Category: NHL

Sharks Fall to Lightning 3-2 in OT

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San Jose Sharks goaltender James Reimer (47) watches a shot get by him as Tampa Bay Lightning left wing Alex Killorn for a goal during the second period at Amalie Arena in Tampa Bay on Wed Feb 1, 2022 (AP News photo)

By Mary Walsh

The Sharks fell 3-2 in overtime to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday. Anthony Cirelli, Brayden Point and Victor Hedman scored for the Lightning. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 19 saves for the win. Rudolfs Balcers and Logan Couture scored for the Sharks. James Reimer, making his fourth start in a row, stopped 29 shots in the loss.

The Sharks defense saw the return of both Mario Ferraro and Jake Middleton. Ferraro, wearing a full face shield, skated 27:21 minutes. He had one shot, five blocked shots, and two hits. Jacob Middleton skated 15:33 and had four hits. Of Ferarro’s return, teammate Brent Burns said: “To step back in and battle through, that’s Mario, he’s just been… he’s that kind of guy all year. That’s the stuff that… it’s huge for teams.”

Sharks captain Logan Couture said:

“What a warrior, man. I was pretty shocked when I got to the rink today and he was getting that visor put on his helmet. I thought he was nuts but he wants to play, he wants to play for the guys in the room and those are leaders. Those are guys that they’ll do anything to help their teammates out in a tough spot. And a lot of respect to Mario.”

A scoreless first period saw each team’s power play go to work, with the penalty kills prevailing. Each power play finished with two shots on goal. The Lightning outshot the Sharks slightly, 9-7. The Sharks had a similarly slim edge in the face-off circle, winning 8 of 15 draws.

Anthony Cirelli broke the ice with a goal at 1:32 of the second period. Cirelli brought the puck into the zone right down the slot before making a quick pass to Brayden Point on his right. Point drew Reimer out of position with a faked shot and then passed it back to Cirelli who was still on his way to the net. Cirelli had an open net to shoot at for his 13th of the season. Assists went to Point and Ryan McDonagh.

Rudolfs Balcers tied it up at 4:50 with his sixth of the season, and the Sharks’ first shot of the period. Marc-Edouard Vlasic took a shot from the point and Balcers redirected it in. Assists went to Vlasic and Logan Couture.

Tampa Bay took the lead again at 18:08 with a power play goal. With a two-man advantage, Steven Stamkos took a shot that bounced into the air. Killorn gloved it down to his stick for the shot. Assists went to Stamkos and Victor Hedman.

The Lightning finished the second period on a power play, but as soon as that expired at the start of the third, Steven Stamkos was called for tripping and the Sharks went on the power play.

Logan Couture tied the game during the first minute of that power play, 1:12 into the period. From the point, Brent Burns sent the puck to Couture for a redirection. Couture was in the slot, half-way up by the hash marks. Assists went to Burns and Alexander Barabanov.

At the nine-minute mark, Brayden Point went down after some contact with Marc-Edouard Vlasic. Unfortunately, he fell right in the path of Alexander Barabanov, who tripped over his head, knocking Point’s helmet off with the front of his skate. Fortunately, the blade didn’t catch Point. No penalty was called on the play.

The Sharks fended off a strong push from the Lightning in the second half of the third but did get the game to overtime. The Sharks missed out on a power play at 2:06 when Meier was called for embellishment as Ryan McDonagh was called for tripping.

Victor Hedman scored the game winner 41 seconds later with a shot from the slot through traffic.

Timo Meier has not scored a goal in the last five games. He scored once after his spectacular five-goal game in San Jose. He had no shots on goal Tuesday and was assessed a double minor and the overtime penalty.

The Sharks next play on February 14 at home, against the Edmonton Oilers at 7:30 PM PT.

