from Steve Politi of NJ.com,

We won’t know if Fitzgerald doesn’t improve the team’s goaltending. The first half of the 2023-24 season has made that abundantly clear.

“I’m not going to say I’m cool with it — I want our goalies to play better,” Fitzgerald said when asked for his level of concern. “But I want our players to play better in front of them. We still have some areas that we need to clean up, and that’s a daily process with teams.”

Vitek Vanecek isn’t just scuffling just a little bit. The team’s No. 1 netminder has a 3.28 goals against average and a .883 save percentage in 25 starts, numbers that rank 45th and 55th, respectively, in the league. Of the 38 goalies with 20 games played, Vanecek ranks dead last in goals saved above expected (-13.2) and in high danger save percentage (.730).

These numbers are not sustainable, and while Vanecek was very good during the regular season last winter, he regressed in the playoffs. Akira Schmid, an unheralded rookie who replaced him in crucial postseason games, was sent to the AHL to sort out his own struggles. Nico Daws, another promising young goalie in the system, is untested and recovering from hip surgery.

The Devils find themselves back where they were prior to last year’s breakout season. If they could count on even average goaltending, they would be well on their way to sewing up another postseason berth. Instead, they are often forced to win in spite of their netminder, which was the case in a 6-5 overtime victory over Las Vegas on Monday.

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