Watched the full recording and all I could think is, well either win it in regulation and kick their asses, or lose outright. Of course neither happened.
This was an average game by Demko, the only thing is he has played so well until this end of the season period that average games look weird. He's definitely mentally tired, since they haven't played since Wednesday and 4 days of rest should be more than enough.
I hate to bring this up all the time but the same old holes are showing up in these circumstances. And that's got to be partly on Clark. On one hand you have to give him a lot of credit for Demko transitioning into the #1 role the last two seasons and being absolutely unbeatable at times. On the other hand, it looks easy when your guy is on an absolute hot streak tracking the puck - that can fix a lot of technical issues. Add in the fact that Holtby and Halak have been at best up and down while here, and to me it is a bit concerning.
Vegas MANY TIMES tried to bank it in off Demko tonight, I counted at least 5 times and Eichel tried it at least three times. As you get established in the league the scouting report gets around. I can't be the only person who has noticed his tendency to abuse post integration and generally cheat towards the post. Actually I know I'm not because Bad Goalie has pointed it out lots of times, since Demko has been in Utica. McDavid tries to exploit this weakness literally every game against us.
IMO this is another level of development that Demko can, and MUST attain if he's going to be our cornerstone to being a contender. He 100% can do it, but they really need to address it. He's been in the league for three full seasons now, so there's really no reason I should be making these same criticisms still. In fact, some things he has made literally 0 progress towards.
Some may say I am being picky or pedantic. I don't agree. Tonight showed his weaknesses, and they show up in the same situations - when he's tired, when he doesn't have his full game and is fighting it, when the other team is better than us. These are the crucial situations we're going to need him to perform in so we can win the Cup. In the playoffs, he's going to be tired. He's going to have to win when he's off his game. He's going to have to beat teams who are just as good or better than us and have the speed to reveal his weaknesses.
I remember being super impressed by Demko when I saw him in person during battle drills during his first rookie camp at UBC. His ability to make crazy improvisational saves is part of what makes him special. But that can only get you so far, and it's a good technical base that will help you be consistent over the long run.
For example, he has a tendency to be deep and block instinctively on rushes down the right side and this often results in goals to his short glove side, which is how Pietrangelo scored that goal. He drops early and doesn't try to react to the shot. At least he didn't shade to his post early for no reason this time but we've seen this goal from him consistently for his whole career.
Second goal by Marchessault, hopefully he gets screened by Dermott because otherwise it's another mental mistake where he's tired so he drops early and has to try to get a shoulder on it because he didn't read it off the release at all. Reminscent of the Gaudreau OT winner - we've seen him stop so many from that situation so we know he can do it. And this isn't a shot from the hash marks, it's basically top of the circles.
Last goal, he is doing ok - I would say he's never been the greatest at reading the play and generally plays odd-man rushes a little too aggressively considering his size. It's a quibble to say he is maybe a foot too far out but generally he is in good position and tracking the puck. But we saw in his rookie season he would sometimes not really process the play even though it appears he tracked it with his head, and it happens again here. Theodore actually has to gather the puck so there is even more time, but Demko gets an absolutely pathetic push and then he is in panic mode and improvises a weird kick save that doesn't seal the ice and it goes through him. I know Clark's basic rules for this kind of situation and he absolutely fails to do any of them. I think the main factor is mental fatigue again but IMO he hasn't made a lot of progress on controlled lateral movement this season. And his general edgework could still be better, IMO that is the root cause of this goal and also his poor pushes all last season.
Anyhow I have faith that Demko has the talent to work all this out but someone has to force him out of some of these bad habits that have now been ingrained.