Sharks Lose 2-1 to Hurricanes; Sharks drop fourth game out of last five

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Carolina Hurricanes’ Seth Jarvis (24) attempts to poke the puck past San Jose Sharks goaltender James Reimer (47) with Sharks’ Jaycob Megna (24) and Brent Burns (88) at PNC in Carolina on Sun Jan 30, 2022 (AP News photo)

By Mary Walsh

The San Jose Sharks fell 2-1 in a nailbiter against the Carolina Hurricanes on Sunday. Vincent Trocheck and Andrei Svechnikov scored for Carolina. Frederik Andersen made 27 saves for the win. Rudolfs Balcers scored for the Sharks and James Reimer made 27 saves in the loss.

Both teams were playing back-to-back games, though the Sharks had to travel as well. The Sharks were also asking their goaltender to play back-to-back games, as Adin Hill is out with an injury. This put added pressure on the Sharks defense. Of their performance, Sharks Head Coach Bob Boughner said: “I thought all our D had a decent game back there. I think, you know, we were more physical tonight. We could’ve had better puck movement back there but they’re a pinching team hard all over the ice and that doesn’t give you a lot of options coming around that net.”

Of playing back-to-back games, Sharks goaltender James Reimer said: “Obviously, playing back-to-back is tough with travel and a short schedule. But that’s why you train all summer, so you can be ready for this and the training staff did a great job doing what they could to put humpty dumpty back together again and get ready to play tonight.”

The Sharks will face the Tampa Bay Lightning next, the team that beat them 7-1 in the game before this road trip started. It will be the Sharks’ last game before the All-Star break. Of the upcoming match, Sharks forward Andrew Cogliano said:

“I think we owe it to ourselves to finish this road trip the right way. We played hard, [Reimer] played back to back games, you don’t see that often. We got two of our best defensemen out, guys that played very hard back there and come in, you know, special teams has been good. I think we’re just at a point where you got to lay it on the line in terms of playing our best game against a really good team and then the break will be good for our team I think.”

The game against the Hurricanes was the opposite of Saturday’s high-scoring meet in Florida. The goals came few and far between Sunday.

Vincent Trocheck gave Carolina the early lead with a goal at 4:36 of the first period. Skating into the zone 1-on-3, Trocheck took the shot from just inside the blue line and beat Reimer on the glove side. Assists went to Ian Cole and Ethan Bear.

The Sharks held a slight lead in shots during the first period, 11-9. In the second, however, Carolina outshot San Jose badly, 11-4. The Sharks power play had one shot on goal, and their penalty kill gave up one shot and had two short-handed shots. In the face-off circle, Carolina prevailed through the first two periods, winning 52% in the first and 74% in the second.

Rudolfs Balcers tied the game at 3:36 of the third period. Balcers was skating across in front of the net when Nicolas Meloche took a shot from the point. The puck went off of Jonathan Dahlen and right to Balcers for the shot. Assists went to Dahlen and Meloche.

Andrei Svechnikov scored the game winner at 16:16 of the third. Brett Pesce took a shot from the blue line that went into a snarl of traffic right in front of the net. When the puck bounced back out, Svechnikov was the only one who could get to it. Assists went to Pesce and Sebastian Aho.

The Sharks made a good push in the third, out-shooting Carolina 13-9 and improving in the face-off circle to 52%.

Mario Ferraro missed Sunday’s game due to a mouth injury sustained in Saturday’s tilt against the Panthers.

The Sharks will play in Tampa Bay against the Lightning on Tuesday at 4:00 PM PT.

NHL podcast with Matt Harrington: As Kane joins Oilers he goes off on TSN talk show host; Snowstorms cancel Kraken at Isles game Sat; plus more

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TSN 1050 talk show host Jeff O’Neill (left) and Edmonton Oilers left winger Evander Kane traded barbs over O’Neill saying that Kane needed to repair his relationship with his daughter amongst other insults (image from the New York Post)

On the NHL podcast with Matt:

#1 Matt, with Evander Kane signing on with the Edmonton Oilers this week it didn’t take long for someone in the Canadian media to take a shot at him. TSN radio’s Jeff O’Neill said on TSN 1050 that Kane should repair his relationship with his daughter. Kane responded wishing O’Neill played in the NHL and asking what does O’Neill know about his relationship with his daughter?

