We know that pro sports is a cruel business, where a guy can be saving his team\u2019s butt one year and the next, he becomes a third wheel in a relationship because management and fan bases deal in the here and now.<\/p>\n
Loyalty in the real world is admired.<\/p>\n
In hockey, football, baseball, loyalty is a fine thing but not the only thing.<\/p>\n
So while the Edmonton Oilers<\/a> now have a tag team of Tristan Jarry and Connor Ingram in net, two new goalies pushing each other, Calvin Pickard, who won seven playoff games last spring, now can\u2019t even dress as the backup.<\/p>\n There\u2019s likely coming a time when he\u2019s either going on waivers because they\u2019re forced to use their cap room on a forward or a defenceman from the farm, not a goalie who doesn\u2019t suit up. Or, another desperate NHL team \u2014 read Ottawa or Philadelphia \u2014 needs a better backup in a trade. Pickard is affordable at $1 million, with his contract expiring July 1, and a guy who has proven that in the furnace-like playoffs, he can win.<\/p>\n But for now, the eminently likable Pickard, who has the big guns Connor McDavid<\/a> and Leon Draisaitl solidly in his corner as a great friend and teammate, is uncomfortably sitting in limbo.<\/p>\n He comes to the rink every day, stops pucks, doesn\u2019t mope, don\u2019t gripe.<\/p>\n But he doesn\u2019t play and for a guy who came into the Los Angeles playoff series last spring and won the last four games, then two more to start the Vegas series before Tomas Hertl fell on him in the crease and he tore something in his left leg, this is a gut-punch.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t love how it got to this point but I get it. I can\u2019t be boiling mad coming to the rink every day because that will be counterproductive for what I need to do,\u201d said the always stand-up guy Pickard, who has played the good soldier throughout his 191-game NHL career with stops in Colorado, Toronto, Detroit, Arizona, Philadelphia and here, going 39-23-4 over parts of three seasons.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t like it. I\u2019m not having fun with it but I\u2019m still coming in every day, working hard because you never know what\u2019s going to happen. I have to be ready for my next opportunity. That\u2019s my mindset,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n At the best of times a backup doesn\u2019t play a lot if there\u2019s an acknowledged starter. He\u2019s used to how that goes unless he\u2019s in a 1 and 1a situation, two guys jostling for playing time, like 80 per cent of NHL teams, But it wasn\u2019t that way when Stuart Skinner was here before he was traded to Thursday\u2019s opponent, Pittsburgh, six weeks ago. Skinner was the acknowledged starter. He thought he\u2019d be paired with Jarry, who came here in the Skinner deal, but then Jarry got hurt in Boston Dec. 18, was out a month, and Ingram came up from Bakersfield, where he was struggling, and he\u2019s been lights out.<\/p>\n So, now Pickard sits beside Jarry, doing a media scrum Wednesday. He takes questions from two reporters, asking if they want to sit down, take a load off, and when the interview is winding down he asks about another scribe Daniel Nugent-Bowman, who is no longer with The Athletic, wondering what\u2019s up with that.<\/p>\n Again, showing his human side.<\/p>\n The last thing Pickard wants to do is rock any boats.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s not who I am, even though everybody realizes the situation. Right now, I\u2019m the third goalie and it\u2019s painful for me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m still here joking with the guys. Doesn\u2019t mean I\u2019m happy with what\u2019s going on, but when I\u2019m here it\u2019s my job to be a pro, good teammate. I have conversations with the coaching staff and such, maybe a little more stern, but with my teammates, nothing changes. These guys (Jarry and Ingram) have played well,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Since the Penguins trade, the Oiler goaltending is better, but the team has also played much better in front of the tenders, more focused defensively, than they were early in the season with Skinner and Pickard, who came up from Bakersfield three years ago to replace Jack Campbell and took off with the chance.<\/p>\n He knows his start this season wasn\u2019t good (in seven starts over the first month, he gave up five goals three times and four twice), in concert with a team in defensive denial. He did steal a win in Winnipeg just after Christmas and beat the Lightning in Tampa in late November with an outstanding performance. His play had rebounded while Jarry was out but his last game was Jan. 8 in Winnipeg, again beating the Jets.<\/p>\n But while the goalie fraternity is a tight one, where there\u2019s always pulling for one another on a team, now he\u2019s a spectator.<\/p>\n \u201cMe and Skins struggled (beginning) but our team was trying to find their footing. I needed to make some more saves, here and there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Pickard deserves better, but deserving often isn\u2019t a word that hockey adheres to.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve learned that over the years. You\u2019ve always got to be playing well, especially a guy in my position, lower contract, not a very long time (left),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cAs a general manager, you\u2019re probably always looking to the future. I\u2019ve played a lot of good hockey here. You never know what the future holds. I could be right back in there and playing soon. But, yeah, it does suck,\u201d said Pickard about spending time in the press box.<\/p>\n That said, Pickard is always a guy who brings the temperature down.