EDMONTON - Whenever the NHL and NHLPA come to their senses, figure out how to share $3.3 billion of revenue, and get back playing, we will likely see an increase in goals.

An abbreviated training camp and no pre-season games will be a factor, but the main reason will be the inactivity of goalies. Only nine starting goaltenders are currently playing games: Pekka Rinne (Nashville Predators), Sergie Bobrovsky (Columbus Blue Jackets), Semyon Varlamov (Colorado Avalanche), Antti Niemi (San Jose Sharks), Ondrej Pavelec (Winnipeg jets), Ilya Bryzgalov (Philadelphia Flyers), Tuukka Rask (Boston Bruins), and Anders Lindback (Tampa Bay Lightning) are playing in Europe, while Braden Holtby (Washington Capitals) is in the American Hockey League.

Rick DiPietro was playing in Europe but, wait for it, got injured again. Jonathan Quick was assigned to the AHL, but can only practise due to the league rules this season.

The Edmonton Oilers’ Devan Dubnyk, like 21 other NHL starters, will face the difficult challenge of having to shake off some rust during meaningful games. If the NHL returns, there will be no pre-season games.

“When we get this resolved, I won’t have much time to get comfortable,” Dubnyk said. “I’ve never gone this long without playing. I’ve been trying to get a job in Europe for a while. Last week, I was packed up and ready to go and then it fell through at the last minute.”

With no job on the horizon, Dubnyk has been gallivanting across the country, trying to keep his game sharp. He skated in Dallas for a week with a group of shooters, including Sidney Crosby, and next week he’ll either go to Calgary or Phoenix. There is no place or team for him to practice with in Edmonton.

Admittedly, I’m not the biggest supporter of goalies. I think their equipment is still too big, which inflates their save percentage, and lowers their goals-against average, so I’ll be excited to see more goals when the NHL finally returns.

I do recognize, however, how important they are to a team’s success. The netminder needs to be, at the very least, competent and, most likely, very good if his team has any hopes of making a run for the Stanley Cup.

This season, if we actually have one, will be a sprint and playoff berths will hinge on how quickly the inactive goalies can refine their games. It is virtually impossible to re-enact game situations in practice and Dubnyk recognizes that will be his biggest challenge.

“Just reading plays is the main thing goalies don’t get in practice. Looking at the shooter’s body angle to know where he can and can’t shoot when he’s being pressured is impossible to emulate. In a game, you can look at his positioning and know he won’t be able to rifle a shot high from a certain point, and if he does go high, it won’t be hard,” he said.

“A shot from a guy flying down the wing with a man on him is much different to a guy in practice coming down the wing, head up, no one pressuring them and he’s looking to go under the bar every time. In practice, everything is from a real high-scoring area, which can be good, but you don’t experience any of the other effects that come from that shot.

“In practice, you just focus on stopping the puck, but in the game ... I have to think about where I’m putting the puck after I make the save, which corner should I direct it to, are the other forwards coming to the net from the middle of the ice or the off-wing? Goalies have to account for all of that in a game, and you just don’t get that in practice.”

Dubnyk is hopeful that, regardless of the condensed training camp, he’ll experience something similar to a long-standing Oilers tradition.

“It’d be nice to run a few games similar to the Joey Moss Cup. You have fans, referees and the pace is much closer to an actual NHL game compared to a scrimmage where the coach is blowing the whistle,” he said.

Oilers goaltending consultant Frederic Chabot realizes a long layoff and no pre-season games will be a challenge for Dubnyk, so he’s already got a strategy in place.

“We will put him through as many drills as possible. I will focus on a lot of things in tight around the net. Usually, in practice, he would face a lot of shots from the outside and guys coming down the wing, but we’ll have a lot of drills and shots from six feet around the net,” Chabot said. He’ll need to rely on quick reflexes at the start of the season and, with most of the scoring chances coming from in close, we’ll need to focus on that aspect of his game a lot.”

No pre-season games, a compressed training camp, and 70 per cent of the starting goalies battling inactivity; the NHL should be highly entertaining. It’s one of the few positives of this horribly-managed labour dispute.

You can listen to Gregor weekdays from 2-6 p.m. on the TEAM 1260, read him at oilersnation.com

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