The Oilers learned that the hard way last night when they took their good roster with the shoddy goaltending into a match against the NHL's bad boys, the Arizona Coyotes.
The Coyotes - who rely on goaltending to win as much as even the Islanders or Blue Jackets - got stellar work from Antti Raanta last night, as the oft injured goalie posted his 13th career shut-out.
In what should have been a job interview, Raanta avoided cliches, didn't claim that his worst trait was how hard he worked, and remembered to wipe his sweaty palms on his pants before shaking hands.
In other words, he aced the interview.
The Coyotes have two starting goalies and while insurance can offer piece of mind, remember it's the insurance company that always makes a profit in the long run.
If Raanta has any value - and he's usually injured, so it's debatable - he should moved to improve the team.
A team that could use a goalie is the Oilers.
They are in the midst of the playoff race despite the fact that they have received the 4th worst 5v5 goaltending in the NHL this season.
Teams out-performing their goaltending are much better than they appear to be.
The Oilers and Coyotes are essentially tied in the standings but one of those teams is there despite bad goaltending, while the other is there because their goalies have been insanely good.
It is far more likely that the Oilers goaltending improves to the league average than the Coyotes goaltending stays hovering around 93%.
When that happens, the Oilers will be the better team, so why not trade for a goalie?
The Coyotes need a centre, but perhaps if the Oilers would trade Puljujarvi for Raanta, the Coyotes could use him in a package to acquire a #1 centre - or at least one who is better than Christian Dvorak.
Anyways, great game for the Coyotes and thanks to Sean for referring to me as a great writer/genius, as per our bet.
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