Every Night, Cam Talbot is Giving the Kings a Chance to Win…What More Could You Ask For?

Two quotes below from Todd McLellan on goaltender Cam Talbot.

“I think that calm and stable are probably two pretty good words to describe him. Good at cleaning up our messes, we let up a lot on the early penalty kill but after that, there wasn’t a lot coming at him, over and over again. After that, they’re a dangerous team and he was there to mop everything up.”

“I thought he was really good tonight. He was calm, which settles our group down, he was pretty predictable as a goaltender in the net which helps us, because we try and play a predictable game defensively. He made timely saves and he got us the win. If you just say those things, without the name behind the goaltender, you’ll take that every night.”

One quote game from Tuesday’s win over Toronto, the other after yesterday’s victory in Ottawa. What’s pretty interesting about them is that you could essentially apply either quote to either game and it would equally apply to both. Pretty good sign of consistency.

As the games have gone on, we’re starting to hear some repetition when talking with Kings players and coaches after games. The above quotes are from McLellan, when asked about Talbot directly, but we’ve gotten an unprompted “hell of a game from Talbs” or something of the sort a few different times, as a part of an answer to a question that was not asked about Talbot.

The prompted answers from Talbot’s teammates have probably even outweighed the unprompted ones. The veteran goaltender’s performances as of late have certainly not gone unnoticed.

“He’s been perfect,” defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov said yesterday. “We try to block some shots for him and he found his game I think and he’s come in right now and he looks pretty good. You can see, even tonight, he made for us a couple of huge stops and it helps our momentum to keep going.”

Talbot hasn’t been stealing wins for the Kings but also he hasn’t needed to. The group in front of him has played well over the last 11 periods specifically, ever since going down 4-1 in Arizona seven days prior. What Talbot has brought behind that group is a cool, calm and collected approach in net, making the right save at the right time and providing a stabilizing factor for the players in front of him.

“He’s been great for us,” forward Pierre-Luc Dubois said. “Having that back there, the D feel a little bit more comfortable, the forwards feel a little bit better. You don’t want to make more mistakes, but he has been playing great for us and I think with goalies, all you can ask for is making key saves in key moments of the game and keep us some games. Whether it’s a two-goal lead, a one-goal lead, just making that one save. He’s been phenomenal for us.”

As Dubois mentioned, sometimes it’s about more than the metrics when it comes to goaltenders.

Goaltending evaluation is usually trickier than for a skater. Kings Director of Player Personnel Glen Murray quipped over the summer that he evaluates goaltenders based on whether they stop the puck or they don’t, and there’s some merit to it. Goaltending metrics are that much more fickle at times, with where you should put your weight behind.

Talbot has shown a propensity in the early goings this season to make the right save at the right time. Take the game against Vegas last weekend, when he turned aside Jack Eichel on an early breakaway, which allowed the Kings to settle into the game. Or the Arizona game before that, when Talbot went post-to-post to deny a one-timer with the game tied at four. Or even the game in Toronto on Tuesday, when Talbot came up large on an early penalty kill that proceeded a complete effort from the group in front of him. Six points from three games the Kings deserved to win, but are they that clean without sharp stuff, at the right time, from their goaltender? So far, it’s been the timely saves that have stood out, but the overall package hasn’t been too bad either.

For starters, Talbot is playing behind a Kings team that is generally holding its own defensively. From a structure standpoint, there haven’t been all that many breakdowns in front of Talbot. Many of the mistakes have come off of individual plays, not team-wide issues. Among the 44 goaltenders with at least 200 minutes played so far this season, Talbot has faced the fourth-fewest high-danger chances on a per/60 basis. He’s also faced the sixth-fewest rush attempts per/60 with the same perimeters.

With that being said, when you can mix quality goaltending with stingy defending, you’ve likely got something good going at that end of the rink.

Per Natural Stat Trick, Talbot has saved 1.87 goals above expected, at all strengths. The bulk of that has come on special teams, with Talbot close to a goal saved above expected each with the Kings shorthanded and when on the power play. At even strength, Natural Stat Trick has Talbot almost exactly at a net zero in GSAA. What was that conversation from the beginning of the season? If the Kings could get just average goaltending, look out? They’re getting a heck of a lot better than that right now and it’s a big part of why the Kings are 6-2-2 through their first 10 games.

Through that level of play, Talbot is proving himself to his new teammates and giving the group a chance to win. Can’t ask for much more than that.

“We’re always trying to prove ourselves, no matter how old you are, no matter how many years you have, you’re always trying to prove yourself,” forward Phillip Danault said. “You see him right now, he’s giving us a chance to win and that’s all that we’re asking of him.”

Now, it’s a long season and with 72 games to go, not only will the Kings look for Talbot to keep up his current level of form, but they’ll also want to get Pheonix Copley going, knowing that the days of a goaltender playing 70 games in a season is behind us. Talbot estimated back in September that he’d be comfortable going 50-55 games if that’s what is asked of him, but the Kings believe in Copley as well and know that having both guys playing and playing well is important over the course of a long season. The schedule, and a poor performance in front of Copley in his last start, have tilted the scales in Talbot’s direction over the last week or so, but in the long run, we’ll likely expect to see Copley get his share of the starts as well.

As we look ahead, the upcoming schedule presents itself in such a way that the Kings have the option to lean a bit more on Talbot than they might be able to next month, simply due to the way the schedule shapes up. The Kings play tomorrow in Philadelphia but after that, they have three days until their next game. Overall, beginning on Sunday, the Kings play just six games in a span of 21 days. There’s only two nights on the road in there and it’s short trips to Vegas and Arizona. There’s a 3-in-4 set coming up, which will certainly involve rotation, but the Kings will have the ability to ride the hot hand if they’d like, whether that be Talbot or Copley, considering the ample amount of rest time they have in their future.

“The fair answer to that is yes,” McLellan said. “Not a real taxing day for us here today, especially in Talbs’ case. We know that we’re going home for a few days of rest, we know we’ve got a 3-in-4 coming up and then another chunk of rest. With that being said, yeah we can ride him maybe more than we will in January when it’s really jammed up.”

McLellan also noted the importance of keeping Copley engaged and involved, knowing that there’s only one net so only one guy can play each night.

Copley was such a big part of this team last year and his being pulled in his last start was probably more a reflection of the play in front of him than anything he was doing in the net. It’s also a part of the reality right now of a team that’s playing good hockey and winning games early in the season. In the long run, though, both players will be important.

“We also have to think of the other side of the coin too, with Copley, to make sure that we keep him fresh, alert and ready to go,” McLellan added. “We don’t want him to get too far away from us as well and that’s a consideration.”

Regardless of who is in net tomorrow, all the Kings can ask for from their goaltenders is a chance to win on a given night. If recent performance is any indication, that’s an expectation that is capable of being met.