#2 The Seattle Kraken ran into some rough weather their game against the New York Islanders has been postponed due to emergency winter storm warnings and rescheduled for Wed Feb 2 at UBS Arena in Elmont. The Kraken are scheduled for a match with the New York Rangers for Sun Jan 30th Matt any word if they’ll play that game?

#3 Matt, talk about the Colorado Avalanche’s Nathan MacKinnon who was hit by the Boston Bruins Taylor Hall during Wednesday’s game in the first period at 2:22 the hit put MacKinnon face down on the ice and he was listed with a concussion and facial fracture.

#4 The New York Rangers Adam Fox will not play in the All Star game due to an upper body injury he will miss three games on Fri vs. Minnesota, Sun vs. Seattle, and Tue vs. Florida. Fox got pinned against the boards by the Columbus Blue Jackets Vladislav Gavrikov in the third period of Thursday’s game.

#5 NHL All Star game will be played on Sat Feb 5th at the T Mobile Center in Las Vegas. This will mark the first time in Vegas Golden Knights history that the Knights organization will host the mid-winter classic. The All Star game skills contest will be on Fri Feb 4th to start things off.

Join Matt Harrington for the NHL podcasts each Saturday night at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Sharks Fall to Panthers 5-4 in OT

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Florida Panthers center Sam Bennett (9) puts the game winning puck on net in overtime to beat the San Jose Sharks goaltender James Reimer (47) at FLA Live Arena in Sunrise on Sat Jan 29, 2022 (AP News photo)

By Mary Walsh

The San Jose Sharks fell 5-4 in overtime to the Panthers in Florida on Saturday. Gustav Forsling, Alexander Barkov, Mason Marchment, Jonathan Huberdeau and Sam Bennett scored for the Panthers. Sergei Bbrovsky made 30 saves for the win. Matt Nieto and Tomas Hertl scored for San Jose and Jonathan Dahlen scored two power play goals. James Reimer made 45 saves in the loss.

After the game, Sharks Head Coach talked about the loss to one of the league’s top teams:

“I’m proud of our guys, I thought we battled hard. We had ourselves in position to get two points. You could tell we got tired as the game went on. When we lost Mario it was tough on our D. You know, we made some mistakes, we also had a couple good chances. I mean, Bobrovsky made a great save on Bonino.”

Early in the game, Sharks defensman Mario Ferraro left the game after taking a puck to the face. Boughner had some information about the injury after the game:

“It looked pretty serious to me. I know that he’s getting evaluated by dentists. And they’re trying to figure out what the next step is here so that’ll be really all we have tonight. We’ll know more in the morning but, yeah that’s obviously a big injury if it’s anything long term.”

Rudolfs Balcers also left the ice with an injury but returned before the game ended.

Tomas Hertl scored 6:10 into the first period. After passing the puck to Rudolfs Balcers below the goal line, Hertl made his way to the net. Balcers got the puck back to him so he could tuck it past Bobrovsky by the post.

Jonathan Dahlen made it 2-0 with a power play goal at 17:17. Noah Gregor made a quick back-hand pass around Jonathan Huberdeau to get the puck to Dahlen at the blue line. Dahlen took a quick shot right down the middle through traffic. Assists went to Gregor and Nick Bonino.

Gustav Forsling made it 2-1 at 19:06 of the period. Forsling took the shot from just above the hash marks. The puck went through traffic and past Reimer on the blocker side. Assists went to Sam Reinhart and Mason Marchment.

Matt Nieto scored the only goal in the second period just 1:31 in. Nieto caught up with the puck along the boards and then sent it across the ice to Nick Bonino. The pass missed Bonino but Marc-Edouard Vlasic was there to clean it up and send it back to Bonino. While that was going on, Nieto made his way to the net in time to catch the pass from Bonino for the shot.

Alexander Barkov scored at 1:26 of the third. Jonathan Huberdeau passed the puck to him inside the face-off circle. Barkov leaned around Radim Simek for the shot and scored his 20th of the season. Assists went to Huberdeau and Carter Verhaeghe.

