The Canuck Way
Fansided

Jaroslav Halak struggles as Canucks get beat 7-2 by the New Jersey Devils

By Joshua Rey

Feb 28, 2022; Newark, New Jersey, USA; New Jersey Devils center Yegor Sharangovich (17) celebrates his goal with teammates past Vancouver Canucks goaltender Jaroslav Halak (41) during the first period at Prudential Center. Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports
Feb 28, 2022; Newark, New Jersey, USA; New Jersey Devils center Yegor Sharangovich (17) celebrates his goal with teammates past Vancouver Canucks goaltender Jaroslav Halak (41) during the first period at Prudential Center. Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
2 of 3
Next
Feb 28, 2022; Newark, New Jersey, USA; Vancouver Canucks goaltender Jaroslav Halak (41) reacts after allowing a goal against the New Jersey Devils during the second period at Prudential Center. Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports
Feb 28, 2022; Newark, New Jersey, USA; Vancouver Canucks goaltender Jaroslav Halak (41) reacts after allowing a goal against the New Jersey Devils during the second period at Prudential Center. Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports /

Thoughts on the game

The Canucks came out flat. Yes, it was a back-to-back but that shouldn’t be an excuse especially since New York City isn’t that far from Newark.

From the drop of the puck, Vancouver looked really sloppy. There were so many costly turnovers which include a giveaway at the blue line by Oliver Ekman-Larsson which led to Jack Hughes’ opening goal and Tyler Myers’ poor blind pass which led to Yegor Sharangovich’s second goal.

The Canucks did have more shots on goal but they didn’t have a lot of zone time and they weren’t going to the net for scoring chances. On the other hand, the Devils did. Luckily, Vancouver did get on the board twice in the second with a Vasily Podkolzin deflection in the first and a nice shot from Tanner Pearson. He has goals in back-to-back games and six points in his last five.

Too bad those were the only good things about the game.

The Canucks defence as a whole was horrendous and perhaps this was the worst game of the season from Hughes. He was easily getting beat by the speed of the Devils particularly on their fourth goal as Jesper Boqvist just flew by Hughes. There were 12 shots against when Hughes was on the ice and that was the most among Canucks defence per NaturalStatTrick.

As seen in the title, we have to talk about Halak. He was making his first start against February 9 where he got pulled after letting in five goals on 12 shots against the Anaheim Ducks. It was the same story in New Jersey. Halak let six goals on 14 shots. The numbers in his last three games haven’t been good either. Also, since Halak made his 10th start of the season, he receives his 1.25 million dollar bonus which counts against the cap next season.

What a way to get a bonus.

Sure the defence was bad but Halak had to do better in the net to give Thatcher Demko a night. He’s not expected to be lights out like Demko but he has to make the routine saves. Demko was like an employee getting called into work on his day off on Monday.

Not sure why he was so deep in his net on Boqvist’s goal for example. It looked like Halak wasn’t ready for New Jersey’s shots and looked slow to react to them. This also goes to show how much Demko was covering up the Canucks’ flaws.

Halak only has two wins this season and that is not enough.

After the euphoria of the two big wins over the Calgary Flames and Rangers, the Canucks did not come out with the same spark and they looked very lacklustre against the Devils with atrocious defending and questionable goaltending.

Home/Analysis