The Calvin Pickard effect for the Edmonton Oilers
The Oilers beat the Predators 5-1 with Calvin Pickard in net on Thursday night, alluding to how much of an impact he's had on the team since joining them.
The Oilers are now 5-5-1 following Thursday's slate of NHL games, and showing signs of trending towards the team that went to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final not so many months ago. It was a solid effort against the Nashville Predators, in a 5-1 win in Music City, USA.
With Connor McDavid injured, the team showed signs of life to step up their game in the absence of their captain. The defenceman were engaged, while eight of the 12 forwards had points in the game against the Predators. This included contributions from Noah Philip and Drake Caggiula, the two new additions to the lineup.
Leon Draisaitl carried the team with three points and was very engaged throughout the game, with play we have not really seen much of in the 2024-2025 season. The Predators had their chances with 27 shots, but the blue lines pushed most of the shots and shot attempts to the outside. while the Oilers' formula for winning was to push towards the net with lots of net-front shot attempts.
The Pickard effect
What was nice to see was the play of Calvin Pickard. He has repeatedly demonstrated how good he is and, the Oilers are lucky to have him as their backup goalie. For his career he has a Goals Against Average (GAA) of 2.92 at the time of writing, and a save percentage of .904. Last season -- his first in Edmonton -- he had a 2.45 GAA and .909 save percentage.
Pickard is a very good positional goalie, anticipates shots and makes key saves during the game. In the 5-1 win on Thursday night, he made a key save at 12:10 of the second period, stopping a one-timer from Steven Stamkos during the powerplay when it was 2-1 for the Oil. This was a huge save that gave the team confidence in their goalie and most likely inspired them to step up their game and score two minutes later.
The Pickard effect is real and we saw this during the 2023-2024 regular season, in the playoffs, and now early in the 2024-2025 campaign. The Oilers should consider playing Pickard for the next few games, to demonstrate support for his play and put pressure on Stuart Skinner to improve his consistency. They need both goalies to get them into the playoffs and a chance to win Lord Stanely’s Cup.
Next. Oilers miss their chance with talented former 1st round D-man. Oilers miss their chance with talented former 1st round D-man. dark
As tough as this season has been so far for the Oilers, it is still a better start than the one in 2023-2024. Can they now push upwards to play consistent hockey and build on the strengths of the past few games? Can they now get consistent goaltending with less than three goals against per game? I think they can and the Pickard Effect will help in making this team better. I predict we can look forward to a more successful set of games in November.
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