He was on for goals 1, 4, and 5 against last night. I think we all agree their 1st goal was 100% his fault, but goals 4 and 5 really aren't on him. Goal 4 especially, that's just as weak a goal allowed by Varlamov as the Forsberg OT winner. Those shots can't go in.
The OT goal isn't on him, either. He's got his man, and he's yelling/pointing for Rantanen to take his man as well, which ends up being too late and they end up with a 3-on-1 against Barrie.
Not his best game, though.
Have to disagree with that. Not only the goals, but other big defensive breakdowns I illustrated earlier. He's certainly not the only one though, everyone was bad in that game.
Goals four and five, his entire job in those positions is to not let the pass get through. On the 4th goal, he can't let a pass go from behind the net almost on the other side of the goal, to the doorstep for a tap in like that. If it gets by him between his body and the net, it's a mistake.
On the OT goal, he let a slow dribbling pass go right through his legs on a two on one. He is perfectly capable of stopping that pass. He just didn't play the 2 on 1 properly. He's got to go down to one knee and let Varly play the shot. Or at the very least get his legs closer together so there isn't a huge passing lane between them. Even still, that pass was so slow he should have been able to stop it.
The 4th goal I think Varly was caught looking the wrong way, and left too many holes open, and potentially could have stopped it, but it's also a very dangerous scoring chance that could have been prevented. The 5th goal was even more dangerous, and he didn't have much a chance on. That was not a bad goal at all. He's moving all over the place towards his right to respect PLD's shot, before the pass gets through on his left and Jones one times it upstairs.
Aside from that, Barrie also killed those first two power plays all by himself with really bad zone entires and passes. I think they might have had zero shots on those two PP's, I'm not sure. That helped sap the momentum from the Avs, and in favor of the Jackets who started dominating.
He also coughed up the puck in his own corner in the final minute of the second period when it was 4-2. That directly lead to a dangerous scoring chance that easily could have prevented them from forcing OT and gaining a point.
These are just the plays that stand out in my mind. There were other little defensive breakdowns that he has every game, that he can usually negate with good offensive performances.
He just had a really bad game unfortunately. He has a couple games like that a year, but fortunately he usually responds well. I don't recall many times where he played two terrible games in a row. He usually comes out with a very good offensive performance in the following game, and gets the team up on the scoreboard, where they can control the game, and don't face as much pressure in the D zone. Hopefully that plays out against Arizona.