SAN JOSE – To make any kind of fair evaluation of Sharks goalie Yaroslav Askarov from Wednesday’s lopsided 7-1 loss to the Washington Capitals, you have to look far past his ugly stat line.
And make no doubt, it was ugly … quite ugly.
The Sharks’ rookie faced only 12 shots but four of them got past him and went into the net, including one in a short-handed situation.
As bad as it was, however, Askarov wasn’t the one to blame.
The entire night, San Jose seemed to play defense as an afterthought, allowing Washington to make numerous drives deep into the Sharks’ zone.
Askarov, who had been riding his best streak of the season over the last month, denied several of those chances but didn’t get much help from the Sharks’ defense.
Time and time again, the Capitals were able to sneak in for second and third shots on the same play after Askarov had made the initial stop.
It was a pattern that repeated itself multiple times throughout the night, even after Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky pulled Askarov and replaced him with Alex Nedeljkovic. The defense in front of Nedeljkovic was just as shaky and led to three more goals by Washington.
“We weren’t good enough in front of them,” Sharks defenseman Mario Ferraro said. “Too many odd-men rushes and too many open chances for the Caps tonight. I feel for (Askarov). I didn’t think he played bad at all. We just played poorly in front of them.”
That hadn’t been much of an issue for Askarov over the previous month. He had made 34 or more saves in three of his previous five games and had allowed more than three goals only once since Oct. 28 before the Caps sailed the puck past him four times in the first period alone.
On more than one occasion, the Sharks’ goalie made incredible saves that had the Shark Tank roaring. He stopped a handful of point-blank shots in front of the net, made a sprawling save to stop another shot and generally played like the stopper he has been playing like lately.
The Capitals deserve some credit, too. Alex Ovechkin, the NHL’s all-time goal leader, padded his resume with a pair of goals. Washington has won eight of nine, scoring seven or more goals in two of those victories.
As far as Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky was concerned, however, the biggest blame for the blowout rested squarely on the defense.
“Terrible,” Warsofsky said when asked to assess San Jose’s defense. “Our defense was terrible.”
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