Pickard has played great in the AHL so far, Rodrigue too. Skinner and Campbell have been flat out atrocious. A lot of people are still blaming the defense and while they could be better at reducing high danger chances and mistakes, every defense, even the most sound make a number of mistakes per game. The first period against Vancouver was a perfect microcosm of the entire season so far. The team comes out flying, dominating and wildly outshooting and out chancing the opponent and the opposing goalie stands on their head, then the opponent gets one chance and it's in. The whole team deflates and the goaltending falters even further and in a period the Oilers dominated the vast majority of possession, chances and shots they somehow end up coming out the period down 2 goals.
I like this move but there needs to be more to come. Pickard is a decent goalie with a good amount of experience at both the AHL and NHL but he's never been more than a solid backup and you certainly can't expect him to steal you games. That right there is the ticket though, the Oilers don't need a goalie to save them games, they just need someone who can be relied on to make saves at an average rate. Let's hope Pickard is that.
I maintain that the skating roster doesn't need any changes, they're getting demoralized by what's happening between the pipes and faltering because of it. Connor and Leon have not looked like themselves yet all year long, but other players have been stepping up to provide a couple goals here or there (Mostly Hyman and Kane). Foegele is looking better than he ever has in an Oiler uniform and has been a legitimate top-6 callibre player to start the year.
Two things need to change for the Oilers to start winning:
1. Get a save every now and then (shouldn't be too much to ask but apparently has been so far)
and
2. Better luck around the net (the chances are there, as shown by the Oilers shot and chance share in most of their games, a few more just need to start going in)
edit: I forgot to mention the defensive system. I don't care if box + 1 (aka zone defense) is the NHL standard, for some reason it doesn't work for the Oilers, maybe it's personnel, maybe it's coaching. But either way it's time to go back to good old fashioned man-on-man coverage. The team that played that way won 50 games in a season and a playoff series last year. Just because the eventual cup champions were able to find a way through it in 4 games in the playoffs does not mean it's a broken system
