SAN JOSE — Cam Talbot wore the eternal ball cap in New York, stopping practice pucks and sitting at the end of the Rangers bench watching a legend in Henrik Lundqvist.
There was plenty of time for dreaming, and Talbot was dreaming of exactly this.
“Oh yeah,” he said after his second consecutive playoff shutout, a 1-0 blanking of the San Jose Sharks in this pivotal Game 3. “I’ve just been dreaming of getting a chance to be a starting goalie. Now, to be the guy starting in the playoffs, it’s very humbling. I’m relishing this chance right now.”
[snippet id=3332601]
Talbot faced 22 shots, a far cry from the days when Edmonton could only shut the Sharks out if Ben Scrivens stopped 59 pucks. On a team where Connor McDavid gets heavy recognition for the turnaround, the fact Talbot is establishing himself as a top-10 National Hockey League goalie should perhaps get equal credit for what is happening in Edmonton.
“The best teams have it,” said Jordan Eberle, a long-serving Oiler who has seen some real beauties strap on the pads behind him. “Look at every Stanley Cup team that’s won, they all have great goaltending. We have it.”
This was that game the Oilers could never win. A scoreless battle of wills, the first period owned by San Jose, the second run by the Oilers, and the third just two teams trying not to make The Big Mistake.
The Oilers always used to make The Big Mistake. You could set your watch by it.
But on Easter Sunday it was one of theirs who found the chocolate-covered gift, when mutton-chopped Zack Kassian picked off a clearing attempt by Edmonton native David Schlemko, and slid a shot past Martin Jones that beat him where he’s been beaten all series long — five-hole.
“I just went back to get the puck and tried to bypass a couple guys,” said Schlemko, a good D-man who made the costly mistake in this one. “I don’t know if it hit his skate or leg. Tough bounce, you know? It’s a game of mistakes and that one ends up in the net.”
The margin is slim in April hockey. A clearing attempt here, a save there… Kassian is becoming this spring’s Chris Kontos, the first Oiler to pot back-to-back game-winners since folk hero Fernando Pisani in ’06.
“We knew if we stuck with our system, kept getting pucks behind them and using our speed eventually they were going to turn something over and we would capitalize,” Kassian said. “I was the lucky guy tonight.”
It’s a recipe for a team that suddenly could make some noise this post-season: top-notch goaltending, the ability to hang in a 0-0 game through 50 minutes without cracking, a first-line centre like McDavid, and when he gets shut down, depth scoring from the likes of Kassian.
“He’s playing at a new level, and that’s what you need in the playoffs,” Talbot said. “The top guys get marked pretty hard, and you need secondary scoring. He’s giving it to us right now.”
Of course, without Talbot’s work that goal could have been scored in garbage time. He got Edmonton out of the first period scoreless after San Jose dominated the frame, and after that the Oilers were the better team. Twenty-two shots doesn’t sound like much, but it’s pretty evident how important each save becomes in a 1-0 victory.
[snippet id=3317575]
“I’m staying engaged in the game. Being on my toes and ready for the next shot,” he said of operating with such little action. “In the third period there, I think they had one shot with seven minutes left. Then it’s Joel Ward, wide open in front.”
Joe Thornton returned for San Jose, while Oilers head coach Todd McLellan removed a slumbering Leon Draisaitl from McDavid’s right wing. He was the one applying the forecheck that forced Schlemko on Kassian’s goal.
Call it brilliance by the man who coached in this building for seven seasons.
If he’d had the kind of goaltending Talbot gave his new team back in those days, there would likely be an extra banner hanging in the SAP Center.
[relatedlinks]
