Goaltending continues to be tender issue after wild win over Flames
Brossoit’s meltdown against Calgary raises questions about team’s depth
OK, now what?
After the blowout turned into a blow up in Calgary, does Edmonton Oilers GM Peter Chiarelli stick with backup goalie Laurent Brossoit? Or does he work the phones for a more experienced No. 2 with starter Cam Talbot out for a minimum of four more games with an undisclosed upperbody issue.
There are precious few outside options for Chiarelli. Maybe former Colorado goalie Calvin Pickard, now dazzling as the Leafs’ American Hockey League starter, would be the best.
Eddie Lack has an .813 save percentage this season and is in the minors. Andrew Hammond, now in the AHL and never as good as he was in 2015 in Ottawa, is out there. Maybe Anaheim’s No. 3 Reto Berra would be worth a look.
But there’s no white horse out there.
This is Brossoit’s big shot with farmhand Nick Ellis as his No. 2.
Brossoit made half a dozen outstanding stops against the Toronto Maple Leafs Thursday, even while giving up five goals. The only one he’d like back is a goal by Dominic Moore on his short side early in the game. He dug in after being down 3-1 and showed how mentally tough he was that night.
On Saturday, though, he inexplicably gave up three goals on four shots and four over a seven-minute span, turning a home-and-chilled 6-1 lead into a 7-5 thrill ride in the third in Calgary.
He got rattled one game after being stone-cold sharp and now Philadelphia’s here Wednesday. Little hairy at the end there, L.B? “Holy,” said Brossoit, who lost his focus. “I got casual mentally and this is a league where they’ll make you pay really quick. I’m just lucky the guys battled hard to close it out.”
Brossoit is a standup guy, even if goalies don’t do that much anymore. He wasn’t ducking his culpability on Saturday.
Going into the season, management wanted Brossoit to seize the backup job and run with it, maybe playing 17-20 games, but when they dug a hole early, Talbot played and played and played. Brossoit had two good games in Oilers losses in Washington and Buffalo, a really strong relief job in Vancouver in a game in October, a 5-3 loss at home to Carolina, the hard-luck loss to Toronto when he made those highlight-reel stops and now the head-scratcher in Calgary.
He has a 1-4-1 record and an .872 save percentage. Not good enough, obviously.
Did the mistakes in the third come from not playing much?
“Lack of experience could be a part of that,” he said. “But I have to learn from it and make sure it doesn’t happen again.
“A lot of the goals I’d like back. Lesson learned. The one that beat
Holy. I got casual mentally and this is a league where they’ll make you pay really quick. I’m just lucky the guys battled hard to close it out.
me short side, I thought I had everything covered. They found holes, that’s my bad. I have to stay extra tight, especially in the third periods, no matter what the score is. I got casual.”
And yet Brossoit earned high praise from coach Todd McLellan on the Leafs game.
“If they were handing out stars after the first period, he’d have gotten all three of them,” said McLellan Saturday morning as he looked back on a tough loss to the Leafs. “I don’t think the intent to get away from it was there, it just happened (against Calgary). Some of the attempts at our net I’m sure our goaltender would like back.
“The second one gets them going, they get one on the power play and now you have to build in another where Kris Russell falls, which happens in a game, and they get some momentum and away they go.”
In the final analysis, McLellan’s team got the win, but it was a messy win, McLellan’s 400th in the NHL.
“We haven’t won enough to be entirely critical about a win, no matter how it looks,” he said.
But Brossoit’s play in Calgary is obviously worrisome. He’s got great legs going side to side with his athleticism. But Calgary found holes. Shots snuck inside posts and under his pads. Sam Bennett beat him high when Brossoit looked deep in his net to make it 6-4.
“Little stressful at the end there, but a win’s a win,” said Mark Letestu, one of six Oilers to score. “They’re prideful over there, the crowd gets into it, they started throwing pucks from everywhere and got some bounces. Nice to hold the fort after they got to within one goal, buckled down.”