It’s the second night of a back-to-back after losing 5-2 to Minnesota on Saturday. Calvin Pickard started that game and made 25 saves, which means Connor Ingram is likely to start tonight.

That’s the reality. Tristan Jarry is on injured reserve with a lower-body injury. Pickard played yesterday. And while backup goalies can play back-to-backs, imagine if Pickard got injured tonight? Connor Ingram would be the only goalie left. Not really — the Oilers would call someone up from Bakersfield — but that’s what it would feel like. Fans would be ready to storm Rogers Place with pitchforks. That’d be pretty bad.

So, Connor Ingram is probably getting his first NHL start as an Oiler tonight against Vegas, and it could go either way.

Ingram’s AHL numbers aren’t encouraging. He’s 4-5-2 in 11 games with Bakersfield this season with a 4.04 GAA and .856 save percentage. Those are rough statistics, the kind that don’t inspire confidence when you’re about to throw someone into an NHL game against a playoff team.

But personal conditions were a big factor in his performance this season. Ingram entered the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program in March 2025 after playing 22 games for Utah, where he had a 9-8-4 record with a 3.27 GAA and .882 save percentage. He was cleared from the program in August. Before that, he won the Bill Masterton Trophy in 2023-24 for perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to hockey after dealing with depression and an undiagnosed obsessive-compulsive disorder that led him to enter the program previously in 2021.

It’s difficult to use his recent AHL statistics as an accurate representation of his future performance. The personal struggles he’s dealt with are real and documented. He has 39 wins in 102 career NHL games with a .902 save percentage and 3.14 GAA. The ability is there somewhere.

But that doesn’t change what’s happening tonight. The Oilers need someone to start against Vegas, and Ingram is the only option. Pickard played yesterday. Jarry is injured. That leaves a 28-year-old goalie with 11 AHL games and a 4.04 GAA this season as Edmonton’s starter on the second night of a back-to-back.

The Oilers are 0-4-3 in the second game of back-to-backs this season. Vegas is 6-2-2 in its last 10 games despite losing 6-3 to Calgary on Saturday. Both teams are playing on no rest, which levels things slightly, but Edmonton’s struggles in these situations are well-documented.

No one wants to be the person criticizing the journeyman goaltender who battled back from OCD and depression. That’s an incredible story of perseverance, and Ingram deserves credit for fighting through those challenges to continue his career.

And it’s a good thing that, as of now, we don’t have to criticize him. He hasn’t played yet. He hasn’t given anyone a reason to question whether he can handle this opportunity. Maybe he comes out tonight and stops 30 shots. Maybe the Oilers score five goals and make his job easy. Maybe he’s exactly what Edmonton needs until Jarry returns.

Or maybe he struggles, and suddenly the goaltending situation that seemed fixed after trading for Jarry becomes a full-blown crisis one week after making the trade.

It could go either way and that’s the very real possibility facing the Oilers tonight.