Did Calvin Pickard Save The Oilers and Their Playoff Chances?

Last night the Edmonton Oilers beat the Vancouver Canucks with a late goal to win the game to tie the series at 2 as the series will be heading to Vancouver. Now this series comes down to a best of 3. One of the main reasons the Oilers won last night was the changing of the goalies, Calvin Pickard had replaced Stuart Skinner between the pipes.

Before the last game, Skinner had played every game, but his numbers were not very good which is why I think Knoblauch was forced to give the Pickard the start last night. That move proved to be the right one as the Oilers got the win.

Showing up making 19/21 saves Pickard won the duel of goaltending duel against Silvos. So far in this series Silvos was always the better goal and made bigger saves. Last night that was true again as the Oilers fired many more shots his way. The difference was the Oilers' goalie didn’t give up any soft goals.

The two goals Pickard let in were not at all his fault. One was a seeing eye shot from the point and the second was a deflection off a pass that went off a skate and went right behind him. There was none that had me thinking “Pickard will want that one back”. In the last couple of games of Skinner, there was at least one or two of those per game.

Will Skinner Play Again? If So How Does He Get Back In?

For Skinner to get back in the crease I think there will need to be a combination of things that need to happen. The most important one is Pickard will need to play an extremely bad game, so bad that he is the reason for the loss and Skinner will need to play well in practice.

If the Oilers keep winning or if Pickard plays well, but the Oilers’ offence is the problem then I think Pickard is going to be the starter moving forward. In the playoffs, you need to ride the hotter hand and right now the hotter for the two goalies is Pickard.