The Oilers have played 41 games and currently sit at 17-21-3 on the season. Currently, they sit within two games of the final playoff spot and will soon be getting healthy. For Oiler fans, the second half of the season should be filled with excitement and, finally, meaningful games.
With a little break between games 41 and 42, I’ve decided to hand out report cards for each position. Tonight, we start with the goalies.
Cam Talbot – C: Talbot has started 20 games for the Oilers and appeared in 22 overall on the season. His numbers, to this point, see his GAA at 2.76, his SV% at .910 and his record at 7-11-2. For all intents and purposes, this has been slightly below average goaltending.
Edmonton invested numerous picks in Talbot via trade at the entry draft this past June and they expected him to take control of the crease this season. To this point, that really has yet to happen. Talbot had a decent start to the season, but he didn’t have a single game in the month of November where his SV% was above .900, that’s bad folks.
In his last ten starts, starting with a big win in Boston in mid-December, Talbot has posted a SV% of .931, well above league average. Outside of Edmonton’s tough loss against the Kings last week, he’s been quite good for the club, a good sign.
Talbot struggled to start last year with the Rangers as well but he turned it on late for the club. If he does that again this year, then the first half will simply be looked at as a stepping stone. He gets an average grade thanks to his recent run of strong play for the club.
Anders Nilsson – C+: Anders Nilsson gets a C+ as he’s enjoying his best season in the NHL to date. In 22 appearances, he’s posted a GAA of 2.91, a SV% of .908 and a record of 10-10-1. Nilsson gets extra points for backstopping Edmonton in five of their wins during their six game winning streak.
Nilsson had a strong start to the season for Edmonton, taking the crease and running with it from early November through mid December. Recently, however, Nilsson has come back down to earth and has struggled mightily. He hasn’t given Edmonton a quality start in over a month and he’s fallen behind Cam Talbot considerably.
Nilsson’s a bigger goalie and seems to work better when he gets a heavier work load, but rebound control has been a problem lately. His confidence, which was sky high about a month and a half ago, has taken a huge hit it appears and as a result his game has too.
Nilsson gets a C+ thanks to his hot stretch and for keeping the team afloat while Talbot figured his game out for a month and a half. Plus, his recent struggles aren’t anything like those Talbot faced during the month of November. While his numbers are slightly below average, I’ve seen his total body of work as just a fraction over average.
Laurent Brossoit (AHL) – A: Quick note on Laurent Brossoit here. This is a goalie who is almost ready folks, he’s about a year away from NHL time in my mind. So far this season, as Bakersfield’s top dog, Brossoit has posted a 10-5-3 record with a 2.52 GAA and a .928 SV%. Brossoit, for the third season in a row, has taken a step forward in terms of his stats and he’s now taken an AHL starting job and ran with it.
This bodes very, very well for the future of the Edmonton Oilers in net, the former Oil King is poised to make a real run at the starting job in the future if this continues. Just thought it was worth putting him in here.
Oilers Overall Grade In Net – C: Average goaltending so far for the Oilers this season. Inconsistent is the word I’m looking for, actually. We’ve seen some great goaltending from Talbot and Nilsson, but we’ve also seen some really, really bad goaltending from them. They need to be better in the second half of the season, no doubt about that.
That said, these guys represent an improvement from last season, and their average is close to, well, league average. Room for improvement, however, and really this team will go as far as these two will take them in my mind.
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