sad report: Maurice Richard has being announced fired due to….
This in from Jack Michaels of the Edmonton Oilers broadcast team, news that Calvin Pickard will get the start against the Montreal Canadiens, with Troy Stecher in for Vinny Desharnais: Desharnais won’t play tonight—replaced by Stecher—Pickard “vs Montreal.”
For now, at least, the questions about the goaltending of the Edmonton Oilers have been answered. That doesn’t mean there won’t be a crisis in the weeks or months to come. If most NHL goalies are anything, we can count on them to go on hot and cold streaks. Edmonton goalies Stuart Skinner and Calvin Pickard have generally been hot in recent months. They both have different styles of play, but both are making most of the big saves and not letting in many stinker goals against.
2. Pickard’s .919 save percentage is the 4th best save percentage of any NHL goalie this year who has played 10 or more games. Skinner’s .908 save percent ranks 27th. If you go with NHL goalies who are bonafide starters — those who have played 40 or more games — Skinner ranks 12th overall, tied with Juuse Saros and just behind Ilya Sorokin and Jakob Markstrom, so not in bad company at all. If we cut down that starter’s category to the Knoblauch-era only, Skinner has a .917 save percentage and ranks fifth overall for goalies with a heavy workload, behind only Connor Hellebuyck at .930 when it comes to Western Conference rival starters in that time period.
We’ve tracked major goalie mistakes on on goals against at the Cult of Hockey since the 2007-08. The project has evolved over time, as has our understanding of what constitutes a mistake by a goalie on a goal against. I’ll suggest we’ve been reasonably consistent, though with a trend to being somewhat more forgiving on screened shots as time has gone by, which is why you’ll note in recent years mistakes on goals against has trended down. That said, the Oilers defence and its goalies are getting better since the horrendous Decade of Darkness-plus era.
