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When Erik Karlsson was acquired by Doug Wilson and the San Jose Sharks many things were said, almost all of it was good. Things that were said for example was how good the power play was going to be. Another one was how great and deep the defensive group for the Sharks now was, possible the best in the entire NHL.
One thing that was said that now stands out to me was one thing in particular. "Think of how good this will be for Martin Jones and what kind of season will he have?" My apologies, I forget who said that, and I am paraphrasing but that was not an uncommon thought.
Jones' life in goal was supposed to get easier, but so far the results haven't been great, hardly even good. After a somewhat of a difficult start for San Jose where they have played twelve games with nine of them coming on the road, most of those in the eastern time zone, the Sharks are first in the Pacific division with fifteen points and a 6-3-3 record.
Some complaints for the early season have been the power play which has been off and on and the Sharks leaky D which has contributed to some blown leads. A struggling defense can definitely be frustrating but if you have a goaltender who is on his game it can save a lot of headaches. Jones has not been on his game for most of this season. He does have a winning record of 5-3-1 in his nine games played but he carries a pretty average 2.66 goals against average and his save percentage is only .902, pretty bad these days. While 5v5 Jones ranks towards the bottom of NHL goalies in save percentage in nearly every category. According to Corsica.hockey his low danger save% is 94.81 which is second to last in the NHL only better than Vegas' Marc-Andre Fleury who has a 93.83%. Jones medium danger save percentage is 90.91 which puts him in the middle of the pack 22nd of 39. Finally his high danger save percentage is just 75%. That's the 4th lowest save percentage in the league among goalies who has played 200 minutes or more. The only guys who have a worse percentage are, James Reimer - 74.29 Jack Campbell - 70.83 Andrei Vasilevskiy - 52.94 Letting in goals from high danger areas isn't going to make goalies or fans for that matter feel any better. Then again, when you know or hear a commentator say, "Nothing Jones can do about that one" it does give you a little confidence knowing you don't have to worry about the last line of defense. When a goalie isn't stopping enough high danger shots and bailing his team out it can be a really nerve wracking watch. A 75% high danger save percentage isn't going to get it done. Just for comparison sake, backup Aaron Dell is sporting a 86.96 high danger save percentage. What has Jones high danger save percentage been in past seasons? 2017-18 - 81.25 -- 8th out of 28 goalies in the NHL who played 2,000 minutes or more. 2016-17 - 79.29 -- 16th out of 28 goalies in the NHL who played 2,000 minutes or more. 2015-16 - 80.57 -- 9th out of 23 goalies in the NHL who played 2,000 minutes or more. High danger shots against the Sharks aren't much higher this season than past seasons either. 2018-19 - 4.88 high danger shots against per game. 2017-18 - 4.53 high danger shots against per game. 2016-17 - 4.37 high danger shots against per game. 2015-16 - 3.8 high danger shots against per game. Defensively the Sharks have to get better and help Jones out a bit but he also has to bail his team out more than he has early this season. Jones has been fine in past seasons. Looking at previous years I think it tells us he has to raise his high danger save percentage by about 5%. The issue might not be his high danger save percentage though. Watching Sharks games it hasn't been the high danger goals that have been the issue for Jones, it's been weak goals against. Low danger shots that beat the goalie. The Sharks have consistently out shot and out chanced their opponents so far this season, so to be doing that and then their goaltender lets in a weak goal it has got to be a bit demoralizing. Going back to what I showed earlier Jones' low danger save percentage of 94.81 is the second worse in the NHL. Lets look at his previous seasons in that category. 2017-18 - 97.34 2016-17 - 97.83 2015-16 - 98.1 I'm not going to try to say anything creative here, his current percentage won't get it done and he needs to bring that up about 3 or 3.5%. Sharks fans have seen how good this team can be when Martin Jones is playing well. The team overall is playing pretty good right now. Some hiccups and breakdowns every now and then but every team has those during a game. It's up to the goalie to stop the puck when his team needs him. Right now Jones isn't helping his team as much as he needs to. If the team can bring down the high danger shots against and Jones can bring up his low danger save percentage this team should be among the best in the league. CJ Witt
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