Tag: Antti Niemi

Sharks almost shutout Ducks in feisty one

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(Photo by Debora Robinson/NHLI via Getty Images)

By Pearl Allison Lo

ANAHEIM– In a game that featured numerous fights, San Jose broke Anaheim’s seven-game win streak along with their four-game losing streak in a 4-1 win Sunday.

Sharks’ coach Todd McLellan remarked, “It was a big win for us…The fact it comes against a rival who’s probably the best team in the league right now, we’ll take that…I’m proud of the way the group responded. We didn’t have an easy day today.”

Fights and goals marked each period as the former escalated in the third period, with 24 penalties in the final stanza. Sharks’ goalie Antti Niemi, who stopped 33 shots, had a shutout until 14:53 of the third, when Anaheim had a power play.

San Jose’s Tommy Wingels said it was the “first time we’ve shown passion this year.” “It was a solid 60-minute effort. Everyone stood up for one another,” commented Marc-Edouard Vlasic.

It was the Ducks’ second loss of the season as the Sharks moved a game above .500. Four different players scored for San Jose, Logan Couture and Patrick Marleau each had a pair of assists and Tomas Hertl had his first assist. The Sharks killed five of six power plays and scored two power play goals. Joe Pavelski said, “[Niemi] was great on the penalty kill early. That’s where we’ve struggled lately…That gave us confidence early.”

The game winner was Brent Burns’ first of the season and his second goal in as many games. Burns shot it from the point towards the line of defenders in front of goalie Frederik Andersen.  He was aided by Marleau at 8:25 of the first period.

Anaheim’s Corey Perry had a one-on-one opportunity but Niemi saved the puck.

Tim Jackman’s hooking penalty at 18:38 ended in a crash at the net and gave the Sharks their first power play. Pavelski redirected Joe Thornton’s shot from the right circle to give San Jose a 2-0 lead.

Two penalties were called for both teams 12 seconds apart in the second period. The Sharks’ Scott Hannan was called for high-sticking and the Ducks’ Sami Vatanen called for embellishment at 9:40, then San Jose’s Mirco Mueller and Anaheim’s Ryan Getzlaf called for unsportsmanlike conduct. The Ducks’ coach Bruce Boudreau replied to when frustration set in, “We got wound up when we got the embellishment penalty. There were some things going on, but it was just two teams that competed hard against one another….We were frustrated. When you’re frustrated, stuff happens.”

Eleven seconds after the second penalty, Vlasic scored through the legs of Andersen, helped by Marleau and Couture.

At 15:23, San Jose was called for a bench minor, a faceoff violation.

Near 18:21, the Ducks’ Ryan Kesler narrowly missed with a diagonal shot right in between Niemi and the net.

The Sharks got another power play at 10:18 of the third period. They capitalized again at 11:40, when Wingels scored, assisted by Matt Nieto and Hertl.

The majority of the penalties were called at 13:56.

Anaheim’s Matt Beleskey spoiled the shutout when the man advantage was almost over, scoring top shelf, aided by Kesler and Cam Fowler at 14:53.

Game notes: San Jose’s Justin Braun took a puck to the mouth during the game and left the ice. The team will try to build on their win and put together a streak when facing the Colorado Avalanche Tuesday at 6pm.

Sharks Bested By Bruins in Boston

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By Mary Walsh

BOSTON– Tuesday, the San Jose Sharks fell to the Boston Bruins 5-3 at TD Garden. In many ways, the game was uncharacteristic for both teams. While it was a predictably close game, the score did not reflect a game between two defensively exceptional teams. After the game, Joe Thornton said:

The game went back and forth, back and forth. We thought we had it, we had a good chance on the four minute power play. In the end we just didn’t bury it. Tough game to lose.

The shot count was a little high on both sides (34-33), and five goals were scored in the first two periods. It is the third time Tuukka Rask has bested the Sharks, and the Bruins have yet to lose to San Jose with Rask in net.

Sharks head coach Todd McLellan said, after the loss:

If we’re comparing it to the last game in New York, it was a much better effort. I don’t know if that’s a wise thing to do or not but we have to take steps forward so that’s a positive. We still got to get better. We’re giving up four games a night we’re not going to win very many games at all doing that.

The Sharks did improve their power play numbers, scoring once in two tries, or once in three tries if you count the second as two since it was a four minute power play. Either way, better than before the game. Beyond that, the game was a step back in most areas.

