Welp folks, it's here. The dog days of summer. The most boring time to be a hockey fan. Most of the NHL action is over with. The off-season has ground to a halt, with only some signings and stuff being announced. However two recent articles over at OilersNation have got me wanting to write something. The first, was about Evan Bounchard's defensive "deficiencies". My response to that article?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
I fucking quit.
Not even a new season and some of the people have already turned on him. This is a new low even for you assholes!"
Needless to say, I was pretty ticked off. But that's not what this post is about. No, no, no, no. Today I'm writing about an article on ON, posted 2 hours ago; titled High/Low: The Goalies.
Now I HATE when someone writes an article about a goalie, especially on ON, for three reasons.
1. They complain about how Talbot plays:
As a former goalie myself, I get infuriated when goalies make stupid mistakes. Whether it be making a ill-advised trip out of their crease to grab a loose puck behind the net, or trying to catch a center ice dump-in from center ice in their glove, resulting in the puck ending up in the back of the net. However, aside from a few hiccups, I saw no issue with Talbot's play last season.
2. They try to argue that Talbot is a career backup goalie:
Now I'm not going to post what I wrote on OilersNation about Talbot's stats. It'd be long, and quite frankly, it'd be tedious (copy and paste I know, but I'm lazy). So I'm just going to post my totals for him. Keep in mind, MY stat tracking went back to the 2009-10 season when he was playing at the U of Alabama. Over an 8 year career of playing goalie at the CHA, AHL, ECHL, and NHL levls, Cam Talbot has played a total of 403 games. In that span, he has won 194 games, lost 165 regulation games, and lost 30 Overtime games. In that entire time, he has a 2.50 GAA, and a .918 SV%. If you're still unconvinced that Talbot is a starter, let's take a look at some comparables.
Cam Talbot - 2.50 GAA, .918 sv%
Frederik Anderson - 2.54 GAA, .918 sv%
Brayden Holtby - 2.41 GAA, .919 sv%
Tuuka Rask - 2.26 GAA, .922 sv%
Sergei Bobrovksy - 2.44 GAA, .920 sv%
So if Cam Talbot "isn't a starting goaltender", then none of these other guys are.
3. Goalies, as a whole, are hard to pin down from season to season (more on this below).
When I was listening to the Steve Dangle Podcast, talking about that crazy day on June 29th 2016, special guest, Andrew Berkshire, said something interesting. That goalies are hard to track because their stats are massively impacted by the team in front of them. He used Tuuka Rask as an example. For reference, Rask had a 2.56 GAA and .915 sv% in the 2015-16 season. A downgrade from the 2.11 GAA and .927 sv% he had put up the previous 3 seasons.
So no, I don't think Edmonton should get rid of Cam Talbot. His career speaks for itself and last year was a down year for him. Plain and simple. He hasn't lost his touch, he hasn't suddenly forgotten how to play goalie. He had 1 bad year. Cam is a wonderful goalie, and he has put together good stretches of play for us before. I'm happy to have Cam back between the pipes and I look forward to him shutting the naysayers up. And I'll happily wear my Cam Talbot jersey, loud and proud!