Maple Leafs 4, Devils 3: Vanecek's struggles continue

Vitek Vanecek has been steady for much of the year. He has really struggled of late, though, and could benefit from more time off.

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A few notes from New Jersey vs Toronto:

Vanecek’s struggles continue

Even in defeat, there were plenty of positives to come from last night’s game. The play of Vitek Vanecek wasn’t among them, which has become a common theme of late.

That’s not to say Vanecek was a complete tire fire, at fault for every goal, and erased any chance the Devils had of getting a result.

It was just a flashback to the problem we saw for years from Devils netminders. Bad play being excused because of what happened leading up to the goal.

Some mistakes were made in front of Vanecek – as they always will be – but that’s not an excuse. He simply didn’t make enough saves. It doesn’t matter if each goal was justifiable. He’s still gotta come up with more saves.

No matter the difficulty, which I don’t think was high, 21 of 25 is never going to be considered a good night of goaltending. Nor should it.

Vanecek has now conceded 20 goals spanning the last five games. He posted a .864 save percentage or worse each and every appearance.

Say what you will but Vanecek only faced more than 25 shots once in that span. To post such horrid numbers despite a relatively easy workload is little concerning.

I have to wonder if fatigue is playing a part here. AHL tenure included, the most games Vanecek has played over an entire season (playoffs included) is 43. That dates back to 2015.

We are just exiting the first calendar week of March and Vanecek is already at 41 appearances.

There are still nearly 20 games left in the regular season and, ideally, there’s a lengthy playoff run in front of the Devils as well. Given as much, I think it’s important to try and help Vanecek out by lightening the load.

Akira Schmid owns a .926 save percentage through 12 games this season. He has looked very good and the numbers back him up. Mackenzie Blackwood also grades out well by GSAE so he also deserves some net when healthy.

Point being, the Devils have a couple capable guys around to take some work off Vanecek’s plate. There’s no reason to run him into the ground when the returns are underwhelming, anyway.