The Edmonton Oilers newest goaltender has one area to tighten up to truly give the team the goaltending they need.
The Edmonton Oilers lost another game last night. This time, at the hands of the Florida Panthers. The 5-3 loss has their record fall to 5-11-1. It's not an impossible record to come out of to make the playoffs. They were 10-10 last year after 20 games played.
Calvin Pickard.Goaltending has been a big topic of discussion - last night was no different. Calvin Pickard made his 2023-24 Oilers debut. He allowed 4 goals on 32 shots (one goal was an empty netter).
Surprisingly, the quality of shot attempts - and Pickard's corresponding save percentage against those attempts - tell an intriguing story.
Pickard had a 100 save percentage for both high danger and medium danger unblocked shot attempts. This is wild, given that goalies typically have a declining save percentage as you increase how dangerous the shots are. Of course, it's a small sample size so that influences things dramatically.
His low danger save percentage was lower than expected. Goalies should stop about 97% of low danger shot attempts, Pickard stopped 86.7%.
If Pickard can tighten up his game when it comes to low danger chances there is a good chance he could have an even split with Stuart Skinner.
As numbers normalize, it will be interesting to follow along with Pickard's NHL performances.
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