After the 5-3 loss, Logan Couture said:

We needed to get at least a point. We kind of let that one slip away. With this team you can’t be doing that. So we need to get a lot better.

The first whistle for more than icing came with just under seven minutes left in the first period. That whistle blew to send Brent Burns to the box for tripping. It was a peculiar sort of trip, more of a shoving the feet from behind, but he did interfere pretty overtly with Seth Griffith’s feet and cause him to fall.

Seconds in to the power play, 17 and 47 drew attention to themselves by cycling the puck around a bit. When Brad Marchand took control of the puck near the point, 17 and 47 had the Sharks penalty killers slightly out of position. Marchand’s shot went cleanly over Niemi’s blocker to put the Bruins on the board first.

At 15:56,the Sharks got their own power play when Marchand went to the box for cross checking Justin Braun. After the second faceoff of the power play, Patrick Marleau took a shot from the point and Logan Couture redirected it in from his spot just in front of the blue paint. Assists went to Marleau and Burns.

The Sharks came out with a little more punch to start the second, earning a couple of good chances on the first shift for Logan Couture’s line with Patrick Marleau and Tommy wingels. The fourth line of Adam Burish, Eriah Hayes and John Scott, however, could not hold the zone and then got trapped in their own zone for too long a spell. The Sharks were lucky to escape without giving up a goal.

That second line was by far the most effective through the first seven minutes, consistently getting shots and giving the Bruins defense grief.

Almost seven minutes in, Desjardins went to the box for tripping Loui Eriksson. This time, the Bruins did not do much cycling before Torey Krug put the puck past Niemi, again from above the faceoff circle. Assists went to Milan Lucic and David Krejci.

Tomas Hertl followed Desjardins to the box for tripping, less than two minutes after the Bruins’ second goal. The Sharks managed to kill that penalty off.

With just 3:45 left in the period, that second line came back with some fight. Patrick Marleau got to the net and Wingels got the puck to him. Marleau’s back was to Rask and a Bruin was in his face but he held  his ground and the puck until Couture came in to help out. He helped out nicely and put the puck in the net.

Seconds later, the top line followed suit and gave the Sharks their first lead. Joe Thornton scored that one, assisted by Joe Pavelski and Justin Braun.

To start the third period, James Sheppard was on a line with Eriah Hayes and Tomas Hertl. A line of Adam Burish, Andrew Desjardins and Tommy Wingels foolowed that. Then Thornton came out with Pavelski and Nieto for a touch of normalcy.
Seth Griffith, David Krejci and Milan Lucic for the Bruins came out against Couture, Marleau and Hertl, and tied the game.  The goal was Griffith’s first NHL point. Assists went to Lucic and Torey Krug.

The Bruins’ fourth goal came after Vlasic failed to control the puck (his stick slipped from his hands as he tried to catch a pass from Braun) and Paille got control along the boards. Unfettered by any Shark, he was able to shoot. Two other Bruins were crowding the crease and the puck slid through them and under Niemi. One of those was Gregory Campbell. He got credit for the goal, so evidently it touched him on the way through.

After that goal, the Sharks’ lines fell back into a more familiar order, with Hertl on a line with the Joes, and Nieto with Marleau and Couture. Hayes joined Sheppard and Wingels. This seemed to be working pretty well, and then Justin Braun took a stick to the face, putting the Sharks on a four minute power play. That would give the Sharks most of the rest of the game with a man advantage. Unfortunately, it also sent Braun to the dressing room for repairs. He was gone for over two minutes of play.

The Sharks pulled Niemi with about a minute left to play, but that did not work out. Instead, the short-handed Bruins scored an empty net goal with 24.5 seconds left. Goal scored by David Krejci.

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John Scott only played five minutes. Whether or not he allows goals or shots against, if he cannot skate more minutes than that, his teammates have to make up the difference, in minutes and line adjustments. The Sharks, like most of the top teams right now, are moving to a more balanced four line system. Having a player they cannot or will not use evenly seems like a terrible handicap. That handicap is no less of a problem for being entirely predictable before the season started.

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Scratches: Tye McGinn, Mirco Mueller, Chris Tierney.

Sharks next face the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday October 23, at SAP Center.

Sharks hold on to lead

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Photo credit: Jim McIsaac

By Pearl Allison Lo

In the New Jersey Devils’ home opener, San Jose held off a third period comeback to win, 4-2 Saturday.

