Edmonton Oilers' playoff goaltending is a problem once again

AtlanticBruinsCanadiensLightningMaple LeafsPanthersRed WingsSabresSenatorsMetropolitanBlue JacketsCapitalsDevilsFlyersHurricanesIslandersPenguinsRangersCentralAvalancheBlackhawksBluesJetsMammothPredatorsStarsWildPacificCanucksDucksFlamesGolden KnightsKingsKrakenOilersSharksScores & ScheduleStandingsPodcastsFantasyNHL OddsNHL PicksNHL playoff predictionsBracketStanley Cup tiersNHL Draft rankingRed Light NewsletterNHL Playoffs Connor Ingram allowed six goals on 38 shots in Game 3. Sean M. Haffey / Getty Images Share article1ANAHEIM, Calif. — In what’s become a sign of springtime in Southern California, the Edmonton Oilers are considering a goaltending change. On Friday night, the Oilers fell behind the Anaheim Ducks 2-1 in their first-round playoff series, courtesy of a 7-4, all-system failure in which Connor Ingram allowed six goals on 38 shots, his third straight game with a sub-.900 save percentage and more goals allowed than expected. On Saturday afternoon, coach Kris Knoblauch was asked if his team had reached a point at which swapping Ingram out for Tristan Jarry represented a viable path forward for a group that, in short order, has begun to lose the plot for reasons including (but certainly not limited to) Ingram’s performance. Knoblauch might not walk through that door before Sunday’s Game 4 at the Honda Center, but he sounded like a man who, yet again and through no real fault of his own, is circling the block. In both of their previous postseasons under Knoblauch — in 2025 against the Los Angeles Kings and 2024 against the Vancouver Canucks — the Oilers have had to change goalies midstream in the first two rounds and lived to tell the tale. It’s reasonable for Knoblauch to think that they could pull it off a third time, but the fact that they’re faced with the choice shouldn’t surprise anyone. It’s the logical endpoint of nearly a year’s worth of mismanagement by Edmonton’s front office, of the most important position in the sport. “I think going in, we were pretty sure — it was the same thing last year (against the Kings), and even the year before (against Vancouver),” Knoblauch said. “Today in (the) NHL, very rarely do you have one goalie play all the games in the playoffs. Twenty years ago and before, it was unheard of to be swapping goalies, but we’ve got two good goalies.” “We feel confident that (Ingram and Jarry) can both play, and going into the playoffs, we felt that there was going to be a time that we’re gonna have to make a switch at some time, whether that’s for Game 4 or Game 5, whatever it is. But yeah, we have confidence in both.” Ingram’s story is remarkable, and his late-season run was equal parts outstanding, sorely needed and unexpected. He was struggling in the AHL when an injury to Jarry forced the Oilers to call him up, and by late March — after Jarry had gone from injured to brutally ineffective — he might have saved their playoff hopes. From March 23 on, he put up a .923 save percentage (10th in the NHL) and saved 0.7 goals above expected per 60 minutes (eighth). In seven starts, he allowed more than two goals just twice. Now, though, the wheels are starting to wobble. Ingram played most of Friday night under duress, and Anaheim’s first goal, by Mason McTavish, came on a redirection. The other five, though, were stoppable pucks to varying degrees, and plenty of the saves he made, particularly in Anaheim’s 20-shot first period, were a struggle. Poor rebound control iced the cake. Knoblauch, of course, made a point to mention how ugly the scene was in front of Ingram: “We can’t be playing like that, giving them three-on-ones and two-on-ones, allowing them to get loose sticks in front of the net that we’re not picking up, stuff like that. We have to play better.” In any case, Jarry has played in just nine games since Feb. 2. Since Edmonton acquired him from the Pittsburgh Penguins on Dec. 12, he has put up an .857 save percentage and saved fewer goals than expected in 13 of 19 appearances, according to Hockeystats.com. Maybe just as relevantly here, in the only full playoff series of his career, against the New York Islanders in 2021, Jarry largely laid an egg, including a Game 7 in which he allowed five goals on 19 shots. In that one, he fired a double-overtime pass directly to Josh Bailey for the game-winner. Bailey, unfortunately for Jarry and the Penguins, played for the Islanders. In the years since, his save percentage has steadily declined from .919, which earned him an All-Star spot in 2022, to .909 with Pittsburgh earlier this season, which earned him a ticket out of town, and to .857 with the Oilers, which bought him a seat on the bench. For a team whose Cup clock is ticking, he shouldn’t be a primary option, let alone one that gobbled up $5.375 million in salary cap space and cost Edmonton three assets to acquire. That one is on Stan Bowman, as was the decision to stick with Stuart Skinner and Calvin Pickard for the start of the 2025-26 season despite Skinner’s malignant inconsistency and Pickard’s career-backup resume. After six weeks’ worth of games, they were ready to move on to a high-cost, low-differential Plan B. In Edmonton’s best-case scenario, Skinner and Jarry were a goalie version of the pointing Spider-Man meme, but if one of the Spider-Men were twice as expensive as the other and prevented the Avengers from acquiring a scoring winger for their top six. Knoblauch, to his credit, helped make the Skinner-Pickard tandem work until the bitter end last spring; Pickard took control against Los Angeles, Skinner found his game against the Vegas Golden Knights and Dallas Stars, and Pickard was in net for a win over the Florida Panthers that tied the Stanley Cup Final 2-2. Ultimately, though, the music stopped, and the Oilers found themselves without a chair. And now — or soon — they seemed destined for the same spot. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms