Devils' 6-3 Loss to Sharks: All Too Familiar

Downed by goaltending and some shaky defense, the New Jersey Devils' 6-3 loss to the San Jose Sharks felt all too familiar to previous losses this season.

After a solid showing in a 4-3 overtime win against the Philadelphia Flyers 24 hours earlier, the New Jersey Devils followed it up with a disappointing 6-3 loss to the San Jose Sharks, who had yet to win a road game this season. A lot happened last night, so let's dive right into takeaways. 

Decision to Start Schmid Backfires

It was a bit of a surprise when Akira Schmid led the Devils onto the ice for warmups last night. He started against the Flyers and had an excellent game, making 44 saves on 47 shots while stopping 1.14 goals above expected. 

Unfortunately, Schmid did not follow it up against the Sharks, as he gave up five goals on 1.55 expected goals while making just 12 saves on 17 shots. Sure, the Devils were sloppy in front of him on a few occasions, but he needs to make saves. 

As Devils coach Lindy Ruff said after the game (via Mike Morreale):

"You got to get a save on one or two of those. We got to get some timely saves. Are there bad goals? No. But you got to get timely saves."

It doesn't matter which goals Schmid should have saved. It just matters that he should have made a save on at least two of them; you could say three if you're going off the numbers. 

At the same time, Ruff deserves some blame for going back to Schmid when he faced nearly 50 shots on goal the previous night. Yes, he's a 23-year-old goalie, so recovery isn't the issue, but Ruff put him in a tough spot. 

We're almost two months into the season, and Schmid had only made four starts in November, a month where the Devils played 13 games. There were some relief appearances, but he generally hasn't played much. He's also never played on back-to-back nights in his career. That seemed like a recipe for disaster, and it turned into one for Schmid and the Devils. 

Vitek Vanecek has been unplayable, but the Sharks could've been a get-right spot for him. If the Devils don't have the confidence to play him against the Sharks, then there are some problems to sort out. 

Now, Schmid is coming off a bad start when they could've given him the night off to sit on a quality outing. And who knows how Vanecek feels after getting passed up for his partner against the worst team in the league after Schmid faced nearly 50 shots the night before. Hindsight is 20/20, but Ruff mismanaged this one. 

Nemec's Great NHL Debut

If there was a bright spot last night, it was Šimon Nemec's NHL debut. The 19-year-old defenseman finished with two assists, and though he was on the ice for a couple of goals against, there was much more to like about his game than there wasn't.