The deciding goal was Patrick Marleau’s fourth of the season, 1:36 into the third period, which capped the Sharks’ lead at 3-0. It started when the puck went up into the air after a Devils’ pass and Justin Braun nabbed it. Braun then passed it to Logan Couture, who passed it to Marleau on a 3-on-2. Marleau slyly looked away from the goal as if he was going to pass again, as he scored a no-look goal, surprising even the announcers.

San Jose’s first two goals came via power play at nearly identical times in the first two periods.

The 1-0 goal started with Joe Thornton behind the net, who passed to the left to Couture, who then passed to Brent Burns. Burns passed the puck back to Couture, who shot and Joe Pavelski scored at 17:53 off Couture’s rebound. It was Burns’ sixth assist.

Couture’s first goal of the season started with Burns stopping Stephen Gionta from clearing the puck. The puck then went down and up the ice from Burns to Thornton to Marleau, back to Thornton then Burns. Burns then made a pass across the ice to Pavelski, who passed the puck down to Marleau who was backwards and parallel to goalie Cory Schneider. Marleau finally passed the puck ahead to Couture in the slot, as Couture slid the puck past the sticks of two defenders at 17:52.

Antti Niemi’s shutout ended when on a 3-on-2, Jaromir Jagr passed behind his teammate to Mike Cammalleri, who one-timed his shot. It was 8:00 of the third period and Andy Greene aided on the play too. It was Cammalleri’s fifth goal.

New Jersey made it the threatening score of 3-2 at 12:10 on another 3-on-2. Initially credited to former Shark Ryane Clowe, the goal was later changed to Adam Henrique. Clowe and Michael Ryder were in front of the net, but the puck seemed to hit the Sharks’ Matt Irwin’s skate as well. Ryder and Jon Merrill got the help points.

San Jose shifted momentum back in their favor for good when a Devils’ pass went off Ryder’s skate. Thornton corralled the deflection, passed it to Pavelski as Schneider reached the bench, received the pass back and shot into the empty net with a diving defender in front of him.

Game notes:  Thornton now has 1,200 career points. The Sharks’ Tommy Wingels was tripped heading to the goal and had a penalty shot. Teammate Adam Burish had a shorthanded opportunity during a Scott Hannan penalty, but was denied. Friday, San Jose announced that James Sheppard was sent to Worcester for conditioning and the Allen Americans would be the Sharks’ ECHL affiliate. Saturday morning, San Jose announced that Mike Brown was placed on injured reserve and Eriah Hayes was recalled from Worcester. The Sharks will now travel across state lines to face the New York Rangers Sunday at 2p.

Sharks blank defending Stanley Cup champions

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Photo credit: MARK J. TERRILL — AP Photo

By Pearl Allison Lo

LOS ANGELES– The Los Angeles Kings started on top of with the pre-game banner ceremonies but by the end, suffered a 4-0 drubbing by San Jose Wednesday in the teams’ season opener.

The Shark’s Antti Niemi stopped 34 shots, Tommy Wingels scored two goals, including the game winner and Brent Burns had two assists. In response to a question about it being a big game, Wingels said, “It absolutely was, it has been a long summer thinking about this game, when the schedule came out and this was our first game the media loved it, the fans loved it, but us players loved it too. Not a better way for us to start the season.”

San Jose coach Todd McLellan remarked, “They earned the right to have that pre-game ceremony and they obviously enjoyed it and the fans were rewarded for it. That’s why they played for the Stanley Cup at the end of the year so once that was over, the game started. The rivalry is always going to be there and it was there again tonight.”

Los Angeles goalie Jonathan Quick said regarding the ceremony, “You’re just kind of tired of it. You just want to play hockey.”

The first altercation between the teams came at the end of the Kings’ power play with an almost goal near the edge of the net at about 5:18.

When the Sharks got to the other end, San Jose’s Jason Demers passed it from the top of the circle. Tye McGinn then passed to Wingels from alongside the boards, as Wingels scored an almost parallel goal from the red line at 5:43, giving San Jose a 1-0 lead. It was McGinn’s first assist in his first game as a Shark. .

The crowd wanted a call during the Sharks’ first power play when players ended in the net, including Los Angeles goalie Jonathan Quick.

Early in the second period, the crowd thought they had a goal when Jeff Carter had a wraparound attempt, but Niemi smothered the puck.

