Oilers Players Vetoed An Attempted Goaltending Move By Management
Is a change in the Stuart Skinner/Calvin Pickard tandem needed? More importantly, shouldn't that just be a rhetorical question at this point?
According to insider Frank Seravalli on the Bleacher Report Insider Notebook, Oilers' management actually did try to make a move, but the rest of the players apparently shut it down.
I think the Oilers wanted to make a change with Calvin Pickard coming out of this road trip; I think they wanted to try and bring up Connor Ingram.
I think Cal Pickard is such an immensely popular player in that Edmonton Oilers locker room that their top players went to bat for Cal Pickard... That’s why Cal Pickard is sticking around, at least for the time being.
The Oilers picked up Ingram on waivers before the season, and he's been working his way back to form at the AHL level thus far this year. In seven games with the Bakersfield Condors, he has an .871 save percentage with a 3.61 goals against average. Not awe-inspiring, but better than Pickard's numbers to this point.
The Oilers' backup netminder has not had a good season at the NHL level, to say the least. He has an .847 Sv% and a 4.04 GAA. Skinner has only been marginally better, with an .878 Sv% and a 3.18 GAA. He is tied for having allowed more pucks to get by him than any goalie in the league to this point, with 54 surrendered in his 18 games (tied with Dustin Wolf).
After another eight-goal debacle Tuesday night (with the pair splitting the duties, allowing four goals each), time is running short for the Oilers to convince management that they should continue to stick with Pickard and Skinner.
"It's not gonna be forever, it's not an unlimited runway," said Seravalli.
"I believe they've got till Christmas... I think their goalies have a few weeks to straighten out their stats and their feel and get out of this crisis of confidence that has really marred this team in their own end, to get back on track. And if it's not better by Christmas, I think that's when we're gonna start to see (GM) Stan Bowman begin to make something happen. That seems to be the runway that they've been afforded."
For now, popularity wins the day, and the Oilers players want to stick with their 'nice guy' goalies. Now, let's see if they can show it on the ice on a consistent basis. But Tuesday night's 8-3 loss isn't a good sign.
Photo: © James Guillory-Imagn Images
