The New Jersey Devils were in a bad way with Cory Schneider sidelined. Keith Kinkaid was having trouble on a nightly basis, before he got hurt himself. However, his past few games showed he still has the ability to steal games, and should regain his backup job.
The New Jersey Devils came out with one of the biggest wins of the season on Tuesday night. To be fair, it came with both teams playing with their backup goalies, but both players were the best on the ice for their team.
Casey DeSmith made multiple saves that absolutely should have been goals. The best of which came on a 2-on-1 in which Jesper Bratt passed it perfectly on Pavel Zacha’s stick, who was able to lift the puck up, but somehow DeSmith was able to get the blocker out and make the save.
Despite his amazing performance, DeSmith was the losing goalie. That’s because his opponent, Keith Kinkaid, was just a little bit better.
Let’s just take the final sequence, with the Penguins goalie pulled. Sure, Andy Greene made a save for him on an “empty net,” but Kinkaid was getting back and had the chance to stop it. Beyond that, he stopped every shot coming his way, despite the Devils icing it like 100 times in the 3rd period (sarcasm, obviously).
One game should not give Kinkaid the backup job back, but let’s take his past few games. In his past five, he’s never given up more than two goals. Not two goals per game, he hasn’t given up more than two goals since he let up four in a win against the Philadelphia Flyers two weeks ago.
More from Pucks and Pitchforks
- Should New Jersey Devils Try Load Management With Vitek Vanecek?
- New Jersey Devils Will Prove That Last Year Wasn’t A Fluke
- New Jersey Devils: Luke Hughes’ Playmaking Will Outshine His Mistakes
- New Jersey Devils: Chase Stillman’s Performance Causes Concern
- Can Devils Fans Separate Zach Parise Heartbreak From Achievements?
After that stretch of games, Kinkaid finally brought his overall save percentage over .900. This shows whatever ailed him a few weeks ago, something has changed. He’s gotten his confidence back. Ironically, it seems to have come after the goalie went on a Twitter blocking spree (which admittedly included this site). Was Kinkaid’s blocking of online negativity able to help him block pucks on the ice?
Just a week ago, I wrote that I thought Eddie Lack deserved a shot to take over as backup. I no longer have that feeling. Maybe the competition from Lack drove Kinkaid to be better, or maybe it was having another positive influence come to the locker room helped get his head right.
This is the Kinkaid we were expecting when he re-signed in the offseason. If he can continue to be this good, the Devils will be in great shape once Cory Schneider returns.