cam talbot
Cam Talbot

By any measure, Cam Talbot’s temporary reign as New York’s No. 1 goaltender has been a resounding success.

The Prince has been an adventure at times, mishandling the puck and giving up the occasional softie. But overall, it’s impossible to complain about Talbot’s sparking 11-2-3 record, 2.35 GAA and .920 SV% since taking over for Henrik Lundqvist (not including yesterday’s game). In fact, as MSG noted on Sunday night, Talbot’s numbers over the last two seasons stack up against any goalie in the league.

The Blueshirts are still counting down the days until Lundqvist’s return, but in the meantime Talbot has quashed any concerns about needing to bring in outside veteran help.

Talbot skeptics will wonder if the Rangers are playing so much better in front of Talbot as a team that they’re masking any of his deficiencies, and it’s a question I’ve asked myself. Indeed over the last few years, it has seemed like the Blueshirts tighten up defensively in front of their backup netminders and feel a little freer to take chances knowing the ultimate safety valve was sitting on his throne in the crease.

But Talbot has actually faced slightly more rubber than the King since taking over on February 4th – the Rangers have allowed 29.2 shots per 60 minutes compared to 28.9 before Lundqvist’s injury*.

And in fact, the quality of those shots has been virtually identical. According to War on Ice’s new Scoring Chances metric (defined here), since Lundqvist went down the Blueshirts have yielded 26.1 scoring chances against per 60 minutes in close situations, compared to 24.1 to that point. (If you account for all situations, New York has surrendered 26.3 chances per 60 minutes since Lundqvist went down compared to 24.1 beforehand).

These aren’t tell-all statistics by any means, but they do help illustrate that Talbot has been tested just as much as Lundqvist was in the months prior, and he’s held up remarkably well.

The bummer for Talbot is that his value is at an all-time high right now, but Talbot inked a one-year extension just a month and a half before Lundqvist suffered his injury. If not for that, Talbot would be well-positioned to compete for a starting job as a free agent this summer.

There’s also still the possibility of trading Talbot, but we’ve seen time and again that goalies fetch very small returns. Still, Talbot’s performance may have boosted the draft pick a team would be willing to deal by a round or two, and his $1.45 million salary is suddenly looking a little more daunting next year given the looming cap crunch.

For now that’s irrelevant. The Rangers have seen very little drop-off from the best goalie on the planet to Talbot, and that’s made him among the most important Blueshirts this season.

*Numbers include one start by MacKenzie Skapski.

Share: 

Mentioned in this article:

More About: