EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — Like the perfect rug that pulls a room together, found in the markdown section of a furniture store, Cam Talbot was the discount find that the Los Angeles Kings needed last summer when it came to grabbing a starting goalie and maintaining their stature as a playoff team.
As value buys go, Talbot has an argument to be the best value buy in the league among players who aren’t on entry-level contracts. For the low, low price of $2 million in total salary — and an all-important meager $1 million charge against the cap — the pride of Caledonia, Ontario, was either within the top 10 or near it in wins, goals-against average and save percentage among goalies who played 40 games or more this season.
Still, the 36-year-old Talbot presents an iffy proposition for a team with Stanley Cup aspirations. Throughout his career, he’s largely been a quality 1A goalie, one good enough to win games but perhaps not shoulder a championship run. For instance, two years ago in the first round, Minnesota picked Marc-Andre Fleury to start over Talbot, even though Talbot had won 32 games in 48 starts.
Kings coach Jim Hiller has not revealed his starter for Game 1 on Monday against Edmonton, but signs point in Talbot’s direction. And he’s thankful that they’re putting their faith in him.
“It’s humbling,” Talbot told The Athletic on Saturday as the Kings began their on-ice preparation before a large, revved-up crowd at their practice facility. “I never take it for granted. Nothing’s ever guaranteed in this league. Ever. I come in here every day ready to work hard, ready to do whatever I can to put myself in the best situation to give this team a chance to win.
“If everything goes the way I hope it goes and Monday’s the day, it’s something I don’t take lightly. It’s obviously an honor to get the start for a playoff team. I think it’ll be the fourth team that I’ve gotten a chance to start for in the playoffs, which again is very humbling in itself. Not a lot of goalies get that opportunity.
“I’m just looking to take this and run with it. Do something special with this group.”
The Kings would seem to be in an uphill battle against a favored Oilers club that has bounced them from the first round in two straight years and is eager to hoist the Stanley Cup after losing to the eventual champions in those last two postseasons. Edmonton, with its superstar duo of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, has learned how to play a more patient game against Los Angeles and has found success against the Kings’ neutral zone-clogging 1-3-1 system.
Ultimately, for L.A. to advance and win its first series since 2014, Talbot will have to outplay his Oilers counterpart, Stuart Skinner. It is among the matchups that have to swing in the Kings’ direction. But outside of a midseason stretch in which he and the team struggled and lost a lot, Talbot has been their go-to in net. All Hiller would say Saturday is “we’re pretty sure” on a choice for Game 1, but Talbot got the nod in 19 of the last 25 regular-season games.
It would be shocking if Hiller turned away from Talbot at this point. After signing a one-year contract with the Kings, Talbot made 52 starts and compiled a 27-20-6 record following a one-year stint with Ottawa filled with injury and inconsistency on a subpar Senators club. His 2.50 goals-against average was the best since his breakout season for Edmonton in 2016-17, while his .913 save percentage was a sharp improvement over last year’s .898. MoneyPuck had Talbot with 10.7 more saves than expected, which is notably better than the 2.0 by the equally steady Skinner.
Those numbers would have been better if Talbot didn’t struggle through a winless 10-start stretch from Dec. 28 until the All-Star Game — which he played in for the second time after a stellar first two months of his Kings career. But as David Rittich provided some strong play during a tumultuous time, Talbot valued the midseason breather. Playing in the All-Star Game was a release, even though it’s notoriously slanted for players to show off their offensive skills.
“After the break, I just took a mental reset,” Talbot said. “Physical reset. Took some time away. Came back. I knew I was going to be ready to go whenever I got that opportunity.
“Every goalie goes through it. I’ve been through it multiple times throughout my career. You don’t lose the ability to play the position. You just don’t. It’s 90 percent mental and 10 percent physical. And if you lose it between the ears, you just got to get it back. Take a mental reset and just remind yourself you’re here for a reason, you’ve done this for a long time and just go out there and do what you do.”
