Daily Faceoff Live: Which Pacific Division team’s goaltending is the most concerning?

Aside from Logan Thompson with the Vegas Golden Knights, there hasn’t exactly been a plethora of solid options in net in the Pacific Division. On today’s #AskDFO segment on Daily Faceoff Live, Matt Larkin and Steven Ellis talked about which team in the Pacific should be worried the most about its goaltending.

Steven Ellis: “Originally I was going to say Edmonton, but they still have the McDavid and Draisaitl factor where you can still rely on them to pick up the slack when Jack Campbell just falls asleep and plays like his early Dallas Stars days.

But for me, the Calgary Flames. First off, Jacob Markstrom, just stay in your net. There was no reason you needed to go near the blueline 10 seconds into the game against a team you probably should go out there and beat. But thing aren’t clicking right now for them. Obviously Nazem Kadri is on pace for 25 assists this year, which last year that was his bread and butter, so the fact that they don’t have the offense to make up for it, and they don’t have a Connor McDavid, the fact that Markstrom, who they put a lot of faith in there, isn’t performing is tough.

They’ve got a decent backup goalie in Dan Vladar, and I think if Markstrom got hurt, Dustin Wolf could come in and take over and be a great goaltender, but the fact is, Markstrom is in his own head right now. We know that Jack Campbell, that’s something that’s been his issue for most of his career, but Markstrom going out there saying he sucks at hockey right now, that’s pretty accurate. Something’s got to change here, because it’s kind of been downhill ever since that playoff series against Edmonton last year.”

Matt Larkin: “Yeah I think you’re bang on with that. It’s funny, I just wrote down ‘all of them’ as my answer to this question, because it is just hell out there. Thatcher Demko gets hurt last night, is helped off the ice; we have Cal Petersen demoted to the AHL, the $5 million man; and of course Jack Campbell, his struggles this season are well documented.

But I agree with you, I’m most worried about Calgary, it’s all about team identity. So, the Edmonton Oilers are run and gun team, they’re used to not having great goaltending, so I wouldn’t say that Jack Campbell’s success is instrumental to who they are. I think that’s also true with the Vancouver Canucks, they’ve been a pretty bad defensive team for the last three, four, five years. Thatcher Demko helps them a lot, but again, they’re pretty run and gun. And the L.A. Kings, Cal Petersen was bad last year too, and Jonathan Quick was the starter in the playoffs, so him being bad isn’t exactly headline making news.

But if you look at the Calgary Flames, I think they’re built from the back end out. And that includes the goaltending of Jacob Markstrom, he was second in the Vezina trophy vote last year; great defense; the system under Darryl Sutter. This is supposed to be a team that plays lockdown defense, which was extra important coming off an offseason where they lose Johnny Gaudreau and Matthew Tkachuk.

And I agree, he’s not been the same goaltender, it was an .852 save percentage against the Edmonton Oilers in that five game run. I think people don’t understand that series was a lot closer than it got credit for, it was Markstrom that brought that series down. This year he’s at an .889, so that’s going back to a 22 game stretch including that series against Edmonton in which he has not been himself. The fact that the problem extends back into last season and carried over through an entire offseason, and the fact that it’s mental, I think is scary, because he’s such an important part of what the Flames are. So if I’m making my pick of which team I’m most worried about, it’s definitely the Calgary Flames.

You can watch the full episode here…