Jonathan Dahlen scored his second of the night at 4:40. This time, he took the shot from the right face-off dot, again through traffic with a nice screen from Jasper Weatherby. Assists went to Brent Burns and Nick Bonino.

At 5:31, the Panthers got the puck in the net but the goal was called back for offside.

Mason Marchment brought Florida within one at 7:30. With the puck trapped behind Reimer and the post, Sam Reinhart poked at it until it came loose and Marchment nudged it in over the line. It was Marchment’s sixth of the season.

Jonathan Huberdeau tied the game at 9:38. From a prime shooting position, Verhaeghe made a pass that went under Brent Burns to reach Huberdeau on the other side of the slot. With all the attention on Verhaeghe, Huberdeau had an open net to shoot at. Assists went to Verhaeghe and Mackenzie Weegar.

Sam Bennett scored the game-winner 1:08 into overtime. Huberdeau held the puck behind the net for quite a while until Bennett was available to receive the pass and take the shot. Assists went to Huberdeau and Forsling.

The Sharks won the face-off battle in two of three periods, and finished with 51% of the wins. Their power play got three shots on goal and scored on both power plays. Their penalty kill allowed four shots and had one shot short-handed. They held their own on the shot clock in the first period, which ended 17-16 Panthers. But, in the second and third periods, they were out-shot 20-10 and 12-8. The Panthers had the only shot in overtime.

Joe Thornton had two shots on goal in 11:41 TOI for the Panthers.

The Sharks next play on Sunday in Carolina against the Hurricanes at 2:00 PM PT.

San Jose Sharks podcast with Len Shapiro: Will former Shark Kane correct some of his past mistakes in Edmonton?

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Newest Edmonton Oiler Evander Kane who met with the Edmonton media on Fri Jan 28, 2022 at Rogers Place in Edmonton for an introduction presser will make his Oilers debut against the Montreal Canadiens on Sat Jan 29, 2022 at the Belle Center in Montreal (photo by Canadian Press via AP)

On the Sharks podcast with Len:

#1 Len, how much of clean slate is it for former San Jose Shark Evander Kane to correct some of the mistakes or misunderstandings that he went through while he played in San Jose now that he’s with the Edmonton Oilers.

#2 TSN 1050 Toronto talk show host Jeff O’Neill said that Kane should fix his relationship with his daughter, O’Neill on the air called Kane an idiot, jerk and a goof. Kane responded by saying that he wished that O’Neill played in the NHL right now and he didn’t know anything about his relationship between Kane and his daughter.

#3 Kane said during Friday’s press conference at the Rogers Centre in Edmonton for fans, teammates, and the Oilers front office to be patient and “see what I bring to the table”

#4 The San Jose Sharks (22-19-2) who surprised the Washington Capitals (23-12-9) on Thursday night with a 4-1 win the Sharks face off against a very good Florida Panthers (30-9-5) team at FLA Live Arena in Sunrise this afternoon talk a little about today’s contest?

#5 The Sharks and Carolina Hurricanes (29-9-2) share something in common they both will be playing back to back games this Saturday and Sunday the Sharks coming from Florida tonight and the Hurricanes play the New Jersey Devils tonight. The Sharks and Hurricanes face off at 2:00 pm PST at PNC Arena Sunday.

Join Len Shapiro for the San Jose Sharks podcasts Saturday nights at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Sharks Beat Capitals 4-1, Meloche Scores GWG

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San Jose Sharks defenseman Nicolas Meloche, center, celebrates his goal against the Washington Capitals with teammates Matt Nieto, left, and Andrew Cogliano at the Capital One Arena in DC on Wed Jan 26, 2022 (AP News photo)

By Mary Walsh

The San Jose Sharks (22-19-2) defeated the Washington Capitals (23-12-9) 4-1 Wednesday in Washington DC. Noah Gregor, Nicolas Meloche, Jonathan Dahlen and Andrew Cogliano scored for the Sharks. James Reimer made 32 saves for the win. Daniel Sprong scored for Washington and Ilya Samsonov made 26 saves in the loss.

