EDMONTON -- Cam Talbot believes he can help lead the Edmonton Oilers back to the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
"I've focused on all the positives from last year, took the good things from my game and tried to build off them for the summer and want to make sure I'm ready to start the year as well," the goaltender said, "because most of the time, we go as I go."
During the summer, Talbot sifted through his up-and-down 2017-18 season and discovered he was showing sharper fundamentals later in the season when his play started to improve.
From Feb. 17 to the end of the season, he was 12-10-1 with a 2.71 goals-against average and a .921 save percentage. In his first 44 appearances, he was 19-21-2 with a 3.20 GAA and .900 save percentage.
Talbot was able to steady his game with better positioning, better rebound control and more impactful big saves.
The Oilers had a poor start last season, taking seven of a possible 22 points at the outset, and it snowballed from there; Edmonton finished sixth in the Pacific Division with 78 points, 17 behind the Colorado Avalanche for the second wild card into the playoffs from the Western Conference. Looser defensive play in front of Talbot led to him pressing to make game-changing saves, which made matters worse.
"But down the stretch last year, I was starting to feel better and more confident and getting back to my game," Talbot said. "So I didn't even have to go back as far as two years [to find positives]. I didn't really have to overhaul anything; I just kept on the same things I've been doing [before] and I've prided myself on being a hard worker and coming into camp in good shape and I wanted to build on that."
Talbot was 31-31-3 last season with a 3.02 GAA and .908 save percentage. He faced an average of 32.8 shots per game; that was more than 10 percent more than the 29.6 per game he faced in 2016-17, when he went 42-22-8 with a 2.39 GAA and .919 save percentage for Edmonton, which finished with 103 points, second in the Pacific Division behind the Anaheim Ducks.
"We need him to be good," Oilers center Connor McDavid said. "We really do. Two years ago, he was unbelievable. And last year he was still good for us but when a team isn't good in front of him, it makes it really hard on a goalie. There's only so much he can do.
"So we've got to be better in front of him and we know that he'll be better for us. He's been real good so far [in the preseason], made some real big saves. I definitely like what I've been seeing from Cam."
Coach Todd McLellan said he has a great deal of confidence in Talbot resetting this season.
"Goaltending isn't a solo position," McLellan said. "It's often a 23-man position and we have to be better around Cam for him to feel comfortable and to feel confident.
"Then there's the goaltender. Cam will have a better start this year. He'll work on some of the things in his game that he needs to polish or clean up with our goaltending coach [Dustin Schwartz] and I'm sure he's going to have a great year. But by no means is it on one individual. It's a group position as far as I'm concerned."
Talbot has always been a fit athlete, but he put an extra focus on his conditioning during the offseason.
"We got out of town pretty quick," Talbot said about what happened at the end of last season. "I was trying to forget about [the season].
He and his family spent four weeks in the Dallas area, near the family of his wife, Kelly. When he returned to Edmonton in early May, the work resumed. There were no dramatic changes in his training, except returning to the ice a little earlier than he had in the past.
"I started playing up to what I want to be down the stretch last year, so in the summer, I wanted to make sure I was a bit more sharp coming into camp than I was last year," he said. "I remember that the first couple of exhibition games last year, I wasn't really where I wanted to be that way.
"Honestly, I didn't try to change [my training]. I did my same routines in the summer, did a little bit more off ice and got on the ice a little bit earlier this summer, a few extra ice sessions to make sure when I was coming into camp I was bit more sharp than I was last year."
Heading into his fourth season as the Oilers starting goalie, the 31-year-old is focused on a good start; in 2016-17, Edmonton was 7-1-0 out of the gate to set the tone for its strong season.
Such a beginning to this season will be demanding for the Oilers, with seven of their first eight games against playoff teams in 2017-18.
Edmonton opens against the New Jersey Devils in the 2018 NHL Global Series in Gothenburg, Sweden on Oct. 6 (1 p.m. ET; NHLN, SN, MSG+, NHL.TV). After their return from overseas, the Oilers play at the Boston Bruins on Oct. 11, at the New York Rangers on Oct. 13 and at the Winnipeg Jets on Oct. 16. Their home opener isn't until Oct. 18, against the Bruins.
It gets no easier for Edmonton, which will then complete a four-game homestand against the Nashville Predators, Pittsburgh Penguins and Stanley Cup champion Washington Capitals.
"For the team, it's going to be great to get on the road and become a cohesive group," Talbot said. "I think that's going to really help us to start the season. It's big, our start. Everyone's going to have to buy in from the first game and we can't get behind the eight ball like we did last year."
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