Devils/Canes Series Hasn’t Been A Goalie Showcase
From the numbers over the first two games of the Eastern Conference semifinal, you would have thought that Carolina goalie Frederik Andersen was as on a level with Igor Shesterkin, the All-Star Rangers netminder whom the Devils had great difficulty solving in their seven-game victory in the first round.
Andersen, who stopped 45-of-47 Devils shots in those pair of Hurricanes victories, isn’t of that caliber, of course. It only seemed that way because of the struggles New Jersey encountered in attempting to get into prime scoring areas. The Devils came into Sunday’s Game 3 at Prudential Center understanding that they needed to work quite a bit harder in the offensive zone if they wanted to have a better chance at making Andersen see flashing red lights in his night’s sleep.
Sweet dreams, Frederik. He couldn’t even make it to the halfway point of Sunday’s contest, pulled after surrendering his fourth goal on 12 Devils shots just 53 seconds into he second period. His replacement, rookie Pyotr Kochetkov, didn’t fare much better, tagged for four more Devils goals in their 8-4 rout.
NaturalStatrTrick.com computed the expected goals for at 4.66-3.4 in the Devils favor. For Carolina to give up eight is a direct indictment of their goaltending. From my vantage, New Jersey’s opening goal on a wraparound by wing Timo Meier, his first of the postseason after missing on legions of chances, and Jack Hughes’ second of the day in the third period from a hard angle were the most egregious, but I’m guessing there were others that the Canes goalies would have wanted back.
This was the third consecutive game of the series where one team’s starting goaltender needed to be yanked. Devils rookie Akira Schmid posted a minus-2.74 goals saved above expected and a ghastly .545 save percentage on Carolina’s high danger scoring chances (for comparison purposes, the regular season median was about .810) during his nearly 62 minutes of action over Games 1 and 2, per NST, before Head Coach Lindy Ruff said, “No mas” and inserted Vitek Vanecek, who then got the starting nod on Sunday.
Though he didn’t allow the softies of his counterparts, Vanecek was hardly a brick wall, as the Hurricanes converted half their eight high danger opportunities, three while shorthanded (including a penalty shot tally by Jordan Martinook), per NST. Ruff emphasized that it’s hard to fault Vanecek for giving up goals on breakaways, but I think it is kind of nice when your goalie can get away with robbery every now and then, which is something the franchise hasn’t seen much of since the halcyon days of Martin Brodeur.
Throughout this season, Devils fans were praying that their ream would receive merely average goaltending. The theory went that New Jersey’s skating strength, particularly at five-on-five, would carry most days.
That was fine then, as the Devils finished with the third-most points in the league. But this is the playoffs, and average will only carry them so far. Not having home ice for Game 7 as they did in the first round makes it more imperative that a goalie steal at least one game in Carolina, even if the Canes continue to play like lions at home and lambs on the road.
The bottom line is that with New Jersey now back in this best-of-seven series by climbing within two games to one and hosting Tuesday’s Game 4, neither club should be feeling all that confident about their goaltending situation. Ruff will likely go back to Vanecek because he has always been loath to disrupt anything after a win while Carolina could either stick with Andersen or, if he has recovered from the illness that kept him from dressing for the last two games, turn to Anti Raanta, who was serviceable in winning three of his five starts in the first round versus the Islanders while Andersen was shelved.
For both teams, choosing which goalie to play is almost like a roll of the dice.