Odds were long that any team would beat the Capitals on Wednesday. It was their first back to back regulation loss of the season. The Sharks, on the other hand, had something to prove after a 7-1 loss against Tampa Bay last Saturday. Of Wednesday’s game, Sharks Head Coach Bob Boughner said:

“It was definitely a response game. You saw the things that we didn’t do against Tampa, the desperation, the urgency, some depth scoring, the blocking of the shots, sacrificing for each other. I think that was what we stressed the last couple of days, it was about showing up, responding and picking ourselves off the floor.”

The Sharks will be without defenseman Erik Karlsson until mid-March and it does not seem that reinforcements are on the way. Nikolai Knyzhov and Jacob Middleton are both still out with injuries.

One player who will get more responsibility in light of those absences is Nicolas Meloche. Of his performance Wednesday, Boughner said: “I really liked him down in the trenches, I thought he was big and heavy, I thought he was physical, he won a lot of battles, made some good plays on some exits. So, that’s what we need from Mel every night.”

Noah Gregor scored the first goal of the game at 7:41 of the first. Tomas Hertl carried the puck up to the point before passing it back to Burns, who was in the face-off circle. Burns spun and passed it across the slot to Gregor, who was lurking near the far corner of the net to put the puck over the line. It was Gregor’s second of the season.

The Sharks outshot the Capitals 14-8 in the first period, but won only 48% of the face-offs.

Nicolas Meloche made it 2-0 Sharks at 3:58 of the second. Matt Nieto gathered up a turnover at the Capitals blue line and raced into the zone with Andrew Cogliano. Nieto made a pass to a trailing Meloche, who took a quick shot from the slot to score his first NHL goal.

The Capitals led in shots 11-7 for the second period, and their power play got three shots on goal in two tries. The Sharks also had a power play but the Washington penalty kill prevented any shots against and got one short-handed shot to boot. In the face-off circle, the Sharks improved drastically to 79%.

Daniel Sprong scored for Washington 14 seconds into the third period. The puck went off of the linesman’s leg in a face-off in the Sharks’ zone. Nicklas Backstrom got to it first and sent it up to Sprong aboce the face-off circle. Sprong’s shot went through a line of traffic and in.

The Sharks took a delay of game penalty at 13:19. Logan Couture was trying to clear the puck out and he hit Brent Burns and the puck went out of play. Matt Nieto had a nice breakaway chance during the ensuing penalty kill but Samsonov stopped it. Apart from that, the Sharks could not clear the puck until the final 20 seconds of the kill, but they did kill it. Washington got four shots during the power play.

Sortly after that, Timo Meier and Alexander Ovechkin went hard at the Washington net and Ovechkin fell into Samsonov. Samsonov was down for bit but stayed in the game.

With 3:09 left in the game, Jonathan Dahlen made it 3-1 for the Sharks. Dahlen carried the puck into the zone and then pulled up to wait while Nick Bonino got to the net for a fly-by screen. As Bonino passed in front of the goalie, Dahlen’s shot skipped over Samsonov’s pad. It was Dahlen’s first goal in fifteen games. Timo Meier got the assist.

Andrew Cogliano made it 4-1 with an empty net goal at 19:39. Logan Couture got the assist.

Garnet Hathaway and Jonah Gadjovich fought to a draw after the final horn.

The Sharks blocked 23 shots in Wednesday’s game. They were barely out-shot by the Capitals 33-30. The Sharks won 54% of the face-offs.

The Sharks next play on Saturday in Florida against the Panthers at 3:00 PM PT.

San Jose Sharks podcast with Mary Lisa: Karlsson out how it impacts SJ; Sharks face Ovechkin and Capitals in DC tonight

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The body language on the San Jose Sharks players and on head coach Bob Boughner says it all as the Sharks go down against the Tampa Bay Lightning at SAP Center on Sat Jan 22, 2022. The Sharks hope to get that all turned around tonight against the Washington Capitals at the Capital One Arena in Washington (AP News photo)

On the Sharks podcast with Mary Lisa:

#1 San Jose Sharks defenseman Erik Karlsson is out until March after having surgery on his left forearm and will miss two months. How will his absence impact the Sharks.

