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Five takeaways from New Jersey vs San Jose:
1. Schneider's struggles continue
Another game, another rough outing for Cory Schneider.
He played just over half of the contest and allowed four goals on 14 shots, good for a .714 save percentage.
I think you can somewhat defend the first three goals – one was a perfectly placed shot, one was a great deflection, and one was a breakaway – but you'd expect a goaltender making $6 million to come up with a save on at least one of those. As for the 4th goal, that was absolutely abysmal and one that should be a routine save for any NHL goaltender.
I think Schneider has completely lost confidence in himself and that puts the Devils in a really tough spot. Keith Kinkaid has done a great job holding down the fort of late but he's probably due to slow down sooner than later. If he somehow does enough to get the Devils into the playoffs, he's not a guy whose ceiling is high enough to give them a remote chance in a series vs Tampa Bay (or Boston).
The Devils *need* Schneider on his game to have any kind of success. The problem is they have no cushion to let him sort through his struggles. If they trot him out a couple more times and the results don't improve drastically, their whole season goes down the drain.
At this point they are almost forced to give Kinkaid the majority of the starts down the stretch, which is something I never thought I'd say.
It's really tough to see Schneider struggling like this. You can tell it's eating him alive.
2. The defense wasn't good enough
Though the goaltending was poor, it was not the only reason the Devils lost. Far from it.
As has been the case too often of late, the defense was really leaky. There were bad pinches, turnovers, blown coverages, etc. and that led to a lot of quality chances for the Sharks – particularly off the rush.
It's tough to win when you defend like that. It's even tougher to win when you defend like that while trying to get your starting goaltender back on his game. That's the worst kind of environment to put Schneider in.
3. Taylor Hall showed up again
Hall quietly had another strong game for the Devils. He showed off his blazing speed en route to a goal when the team desperately needed it and he piled up the chances all night long (he finished tied for the game-high with five).
You know what you're going to get with No. 9 each time out. He's going to skate his ass off, generate a handful of chances, and (almost certainly) find the scoresheet. How he manages to do it with such consistency, especially with everyone keying on him, is remarkable.
I'm going to feel awful for the guy if the Devils don't get into the playoffs. He couldn't possibly do any more.
4. San Jose's dynamic duo dominated
In my preview, I mentioned the Joe Pavelski - Evander Kane combo has been ripping teams apart. With the way the Devils have defended of late, it's no surprise that was the case again last night.
At 5v5, the Sharks out-chanced the Devils 13-5 with those two on the ice. Kane was his usual self dishing out a couple heavy hits and shooting from everywhere. Pavelski had several good looks around the net and scored on a beautiful deflection. The Devils had no answer for them.
What's scary is they played more against the Andy Greene - Sami Vatanen pairing than any other. John Hynes was able to get the matchup he wanted as much as possible on the road. It didn't matter.
5. Martin Jones was excellent
The Devils did not deserve to win. They did, however, deserve more than one goal in the first 58 minutes of the game.
New Jersey generated their share of quality looks, particularly in the 2nd period. Martin Jones came up big with a few flurries of saves only for play to go the other way and end up in the back of the Devils' net.
As you'll see on the heat map below, generating chances around the net wasn't an issue. Jones simply came up big time after time and erased any chance of the Devils making the scoreline look respectable.
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