, when they went out and acquired both men. Nilsson cost them (cough, cough) prospect Liam Coughlin. Talbot cost a pretty penny more: 3 draft picks, 57th, 79th and 184th. In other words, the Oilers invested in a player who they were confident could be a #1 man, and paid a high price for him. In Nilsson, they acquired a back-up for cheap.

The Edmonton Oilers were far from the only NHL team to go after Cam Talbot, in fact a couple teams were royally ticked that Glen Sather apparently “did his old team a solid”, when in fact a better price was arguably being offered elsewhere. As such, the laughable suggestion of sending Tablot through waivers to Bakersfield would be an extremely expensive mistake. Get real.

At the end of the day, walking away from a valuable asset (valuable because of what you paid for it) after such a small sample (12 GP) would be extremely short-sighted. You owe it to the organization to let him work through this. Cam Talbot did not just forget how to tend goal. He is in a trough, and sometimes getting out of one of those takes time. Remember how well he started? Yeah…that.

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And if Todd McLellan keeps sitting him every time he loses, his confidence will be even lower than it already is. And at this point, confidence is probably at least half the problem.

For those who would “penalize” Cam Talbot for some admittedly dim decisions his last few starts, I ask you “what would that gain”?

I submit that it would be a balm for your emotional wounds, but not much practical for the Edmonton Oilers.

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