San Jose made it 2-0 on a power play goal when Kyle Clifford was called for tripping. The Kings tried to clear the puck, but it went to Marc-Edouard Vlasic. Vlasic then passed across the ice to Burns. As Burns shot, Patrick Marleau tipped in the puck at 3:20, with less than 30 seconds left in the power play.

The Sharks cleared the puck three times during their second penalty kill of the period. Los Angeles’ Marian Gaborik had a one-on-one opportunity, but Niemi saved the attempt.

Wingels got his second goal of the night and Burns got his second assist as Burns fed the puck to Wingels. With Brayden McNabb and Drew Doughty chasing him, Wingels got on a breakaway as he went right left and right to put the puck past Quick’s right side at 15:50.

14 seconds later, Marleau was battling for the puck against the boards and moved it out of the way. San Jose’s Matt Nieto slid in to grab the loose puck with Quick on the other side, and before Quick could get back, Nieto scored into the empty net.

The third period brought in new Kings’ goalie Martin Jones. He only faced three shots as Los Angeles had 10 shots in the period. Coach Darryl Sutter commented, “I didn’t pull Quick because of his performance. Like I said, I don’t like pulling goalies the first game of the year or ever, but at that point in the game it’s no Jonathan’s deal, it’s Jonesy’s (Martin Jones) deal.”

The Sharks killed off a 5-on-3 at 18:53, which occurred because of boarding and tripping calls.

Game notes: The game marked the NHL debuts for San Jose’s Chris Tierney and Mirco Mueller. Tierney finished +2 with three shots and a blocked shot and Mueller finished +1 with one shot and three blocked shots. Los Angeles’ Jake Muzzin, who was questionable before the game, did not play. The Sharks’ Joe Pavelski led all with seven shots, the Kings’ Alec Martinez led all with five blocked shots and Doughty was on the ice the longest, for 27:28. San Jose captaincy moved in the direction of closure with Vlasic, Pavelski, Marleau and Joe Thornton being named associate captains. Vlasic’s role will be intermittent while the rest will be the main associate captains. The Sharks will host the Winnipeg Jets in their season opener Saturday at 7pm.

Sharks lose in sudden death

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Photo credit: CHRISTINE COTTER — AP Photo

By Pearl Allison Lo

ANAHEIM– San Jose’s 1-0 lead from the first period broke at the very end, as the Anaheim Ducks scored the tying goal with less than a minute in the third to eventually win 2-1 Saturday.

Both teams had at least one power play in each period, including overtime, but the last power play in the game marked the only power play goal. The Sharks’ Antti Niemi had just avoided a shot earlier, but then Corey Perry took aim, with three San Jose players between him and Niemi, as the puck hit the crossbar at 3:37. That was Perry’s seventh shot of the night.

The preseason finale certainly had its share of fighting, especially in the second. The Sharks’ Joe Pavelski responded, “well i think it’s last preseason game, so, whatever you got to do to get ready for regular season. I  think you’re going to try to at least set a certain standard tonight, you see the lineups are close, as soon as you get a lot of good players, you start competing, a power play here, a power play there, you want to score a goal…it’s just built up.”

In the first, the Ducks’ Matt Beleskey hit Adam Burish near the net against the boards and then Burish fell backwards. The Sharks’ Mike Brown came in with a hit of his own in retaliation and Anaheim got their first power play. Matt Nieto had a solo opportunity shorthanded but his shot hit one of the Ducks’ stick.

The Ducks seemed to dominate, but San Jose was the one to get the all-important goal. At 13:58, Tomas Hertl got his first of the preseason. It started with the faceoff. The puck then got to the net from a shot from the blue line, bounced off the end boards and to an open Hertl. Hertl was helped by Pavelski and Scott Hannan.

There were five power plays during the period, with two overlapping. The last one came with 12.4 seconds left.

In the second, the Sharks had  more penalties than shots as there were five penalties per team.

Two penalties overlapped again as with just under a minute left in Anaheim Tim Jackman’s penalty, San Jose’s Jason Demers was called for interference.

Beleskey hit Braun then Hannan and Mike Brown went 2-on-1 on Jackman. Hannan was called for roughing and Brown and Jackman got unsportsmanlike conduct at 8:42.

Less than two minutes later, Demers hit Beleskey, Beleskey later responding by slashing, resulting in Demers going down, Demers called for embellishment, and then Beleskey also called for roughing as Beleskey hit Demers when he came back up from the ice.

