As a team sport, hockey rarely boils down to one player versus another (fights notwithstanding). However, it’s the goaltenders who impact every game and are usually compared to each other, even though they rarely come face-to-face. 

Thursday night at Prudential Center, the New Jersey Devils, led by backup netminder Nico Daws, took on the Anaheim Ducks, who were led by their backup, Ville Husso. The final score was a 4-1 Devils victory. Neither Daws nor Husso scored (obviously); they left that task to Arseny Gritsyuk, Nico Hischier (on the power-play), Anthony Mantha and Jack Hughes (empty-netter). However, it was Daws who, on the surface, had the better performance, by stopping 16 of the 17 shots he faced. Husso’s line was 25 saves on 28 shots. 

Surface-level stats like saves and shots faced don’t always tell the full story, though. So, we need to dive deeper into each netminder’s performance to see which goalie actually performed better than his counterpart and whether or not either cost his team or helped secure his team’s victory. 

Daws entered Thursday night’s game struggling against mid-range and close shots that are in the middle of the ice. His .611 SV% below the hash marks is below the 50th percentile of goalies appearing in at least three games so far this season. Slightly better, but still well below average, is his .714 SV% on shots from between the hash marks.

Meanwhile, Husso, in the same number of games as Daws (three), came into the game sporting an .800 SV% on shots below the hash marks and a 1.000 SV% on shots between the hash marks. Where he struggles most is actually on shots that are below the circle, to his right and shots from long distance, to his left. In both instances, he has a .500 SV%. (All stats courtesy of https://www.nhl.com/nhl-edge/goalies). 

Moneypuck.com actually had Husso entering Thursday’s game at 11.84% of expected goals saved above average, which was good enough for 24th in The League. He was also at 0.9 goals saved above expected. The same site had Daws entering the game with a -36.99% of expected goals saved above average, which was 54th in The League. Daws’ goals saved above expected was -2.7. 

To keep things simple, the two advanced stats show that Husso has been slightly better than your average goaltender at making saves on shots of comparable difficulty. They also highlight that Daws has been worse than your average goalie at making saves on shots of comparable difficulty. Now, granted, each had only played three games before Thursday night, so the sample sizes are small, but they do paint a picture. 

According to naturalstattrick.com, Daws finished the game with an expected goals against of 1.71 while Husso was at 3.62. So, even though Daws came out on the winning side, Husso still provided more support for his team since Anaheim’s chances against were worth close to four goals. Meanwhile, the Devils’ chances against were worth under two goals. New Jersey’s defense supported Daws more than Anaheim’s supported Husso. 

Of course, a goalie also needs a solid defense in front of him; otherwise, he’s inevitably going to get beat. Tuesday night against the Colorado Avalanche, the Devils put forth one of their best defensive efforts of the season. Thursday night, against the Ducks, promised to be equally challenging. 

“I think it’s going to be a great challenge,” Glass told Team Digital Reporter Amanda Stein on Thursday morning. “They play fast, just like Colorado. Very skilled players, like to push up, kind of spread out the ice between their players. It’s going to be a good test. We’re looking forward to it. Obviously, we want to just build off what we’ve done in the past. So, yeah, looking forward to it. It’s going to be a good challenge.” 

Arseny Gritsyuk did the hard part, getting the Devils on the board. And he did so by exploiting Husso’s net-front vulnerability. His fourth goal in as many games came off a tic-tac-toe play 4:38 into the first period, to give New Jersey a 1-0 lead. Anaheim left him all alone in front of Husso and Jesper Bratt’s pass found the young winger, who redirected the puck into the Ducks’ net. 

“I think that, ever since he came last year, I think we’ve seen the type of shot that he has,” Bratt said about Gritsyuk. “The type of player that he is. Now, when we’re mixing around the lineup, he’s been fitting very good. I think we still have a lot more levels to our line. I think that we’re far from complete. 

“I think that we’re just gonna get better and better the longer the season goes, the more we play together. But, I mean, he’s skating. His pace with the puck and definitely his goal-scoring touch. He just knows where to shoot. He has a great shot and we’re gonna tell him to keep using it.”

“I think Grits has got another level to get to,” Head Coach Sheldon Keefe added. “I think there’s some moments in the game today, I really disliked about his play and talked with him about that. But yeah, he’s scoring, getting confidence and that’s really good. He has that ability to score and the way he’s playing with those guys, they’re gonna help. The puck’s gonna be in a lot of good spots to generate offense.”

Building off their performance against Colorado, the Devils did not allow the Ducks to register a shot on goal until there were 5:27 left in the first period. 

“I think changing our defensive structure has helped us a really good amount,” Brett Pesce said. “We’re using our legs. A lot of skating pressure, a lot more. We’re all big. We can skate back there and we’re rangy. So I think it kind of gives us the freedom to break up a lot of plays and just get the puck to our forwards. And obviously, that’s the strength of our team.”

“Connor Brown’s played two games for us,” Keefe said. “I don’t know if he’s got a point here yet, but he’s bringing so much to our team. Is it coincidence that two of our better games, Brownie’s been in here and there’s a lot of intangible things that are going on outside of the group.”

Alex Killorn was called for tripping Jonathan Kovacevic at 17:44 of the opening period. On the ensuing Devils power-play, Jesper Bratt fired a shot on net from the left circle that Husso stopped but didn’t freeze. Nico Hischier, who was stationed in front of Husso, cleaned up the loose puck to give New Jersey a rare power-play goal and a 2-0 lead. This goal was yet another exploitation by the Devils of Husso’s net-front issues. 

New Jersey’s defense did a good job, for most of the game, of keeping the Ducks to the outside on their shot attempts, which helped Daws, especially during Anaheim’s push in the second and third periods. 

The Ducks broke through with a goal from Tim Washe in the slot at 8:20 of the third period as he deflected Jackson LaCombe’s shot from just inside the blue line, past Daws to break up the shutout. The Devils got the goal back when Anthony Mantha poked home the loose puck at 13:27 of the third period to give New Jersey a 3-1 lead. 

The Devils salted the game away with an empty-net goal from Jack Hughes at 19:53 of the third period. 4-1 New Jersey. 

“I thought this was one of Jack’s best games here today,” Keefe said. “Just played smart, played disciplined, did the right things for the team. The more of that we have, we’ll have a real chance to do what we wanna do over the course of the season.”

It wasn’t just Jack Hughes’ best game, but also Luke Hughes, Nico Daws and several players on the Devils. The defensive structure is starting to come together and the offense is slowly coming around too. And when a team is strong on both sides of the puck, it allows their goaltenders to get comfortable and string together solid performances. 

“Definitely (feeling) good,” Daws said. “A lot of confidence. I think the team has been playing really good in front of me the last two games, which makes my life easier, which is nice. But, yeah, I feel really good.”

Daws earned the victory, which is ultimately what counts the most. But Husso, even in defeat, performed nearly as well.