Cam Talbot has given the Kings great value this season. (Jayne Kamin-Oncea / USA Today)
It is a competitive streak that has fueled Talbot since he entered the league out of Alabama-Huntsville as the backup to New York Rangers legend Henrik Lundqvist. He’s had the net and lost it over his 11 seasons. Talbot signed with L.A. because of his familiarity with then-coach Todd McLellan — they had a history with the Oilers, for whom Talbot played for parts of four seasons — and because of the chance to win the No. 1 job, vacated by the departure of Joonas Korpisalo.
With Pheonix Copley returning and Rittich signed as insurance and competition, Talbot grabbed the No. 1 job and didn’t let go. The team fired McLellan on Feb. 2 and replaced him with assistant coach Hiller on an interim basis. But Hiller was already won over by Talbot’s ambition to re-establish himself as a lead goalie, and now Talbot has 245 career wins. “Somebody had to really fill that void,” the coach said. “He’s done that.”
How Talbot responded after the All-Star break may have impressed him more.
“He’s got a great personality,” Hiller said. “He’s an outgoing guy. He’s very confident. He’s been in the league, he’s accomplished so much in the league. You worry coming in, what’s he got left to play for? Right away, I was struck by his passion for the game. Obviously, he made his way to the All-Star Game. He’s a guy kind of at the end of his career still pushing and playing well enough to make the All-Star team. He’s a true pro. He had a dip in his season. No question. But to be able to bounce out of that, I think speaks to his mental toughness.
“I think it would have been harder for a younger goalie to do that. For him, he’s got confidence, he’s been through the wars and he’s just provided a real stable presence — certainly since February forward. And we’re all comfortable with that. He’s got a lot of saves under his belt.”
A significant layer to Talbot’s successful season is his ability to make the first save. Plus, a normally tight Kings system usually is effective in clearing out rebounds he may leave. He doesn’t have to carry the team and, at his advanced age, he can’t steal contests. The Kings don’t expect either. They need Talbot to make the stops he’s expected to handle.
“Our goalies have been awesome for us,” said Drew Doughty, not leaving out Rittich’s contributions. “When you talk about Cam, he’s usually there for the simple saves which you always want. You don’t want a goalie that makes big saves and lets in the simple ones because that deflates your team in a way. He makes the simple saves. Makes the big saves.
“And then he just has a calmness about him when he’s in the net. It makes everyone in front of him, all his teammates feel calm as well. And I think that’s his biggest attribute for me. How calm and collected he is back there.”
The Kings needed Talbot to come through, because re-signing Vladislav Gavrikov and the sign-and-trade for PL Dubois last offseason left little financial room to address their net.
But for all the value that Talbot has provided, the question of whether the Kings have enough goaltending has never gone away. His last start, on Thursday, re-ignited worry, as lowly Chicago scored four times on only 13 shots — including three in a four-shot stretch over the five minutes of the third period. Talbot has a .921 save percentage in 33 playoff games.
The perception of him as a solid, competent goalie who is not exceptional won’t change until he’s the backbone of a team that is playing to win the conference, or better. But Talbot feels he’s up to the task. This season is about proving that his tough year in Ottawa was a one-off, and he’s loved his fit within L.A.’s tapestry. “The guys in front of me are a huge part of that,” he said. “I’m lucky to be a part of this group. This is one of the reasons why I wanted to sign here.”
Healthy and motivated to show that he can still shoulder a heavy load, Talbot laughs when he looks back at how he played in 73 games and another 13 playoff battles during that career-defining 2016-17 season. He’s not a young man anymore. But perhaps it’s fitting that the Kings, underdogs against the Oilers, have someone hungry to cancel out the naysayers.
“Personally, I’ve been questioned my entire career,” Talbot said. “All I do is continue to prove people wrong. I’m looking to just do that again this postseason and do what I can to give this team a chance. I think that’s one of the reasons why I’m still here. I got a little chip on my shoulder, and every single season I feel I’ve got to prove myself because nothing’s ever been handed to me.
“But I love it that way. I feed off it. It drives me. That’s what I’m looking to build off this postseason.”
(Top photo of Cam Talbot: Ronald Martinez / Getty Images)
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