Sharks 6, Devils 3: More of the same

Sloppy defensive play, and poor goaltending, once again came back to haunt the Devils.

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A few observations following an ugly loss to the worst team in the NHL:

The same problems persist

Akira Schmid had a tough game and there is no arguing otherwise. Even if every goal was completely justifiable, and you can make the case on several of them, you can’t allow five goals on 18 shots and 1.39 expected goals.

You can’t vs. a contender like the Colorado Avalanche, let alone a Sharks side that had not scored more than one (1) goal in any road game prior to Friday night.

It was an awful time for a tough game as the Devils were just starting to gain some traction and inch their way up the standings. A fourth consecutive win heading into a West Coast road trip would’ve been nice.

Unfortunately, Schmid and the Devils’ defense had other ideas. Ignoring everything leading up to it for a moment, Schmid definitely could’ve done better on Anthony Duclair’s breakaway goal.

It also would’ve been great if he could have helped his young defense pair – Luke Hughes and Simon Nemec – by covering this puck rather than swinging it right to the oncoming Sharks player for the 5-3 goal that put a dagger into the Devils’ chances.

Again, there were bad reads, miscues, etc. leading up to most of the goals against. Heck, even the ones I’m ‘blaming’ Schmid for. But if he makes a save on Duclair, or covers that puck, perhaps the Devils win a game they instead lost 6-3.

I know Vitek Vanecek is not in good form – I’ll be the first to tell you Schmid has performed better this season – but not giving him the nod probably did more harm than good.

For one, his confidence is at a low point. Sitting him out against the league’s worst team is not going to help matters.

Schmid also played in an overtime game and faced 47 shots on goal on Thursday night. The Devils allowed 81 attempts in total, meaning Schmid had to perform some form of ‘goalie action’ a season-high 81 times (no other game was that number above 70). Corsi was specifically invented to get a true gauge of a goalie’s workload and show how busy they were no matter how many shots actually hit the net.

Going back to Schmid – even after a great performance – was somewhat surprising at the time. The decision certainly doesn’t look too good in hindsight.

Too many mistakes