Quoting: oneX
Look, Andersen is head and shoulders above Sparks in the talent category so let's not make that comparasion. I watching those late season games that Sparks started and maybe he could have had 1-2 the shots that ended up as goals but there's no question that the team could have played much better défense in front of their rookie backup goalie.
There's no disagreement about how Sparks should have handled things after the fact...but the defense particularly was bad in front of Sparks late last season.
The reason why the team tends to play worse when Sparks is in goal compared to Andersen is because of these reasons:
1. Sparks’ poise is lacking. He is always making unnecessary and sudden movement around the crease making it very unpredictable and difficult for the skaters to move the puck in front of him.
2. His positioning. Pure garbage, most times he makes himself look so small when he faces a shot, no wonder he lets in so many soft goals.
3. His poor rebound control. Every time he makes a save on an easy shot, he can’t control the rebound and always gives it away in dangerous areas. The responsibility of allowing goals falls on the goalie as well, when he can’t settle a shot and play it out of danger, there’s only so much the defense can do to suppress and bail him out.
Ultimately, the main reason of Sparks’ failures falls on himself. His attitude was poor the whole season, every time he spoke out he was blaming others in the organization for not giving him a chance to succeed. He was not a team player, so why should we expect his teammates to turn up in front of him?