At 13:04, Brown and Bryan Allen both got 10-minute misconducts.

Perry got called for cross-checking at 16:43.

The number of game shots ramped up in the third, with San Jose getting 11 and the Ducks 14.

After extended jostling along the boards where no one could get the puck out of the boards, Francois Beauchemin had a point blank shot which Niemi nabbed.

Patrick Maroon also had a one-on-one opportunity which Niemi gloved as well. Niemi commented, “they were coming hard, the last four five minutes.”

Anaheim took advantage of three failed clearances by the Sharks before the tying goal. Ryan Kesler was aided by Perry and Sami Vatanen.

Game notes: San Jose’s Brent Burns led all with 24:52 ice time, teammates Tommy Wingels and Logan Couture had four shots apiece, Kesler led with five hits, the Ducks’ Ben Lovejoy led with four blocked shots and Kesler won 85% of his 20 faceoffs. Attendance at the Honda Center was 13,682. Sharks will open the regular season against the Los Angeles Kings Wednesday at Staples Center at 7pm.

Win, Lose or Draw, Sharks Shoot First

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By Mary Walsh

SAN JOSE- Friday’s game was the third of three preseason games that featured a gross shot advantage for the Sharks. It seems that no matter who is playing or how you line them up, Sharks will outshoot the other team. That does not mean they will win, but it certainly gives them a fighting chance. Friday the Sharks lost 2-1 to the Arizona Coyotes in a game that went to a shootout.

What goes in to these shot advantages? Defenseman Taylor Fedun, in his first training camp as a Shark, has had some time to learn something about the team’s playing style:

I think we have a pretty good shoot first mentality and it’s been working for us where we get pucks on net and then we’re able to retrieve them and it kinda gets defensive teams on their heels a little bit. It’s one of the ways to keep the game simple in the preseason here, where you’re not as sharp on the system as you will be a little bit later on in the season. So it keeps things simple, just throwing pucks on net and trying to outwork teams.

This is something the Sharks consistently do,  well into the season. It has been their style for a while now, it will probably continue to be what they do. How do they do it, even with players new to the team or even the league? Fedun said:

It’s something that’s touched on by the coaching staff that we want to get the puck on net as often as we can, try and generate second and third opportunities in doing so.

No surprise there. It is an old idea: you have to shoot to score. So the real question is: why doesn’t everyone do this? Or, do the Sharks just do it better than most?

Shooting a lot is not new for the Sharks, and neither is talking about simplifying their game. It is a style that happens to suit the Sharks’ new and young recruits. Of Fedun and Mirco Mueller, Sharks head coach Todd McLellan said:

I thought he and Mirco both did some really good things on the rink, heightened our awareness, both of them and improved their status amongst the club. We’ll have some decisions to make. We often think about just keeping one, but maybe two of them, or three of them could push the veterans out. When I look at the game in Vancouver, we had a couple of players who were sub-par and if we have to make those changes we will, if the young D continue to play the way they do.

We should know after Saturday’s game how many will stay in San Jose to push the veterans.

Friday’s game was well attended, particularly for a preseason game.

The Sharks’ Tye McGinn started with an early penalty, which lead to the Coyotes’ first goal on their only shot for the first 13 or so minutes. That goal was Justin Hodgman’s, with assists to Max Domi and Michael Stone. McGinn tried to make up for it a few minutes later with a beautiful breakaway up the middle of the ice but his shot went awry. His game on Friday was a portrait of energy and hard work with communication gaps. The same could be said of the rest of the team, not surprising for a preseason game. It was the second game for most of the players, but they were not playing with the same group as they played with on Tuesday.

For Antti Niemi, it was the first game of the preseason. That, combined with the sad shortage of shots coming at him, did not show him at his best. He gave up a goal on the first Coyotes shot, but he did stop the rest until the shootout.

Arizona’s one goal lead persisted through the middle of the second period. The Coyotes steadily gained on the Sharks’ shot lead.By the seven minute mark, Antti Niemi had made a seven saves. At the other end, Devan Dubnyk made nine in the first period, and another 13 in the second.

The one he did not make was a power play goal from Joe Pavelski at 7:15 of the second period. The assist went to Brent Burns. Pavelski’s shot came from the blue line and blew right by Arizona’s new backup goaltender.