#2 Sharks are going through some rough times losing four of their last five games and just absolutely getting whooped in their last game last Saturday at SAP Center 7-1 against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

#3 The Lightning’s Ross Colton scored twice against the Sharks on Saturday night and Alex Killorn and Steven Stamkos had a goal and an assist.

#4 The Sharks used both goaltenders in the Saturday night contest Adin Hill came in later in the game to relive with 15 saves and allowed three goals and James Reimer who started saved 9 and allowed four goals.

#5 The Washington Capitals (23-11-9) one of the best teams in the NHL lost their last game to the Vegas Golden Knights 1-0. The Caps have been playing .500 hockey of late winning four of their last eight games. How do you see the Sharks fairing in Washington tonight with a 4:00 pm puck drop?

Join Mary Lisa for the Sharks podcasts each Wednesday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Sharks Lose to Lightning 7-1; Fourth loss in five games for SJ

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A familiar sight all night long as Tampa Bay Lightning left wing Alex Killorn (17) scores a goal against San Jose Sharks goaltender Adin Hill (33) at SAP Center in San Jose on Sat Jan 22, 2022 (AP News photo)

By Mary Walsh

SAN JOSE– The Sharks lost to the Lightning by a score of 7-1 Saturday in San Jose. Steven Stamkos, Ross Colton, Mathieu Joseph, Correy Perry, Brayden Point, and Alex Killorn all scored for Tampa Bay. Brian Elliott made 27 saves for the win. Jaycob Megna scored for San Jose. James Reimer made 9 saves on 13 shots before being replaced by Adin Hill. Hill made 15 saves on 18 shots in the loss.

After the game, Sharks Head Coach Bob Boughner did not mince words: “We were out-competed and it was men amongst boys. Simple as that. We understand we have a lot of injuries and we’re dealing with some pretty important players out of our lineup.”

Among those important players is defenseman Erik Karlsson, who is out with an upper body injury. There is no timeline for his return yet.

Ross Colton scored first, 3:17 into the game. Colton tried to pass the puck across the ice, but it hit Marc-Edouard Vlasic’s stick, knuckled in the air and went over Reimer’s glove. Ryan McDonagh got an assist.

Steven Stamkos scored next, at 7:45. While Vlasic was clearing Mathieu Joseph away from the net, Stamkos used both of them as screens for a shot into the far top corner. Assists went to Alex Killorn and Cal Foote.

Midway into the second period, Timo Meier put the puck in the net but it was called back for a distinct kicking motion.

Mathieu Joseph scored at 11:04. After skating around Brent Burns, he made a beeline for the net. Reimer stopped his shot but could not control the puck. It slid out from under his pad and over the line. Assists went to Stamkos and Mikhail Sergachev.

Corey Perry made it 4-0 at 12:32. McDonagh dumped the puck in, but it went off of a linesman’s skate and bounced right to Pierre-Edouard Bellemare as he made his way to the net. Reimer stopped his shot but Perry cleaned up the rebound.

The Sharks swapped goaltenders after that goal, replacing Reimer with Hill.

Jaycob Megna scored for San Jose at 16:40. Ryan Merkley swept through the high slot to gather the puck up, then spun and passed it to Megna right on the blue line. Megna sent a hard shot right down the middle through traffic and into the net. Merkley got the assist. It was Megna’s first goal as a Shark and his second in the NHL.

Brayden Point made it 5-1 at 6:24 of the second. Anthony Cirelli got around Merkley in the Lightning zone, creating a two on one of Point and Nikita Kucherov against Megna in the Sharks zone.

Alex Killorn scored at 4:20 of the third period, on a power play. Assists went to Victor Hedman and Kucherov. Ross Colton scored his second of the game 33 seconds later. Assists went to Taylor Raddysh and Mikhail Segachev.

