There’s a friendship in the Edmonton Oilers crease.
It was apparent last season after Calvin Pickard joined the National Hockey League team from its affiliate in Bakersfield, with Oilers players speaking highly of the journeyman both as a goalie and as a teammate.
It was apparent this week, too, when starting goalie Stuart Skinner jokingly recounted how Pickard “taught (him) a lot about resiliency on the golf course” before training camp started.
“Besides that, even just this past week going on the ice with him for a couple of goalie sessions, just the way that we’ve been able to talk and have some good conversations, with him and (coach Dustin) Schwartz, just about the way that we’re starting out already has been amazing,” Skinner told media on Wednesday during camp opening-day physicals.
“He’s one of the best teammates you’ll ever have, and he’s been such a good …