Let’s Talk Talbot

The Oilers season has started and we’ve seen our share of both good and bad from the team through the first three games, however the biggest concern of the young season might just be the play of goaltender Cam Talbot. Goalie Cam has a reputation as a slow starter but with only two seasons as a bonified number one goalie it may be tough to brand him with that term this early.

Coach Todd McLellan and GM Peter Chiarelli might have some decisions to make when it comes to the Oilers rearguard. Do they sit Talbot down in favour of back up Jonas Gustavsson? Which now may not be possible depending on the severity of the injury he suffered in Sunday nights game after coming on in relief of beleaguered Talbot. Do they call up young Laurent Brossoit from Bakersfield and see if he can continue is fine play from the pre-season? Do they begin to explore options through trade and free agency?

Personally I think the only decision is to keep running Cam. The more he plays the more comfortable he’s going to feel in the net. The problem with this statement is that if Talbot doesn’t improve than this could be the hill the Oilers die on this season.

Let’s look at Talbot’s number from last season to give us an understanding on how he’s shown that he can battle back into a quality NHL starter.

Through his first 10 starts of the 2015-2016 season Talbot sported a save percentage of 0.896, and only once allowing more that 4 goals in a game. This year through three starts Talbot has already allowed 4 goals or more twice.

You can see from the table above that his save percentage from the first to games is sightly worse than the first two games of last season, add to that Sunday’s miserable save percentage of 0.739 and you have a three game average of 0.851. That is a worrisome number for sure, and Talbot is going to have to turn it around soon in order for the Oilers to have any hope of being a successful team this season.

In Talbot’s second 10 game segment from the 15/16 season his save percentage actually dropped a point to 0.895 in fact it wasn’t until that 20th game that things started to turn around for Cam. As you can see from this chart below his number were quite good, with the odd stinker in there that can be attributed more to shoddy defence than poor goaltending.

The Bottom Line

We need to remember that the Oilers gave up a lot, and I mean A LOT, of high quality scoring chances. Even with that Talbot finished the season with a very respectable 0.917 sv%. Those numbers if they can be sustained game in and game out are quality, meaning if he can limit the stinkers and quickly return to the form he had from last November on than we’ll be able to stop complaining about sub par goaltending. Gord knows we’ll have something else to complain about shortly.

This years Oilers seem to be a much better team on the defensive side of the puck and that should help. In addition to that the offense also seems to be clicking nicely although they won’t score with every dangerous chance they get they are going to put the puck in the net. It’s for the moments when the offensive side is handcuffed a bit that the Oilers will need their goalie to step up and make a big save. I think that Talbot can do this, it’s just about when he starts and I for one hope that he starts soon or it could be another long season for the Oilers.

Thanks for reading.