By the end of the second period, the Sharks had run off with the shot clock again, Niemi had done very little for several minutes.

In the final 19 seconds of the period, Nikolay Goldobin had the honor of being tripped by veteran defenseman Zbynek Michalek. Goldobin was tripped while making a very impressive dash for the net. He didn’t get the shot he wanted, and his team did not score on the resulting power play.

By the end of regulation, the shots stood at 38-16 Sharks with the score tied at 1. There was a symmetry to this result, as the Sharks already had one loss and one win under their belt. Seemed only natural they should have an overtime game.

A little over a minute into overtime, Michalek went to the box for tripping Joe Pavelski. The first power play unit included Goldobin, and the second included Mueller. Mueller wound up for a great big shot at the top of the slot… but he was only faking. He passed it. Neither power play unit scored. Neither team scored, the game went to a shoot out.

Joe Pavelski shot first, and scored. Justin Hodgman shot next, for Arizona. He scored too. Goldobin made one too make moves and lost his balance on the third shot. He did not score by accident either. Lucas Lessio, shooting third for Arizona, did not lose his balance and he scored. Joe Thornton did not score.

Mueller continues to play well, most of the time the puck goes where he is sending it. He perhaps could be more reckless, send the puck to the net more, or not send it anywhere at all. At one point, he executed a very pretty pass to a teammate in the neutral zone, sort of a hand off between players going in opposite directions. The problem with it was that there were two Coyotes in hot pursuit of that other player and Mueller might have accomplished more just by hanging on to the puck or even dumping it in. With time, his decision-making should catch up with his skating and puck handling skills.

Mike Brown made some good plays, including one breakaway that didn’t work out but looked dangerous. He also made a defensive zone pass that got some tired Sharks out of trouble. As he has shown before, he can be helpful in the right situation.

Sharks and prospects will play again Saturday against Anaheim Ducks and prospects. The game will be at SAP Center in San Jose at 5:00.

How Will the Sharks Be Composed?

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Patrick Marleau, Scott Hannan, Jonathan Quick, Logan Couture

By Mary Walsh

The San Jose Sharks are not the only team to lose a Game Seven in 2014, or even in the first round. Because they began with a three game lead, the loss was considered an upset, a collapse. Other teams who lost in Game Seven when they were expected to win include the Boston Bruins, and the Pittsburgh Penguins.The Bruins were grumpy in the handshake line, the Penguins fired their GM.

The Anaheim Ducks were the regular season Conference champions. They held a lead at one point in the series against the Los Angeles Kings, but they were not strong favorites, especially after the Kings’ first round comeback against the Sharks.

Does a little distance change how we should view what happened to the Sharks in the series against the Kings? Doesn’t it appear that they did not have to make many mistakes to lose to the Kings? Perhaps, but some of the mistakes were ones we have seen before that should have been avoidable.

When the Sharks flagged after the questionable goal that involved pushing Alex Stalock into the net, it was not unlike the 2011 Conference Finals against the Canucks. There, a bad call in the last 13 seconds of the third period left the team flat-footed. The Canucks tied the game and won the series in overtime.

What is this, and how do you fix it? Would making a lot of roster changes do it?

Sharks GM Doug Wilson said the team needs more than a band aid. The problem is that any major surgery takes time.

The first moves announced were actually non-moves. The coaching staff would be retained, Dan Boyle would not be resigned, and Marty Havlat would not be with the Sharks next season. The odds are very slim that this last means anything other than “Havlat will be bought out.” If Wilson were trying to trade him, he probably wouldn’t be announcing it to the media. This would be a first, a difficult first for a GM who has always been careful to not get into a contract he cannot live with.

The other announcement is the oddest of the three: the Sharks will use Brent Burns as a defenseman next season. Yes, he was acquired for that purpose, his contract was negotiated on that basis, he has more NHL experience as a defenseman than as a forward but… he really was a standout forward. He was maddeningly inconsistent as a defenseman.

The choice is not so shocking, but the announcement itself was strange. Was it a way of saying (unbidden) that the Sharks will not pursue a free agent defensemen this summer? Or that they will pursue a top six forward? Did that announcement have any place on the list of “questions people want answered?”

Dan Boyle, in discussing his time with the Sharks, said that the last two seasons were the Sharks’ best. Reminded that they had made the Conference Finals twice before, he admitted that perhaps recent seasons were just more vivid in his memory.

