Goaltending – again – lets the Oilers down in season debut

While some things might be different in the provincial capital of Alberta, others remain the same.

In the Edmonton Oilers’ season opener on Tuesday night, goaltender Tristan Jarry laid an egg, giving up six goals on 23 shots in an overtime loss to the Vancouver Canucks. While the Oilers offense was present, rallying back from a 5-2 deficit in the third period, the fact that a masked man cost Edmonton a potential win only reinstated the doubt fans in Alberta have about the team’s goaltending situation.

On Wednesday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton explain how Jarry’s lackluster performance cost the Oilers once again.

Tyler Yaremchuk: There were more than a couple that kind of had the fans in Edmonton stirring. They gave him the Bronx cheer at one point. It was ugly. I guess, maybe my question for you in this, because you know I’m going to be live in about three hours on OilersNation Everyday talking to you know 700 to 1,000 Oilers fans, and a bunch of them are going to tell me Hubs, but they were breakaways in two-on-ones. How should I respond?

Carter Hutton: Watch Jakub Dobes, what he was able to do in Montreal, and look at a couple of those key saves he made on Auston Matthews. There’s a pop-up play, another couple big ones, backdoor passes. This is the NHL now. That’s what we have to wrap our head around. This isn’t the NHL from 10-15, 20 years ago when I first broke in, where there were 10 to 12 quality scoring chances in a game. … You need to make saves.

There’s moments in this game where, yes, the defense needs to be better. Yes, he needs to be more insulated. But there’s also goals that went in the net where you need saves, and and there’s two of them that like stick out to you. The factor is, you have to make saves at key times, and momentum swings the game. … Trust me, I’ve given up bad goals in my career here, but [there are] routine saves. This is the NHL that has to be saved in that moment where they’re at, and that’s a devastating factor. The fact that Edmonton was able to fight back and get a point is a bit of a win, but this is the same thing that has hurt them in the past, and it’s very concerning. Jarry did not look very good yesterday.

You can watch the full segment and entire episode here…