Chazz Reinhold
Registered User
For the hell of it, I pulled the highlights from the games in which he was on the ice for more than one goal against at even strength (10/20 vs. Pittsburgh, 10/22 vs. Washington, and 10/27 vs. Winnipeg).
10/20 vs. Pittsburgh:
Goal 1:
It's a somewhat chaotic play where Walker gets his legs cut out from underneath behind the net, but the puck is kept to the outside the entire time. Malkin works it up high Jan Rutta, who flings a weak shot at the net from 55 feet away that somehow goes under Cal Peterson. Looks like just a bad goal against to me but I'm curious what he did poorly there in his defending.
Goal 2:
This one is an entire team breakdown, starting with the forecheck in the offensive zone. Fiala and Byfield get caught behind the net, Kaliyev gets caught too far away from the player on the boards, and Walker is pinched up way too far in the zone. One pass beats Kaliyev and a touch pass off of that beats a pinched-up Walker and Clarke, who swings at the puck but misses. Clarke got beat by Carter but I have a really hard time blaming him for this goal when Carter just beats Walker up ice on that side of the ice coming out of the zone.
10/22 vs. Washington:
Goal 1:
This one's pretty straightforward. Byfield turns the puck over in the neutral zone. The puck changes sides at the far blueline and comes back up the wing Clarke is defending. Vilardi gets caught reaching for the pass from Kuznetsov to Carlson and misses it. Carlson shoots from the top of the circle in front of Clarke but Quick lets it bleed through him. Clarke probably could have been tighter on his gap but this was another one there were multiple mistakes made prior to that point, not to mention another example of a goal going through one of the Kings' goalies.
Goal 2:
Clarke flips the puck high up the wall to the point. Lizotte, having lost his helmet and having to go to the bench, skates past the puck, while Fiala tries to catch it but misses it. It ends up on the stick of the defender, who makes a D-to-D pass across the blueline. Clarke ties up his man in front of the net, Edler ties up his man, but no one picks up Eller on the weak side after the breakdown of Lizotte having left the ice. Normally that would have been the center's guy to cover, but Kopitar was racing back into the play due to Lizotte coming off. Hard to really pin that one on poor defending on anyone. If anything, Fiala probably should have recognized that Lizotte going off left one man open down low.
Goal 3:
Caps come through the neutral zone with 3 players, while the Kings have 2 defenders with Vilardi coming back (though he's slow to recognize that he should pick up Orlov). Johansson attacks Clarke but drops the puck to Orlov. Orlov gives it back to Johansson, who misses the pass but picks up it behind the goal line. Johansson comes around the other side and scores from 3 feet behind the net. Clarke correctly did not chase Johansson behind the net but Quick allows a brutal goal.
10/27 vs. Winnipeg:
Goal 1:
Edler gets caught up at the blueline so Clarke shifts over to the left side to pick up Barron on the far wall. Barron works it down low to Lowry, who is covered by Lizotte. Edler inexplicably does not rotate to the right side after Clarke had to cover the left side due to Edler getting caught up high on the entry, but instead comes down low to cover the left side, as well. Clarke realizes that Edler is basically covering Clarke instead of a Jet, Clarke and Edler try to sort out coverage down low. Edler finally picks up one player, so Clarke goes to the other player in front as the shot is coming from the point. Clarke causes a bit of a moving screen but it's still another goal against from 55 feet away. All of the chaos in this sequence starts with Edler getting himself out of position and then failing to recognize that he needed to rotate to the right side.
Goal 2:
Clarke is being forechecked behind the goal line and connects on a pass to Grundstrom. Grundstrom is pressured, so he banks it off the wall to Lizotte. Lizotte circles back but loses an edge and turns it over behind the goal line. Grundstrom strips the puck right back and tries to bank to to himself off the wall but badly turnes it over to the defenseman instead. The defenseman flings the puck at the net from 59 feet away and it's tipped by the player behind both Clarke and Edler about 20 feet out. Quick--being the 2022-23 version of Quick--overpursues the puck to his right to the point where only his left foot is barely in the crease. Any less movement from him and he could have stopped it. You can argue that Clarke could have done a better job of boxing out Jonsson-Fjällby, though this was a byproduct of Grundstrom making a bad turnover in transition at the blue line.
The bottom line is that I see a ton of poor goaltending, some bad team play leading to goals against, and a few things you can nitpick about Clarke's positioning on two of the goals against. What I don't see is egregiously bad, or even bad, defending on Clarke's part leading to goals against.
