Through the first three games of the first round, the Edmonton Oilers have had plenty of success at exposing former Oiler Cam Talbot. They scored six in Game 1, followed by four in Game 2, and another six in Game 3 in Los Angeles. Talbot has a career 16–18 record in 36 games with a goals against average of 2.75 and a save percentage of .915 in the playoffs, but has started this series with a .861 SV%, 5.30 GAA, and -3.08 Goals Saved above Expected.
It’s pretty clearly been a rough time for the former Oiler. The familiarity with the Oilers, in particular Oilers’ Goalie Coach Dustin Schwartz has not done Talbot any favours. Schwartz is known around the league for being one of the better goalie coaches at creating targeted attacks against opposing goalies based on prescouts. Since the Oilers have made the playoffs in the McDavid era, they’ve been able to expose Martin Jones, John Gibson, Jonathan Quick, Jacob Markstrom, Darcy Kuemper, Joonas Korpisalo, Laurent Brossoit, and now Cam Talbot. With Talbot spending so much time under Schwartz, this year has been particularly ruthless.
Here’s how the Oilers are beating Talbot regularly so far.
Bait Talbot into attacking the shot
Between Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, the Oilers have the two best offensive weapons in the playoffs. Every time they touch the puck, it’s an imminent threat. Talbot likely knows this more than most NHL goalies, having seen them every day in practice for nearly four years. And so far, the Oilers have been taking advantage of this. Of the 16 goals Edmonton has scored on Talbot, seven of them have come from having McDavid or Draisaitl draw Talbot into taking more depth and a wider stance to respect the shot, then sending a pass to the back door to wide open net while the Alabama-Hunstville alum tries to scramble back.
Here are the goals:
Attacking Talbot’s gloves
Going back to his time with the Oilers, Cam Talbot has always maintained a lower hand position with his blocker and glove, instead using chicken wings and body shifts to try to cover the top of the net. As shooters have become more skilled at disguising releases and picking corners, it’s become imperative to have active gloves to cut pucks down early. As Kevin Woodley noted during his interview on the Jason Gregor Show last week, Talbot typically gets exposed high glove and mid height on his blocker side. What typically happens is when the puck gets above his initial glove position, he starts blindly reacting to the release as the tracking breaks down to the top of the net, but this has happens to other locations where he pulls off and opens up. These shots beating Talbot clean have accounted for another five goals during the series.
Talbot’s (over)reliance on reverse VH
This trend was more prevalent in the regular season, but the Oilers have regularly attacked Talbot while he’s in reverse VH. A lot of the examples during the series have been bait to back door passes, but Edmonton has also shot on the RVH.
Talbot used to employ primarily a paddle down reverse VH, which draws his whole upper body down and leaves the upper part of the net exposed. This was a problem when he played for Edmonton, and the Oilers have been able to roof the puck on him since he left, which has resulted in Talbot starting to rest his blocker on top of his pad and leave his upper body higher in the net. However, since he’s not the most comfortable with the new tactics, there have been some rebounds that have leaked out. There’s some other post play issues, including getting caught in overlap and being over square to the short side. There’s only been two specific goals from RVH, but look for more as the series goes on.
How the Oilers can take the series
The Oilers have really attacked Talbot in three specific ways, with two of them making up 14 of 16 goals that the Oilers have scored. Between using McDavid and Draisaitl as shooting decoys to open the back door, and beating Talbot through his gloves, Edmonton has been able to exploit tendencies that appear on video that would be amplified by their inside knowledge of their former teammate. Goalie Coach Dustin Schwartz helped build Talbot into what he is today and is known for having success prescouts to attack specific goaltender tendencies, so look for the Oilers to continue to put up numbers on Talbot as the series goes on.
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