<\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t feel bad for me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been through this before. I\u2019m 34 soon. I\u2019ve seen all kinds of situations.\u201d<\/p>\n But we do feel bad, on a human scale. Think of what you love to do becoming not fun. Whatever happens with Pickard, McDavid, Draisaitl and the others in the team leadership group, will have their voices heard on how the goalie is treated in all of this, how it turns out if Jarry and Ingram are the changing of the guard.<\/p>\n The Oilers are carrying all three on their cap because they want to make sure Jarry, coming off a leg problem, stays in one piece. They can also afford it with $271,000 in space and they have room on their 23-man roster, barring injuries elsewhere. It\u2019s been a little tricky on that front with Draisaitl still in Germany attending to a family matter and Kasperi Kapanen hurting his leg Sunday against St. Louis. As it is, they played with 11 forwards Tuesday against New Jersey.<\/p>\n Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch may have erred in not dressing Pickard as the backup to Ingram this past Sunday on Ryan Nugent-Hopkins 1,000th game. Instead, he was in the press box. Pickard has a lot more history with RNH than Jarry, who was the game\u2019s backup.<\/p>\n But Knoblauch the man, not the coach, does feel for Pickard\u2019s lot in life today.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s hard for me. I can\u2019t imagine what it\u2019s like for Picks,\u201d he said. \u201cOn a personal side, here\u2019s a fantastic teammate who means a lot to the guys in the room.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe wouldn\u2019t have been in the Stanley Cup Final two years in a row without him.<\/p>\n Against Vancouver (in 2024) he was able to give our starter (Skinner) a reset in that series. And last year the way he played in the L.A. series, then into Vegas before getting hurt disrupted that. Without his strong play I\u2019m not sure we get through that series. He\u2019s won a lot of important games for us,\u201d said Knoblauch, who knows his start this season was rocky but so was his team\u2019s.<\/p>\n From mid-December on, he\u2019s been much better, but Jarry returned from hurting his leg in a win in Boston with Pickard coming in to make every save in relief. Then Ingram comes up on emergency injury recall, and he doesn\u2019t go back.<\/p>\n \u201cUnfortunately, he\u2019s odd man out but when I look back at his contributions and being a quality person, it\u2019s difficult for me to see him in this position,\u201d said Knoblauch.<\/p>\n So the when Cup final ends last year, did Knoblauch see this coming?<\/p>\n This pairing of Jarry and Ingram?<\/p>\n \u201cDefinitely not,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n But there were lots of conversations with GM Stan Bowman about Skinner, mostly. They talked about other options, but there weren\u2019t a lot. \u201cThen, as the season went, we had to find something and we ended up with the goalies we have now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Knoblauch is a firm believer in goaltending being voodoo.<\/p>\n \u201cGoalie is a funny position. Now, there\u2019s a handful of guys you know will be solid year after year. And with other goalies, they have a good season, then one that\u2019s not. It\u2019s probably the most important position in the game but also the most unpredictable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Nobody knows the vagaries of that more than Pickard.<\/p>\n But that doesn\u2019t mean he has to like it, today.<\/p>\n Bookmark our website and support our journalism:\u00a0Don\u2019t\u00a0miss the news you need to know \u2014 add\u00a0EdmontonJournal.com<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0EdmontonSun.com<\/a>\u00a0to your bookmarks and\u00a0sign up for our newsletters here.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n You can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribers gain unlimited access to The Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun, National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites. Support us by subscribing today:\u00a0The Edmonton Journal<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<\/a>The Edmonton Sun<\/a>.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We know that pro sports is a cruel business, where a guy can be saving his team\u2019s butt…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":421509,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5125],"tags":[154,275,192,2663,155,599,198,146,5300,5,4812,370,189,793,576,4,24,72,56,1469,15,534,157,1261,66,6769,893,74,77],"class_list":{"0":"post-421508","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edmonton-oilers","8":"tag-boston","9":"tag-calvin-pickard","10":"tag-colorado","11":"tag-connor-ingram","12":"tag-connor-mcdavid","13":"tag-detroit","14":"tag-edmonton","15":"tag-edmonton-oilers","16":"tag-edmontonoilers","17":"tag-hockey","18":"tag-kasperi-kapanen","19":"tag-leon-draisaitl","20":"tag-lightning","21":"tag-los-angeles","22":"tag-new-jersey","23":"tag-nhl","24":"tag-oilers","25":"tag-ottawa","26":"tag-philadelphia-flyers","27":"tag-pittsburgh","28":"tag-ryan-nugent-hopkins","29":"tag-st-louis","30":"tag-stuart-skinner","31":"tag-tomas-hertl","32":"tag-toronto","33":"tag-tristan-jarry","34":"tag-vancouver","35":"tag-vegas","36":"tag-winnipeg"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115938393056843026","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=421508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421508\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/421509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}