The Sharks had their second power play at 7:24 of the third period. They got four shots on goal. In their first power play of the game, they had no shots. The Lightning had their first and only power play of the game at 3:04 of the third. Their power play had four shots and the goal. The Lightning out-shot the Sharks 15-5 in the first, the Sharks out-shot the Lightning 10-6 in the second and 13-10.

In the face-off circle, the results followed the same pattern, with the Lightning winning the first period by 60% and the third by 67%, while the Sharks won the second period by 57%.

The Sharks next play on Wednesday in D.C. against the Washington Capitals at 4:00 PM PT.

NHL podcast with Matt Harrington: Isles legend Gillies passes away at 67; Jet’s Wheeler gets back in line up after long injury; plus more

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Former New York Islander Clark Gillies who passed away at age 67 was accomplished many achievements with the Islanders during the 1980s (photo provided by nhl.com)

On the NHL podcast with Matt Harrington:

#1 Matt, legendary former New York Islander Clark Gillies passed away at age 67. Gillies was noted as one of the all time talents in Islanders history career he scored 319 goals, had 378 assists, in 958 regular season games. In the Stanley Cup Playoffs career 47 goals and 47 assists in 164 games.

#2 The Winnipeg Jets Blake Wheeler who hasn’t played since Dec 10th is a possibility in getting into today’s game against the Boston Bruins. Wheeler suffered a knee injury. Wheeler has 17 points, one goal, and 16 assists in 22 games.

#3 The Anaheim Ducks were up and at em for Friday night’s game against the Tampa Bay Lightning at the Duck Pond in Anaheim. The 5-1 win also snaps the Ducks four game losing streak and the Bolts four game win streak. One of the key things the Ducks executed was a seven for seven penalty kill.

#4 Matt, the NHL looks forward to completing some 95 rescheduled games due to Covid 19 protocol postponements between Feb 7-22. All 32 NHL teams will be able to now complete their missing games before the end of the regular season on April 29th.

#5 Montreal Canadiens top flight goaltender Jake Allen is out for eight weeks due to a lower body injury. Allen came out of the first period against the Bruins on Jan 12th in a 5-1 loss. Allen will be replaced by back ups Sam Montembeault who has played in 16 games this season and has a goals against average of 3.73 and Clayden Primeau has played in four games with a goals against average of 4.11.

Join Matt for the NHL podcasts each Saturday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

San Jose Sharks podcast with Len Shaprio: Sharks try to get back in win column against Lightning tonight; How Sharks/Barracuda plan to handle Hrabik situation

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The Tucson Roadrunners Boko Imama (center right) is restrained from getting at the San Jose Barracuda’s Krystof Hrabik who has been suspended 30 games for making ape like gestures at him during AHL game on Wed Jan 12, 2022 at SAP Center in San Jose (photo from fearofthefin.com)

On the Sharks podcast with Len:

#1 The San Jose Sharks (21-18-2) coming into tonight’s game against the Tampa Bay Lightning have won six out of their last 11 games and have played for the most part .500 hockey in the last nine games going 4-5.

#2 The Sharks in their last game against the Seattle Kraken (12-23-4) at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle took a one goal 3-2 loss. It was the Sharks third loss in four games and head coach Bob Boughner is hoping that the Sharks could get some traction and pick up some wins.

#3 Len, things started out promising to start the last Thursday’s game when Tomas Hertl scored in the first 38 seconds of the game but it was the Kraken’s Carson Sousy who help deliver the goods scoring twice and Carne Jarnkrok scored a third period goal which turned out to be the game winner.

#4 The Sharks minor league affiliate the San Jose Barracuda Krystof Hrabik on Jan 12th made a apelike gesture toward the Tucson Roadrunners Boko Imama as Hrabik has been suspended for 30 games. It’s not the first time the Imama had been racially taunted he was called a racial slur in the 2020 season by the Ontario Reign’s Brandon Manning.

#5 Is the Hrabik gesture any reflection on the Barracuda’s position on minorities and people of color in the game when they have not used and have all but erased Evander Kane from their roster or the other side of the argument that Kane’s case has nothing to do with the Barracuda being racially biased?

Join Len Shapiro for the San Jose Sharks podcast each Saturday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com