I think he was right the first time. The Pacific Division has become more formidable than it was when the Sharks went to the Conference Finals. The Sharks have been better in the last two seasons, but so has their competition. That means that success is even more about bounces than it ever was.

Bounces cannot be controlled, but the way a team handles them can be. A team’s psychological resilience can be improved by changing the players, but there are not very many players who can step in and hold a team together through a crisis. There may not be any who could do it for all teams.

Would trading Joe Thornton or Patrick Marleau really improve matters? Joe Pavelski? Who? And who do you get to replace them? Keeping in mind some no movement clauses would have to be worked around, who could Wilson get back? Unfortunately, those other players might come with much heavier salary burdens, assuming they could produce as well as any of the Sharks’ leaders, and also fix what ails the team.

That is a lot to expect from some player on some team a Sharks player would agree to be traded to… it is a lot to expect from even two or three players.

Wilson may have the flexibility he wants, but he has not built the team out of an NHL Leggo set. Few successful teams are built like that. You don’t replace pieces, you replace ingredients. Each player has an effect beyond the players to either side of him on the bench. The wrong big move could doom the next few seasons.

Should they move goaltender Antti Niemi? Was he really the weakest link? A better puck-mover would be nice, but every goaltender has his weaknesses. Those with few are rarely available. How much could Wilson get in trade?

Again, would that fix what ails the Sharks? What does ail them?

Composure. This is something the Kings are being praised for. They have rebounded in two playoff series now. Their goalie has recovered from some poor outings to play at his best. Give them credit, they keep their heads.

But do they keep them so much better than the Sharks? If the Kings are such a better team than the Sharks or the Ducks, why did it take them seven games to win those series? Why did they lose so badly to start the playoffs? Perhaps their playing style has to be paced. Playing a very physical game, the sort of game that produces a high injury rate, takes its toll on both teams. Perhaps it takes the Kings a while to work up to it.

Is that what the Sharks need to do, whichever Sharks remain next season? Does that style of play guarantee a win? It has gotten the Kings farther than the Sharks have gone several seasons in a row now. So why don’t more teams emulate the Kings?

Again, why did it take them seven games, twice, if they are so much better?

Maybe the Kings are not a perfect model, they are just one that works for those players with that coach right now.

Those players. Mike Richards spent a good amount of time on the fourth line. He might be a buyout candidate this summer if he cannot return to a top six role. No team is going to willingly give a fourth liner six or seven years at $5.75 million. In the mean time, he posed an enormous threat to opposition, and not because he is so tough or gritty. What distinguished him from most fourth liners is skill.

The Sharks had Mike Brown on their fourth line. They also had Raffi Torres there, with a still very troublesome knee. Had he not been injured, would he have been on the fourth line at all?

The Sharks would do well to look for more skill to go with the grit they have relied on there. They have players who could make up an over-qualified fourth line, if they added one or two top nine forwards…

Yet the coaching staff thought it would be better to try to get Marty Havlat to play there occasionally, instead of moving someone who could do that job (like Tommy Wingels) and keeping Havlat in the roll he was acquired for– a skilled top nine forward. Unless they re-evaluate how they use their assets, it doesn’t matter who the Sharks trade or acquire.

If their roster is so flawed, then significant changes have to be made. That is unlikely to produce quick results. Whether they replace a lot of players or drastically change their style of play, both will take time to adjust to. They probably won’t get off to a quick start, they might be pushing to reach the playoffs at the end of the season. Then, if they stumble again, it can be explained away by too many changes to adjust to in one season.

Not making big changes hasn’t satisfied anyone. It will be difficult now to not make them. It does seem like a shame to waste the one useful thing the team got out of that loss to Los Angeles: a painful shared memory of what they don’t want to experience again.

Goalies and Go-Getters: NHL Playoffs

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By Mary Walsh

Watching the French team beat the Canadians in the World Championships was one of the most entertaining viewing experiences I have had in a while. Even though I had to keep clicking through ad popups, exposing my computer to who knows what kind of hazards, the game was riveting. Sure, it went to a shootout, after a couple of power play goals from the French kept them in the game. Goalie Cristobal Huet also kept them in the game, neutralizing the not yet ready for prime time Canadian team. But who doesn’t love to see an underdog steal one?

The French are not the only underdogs playing right now. The Montreal Canadiens, though their record hardly looks like an underdog’s, had the Boston Bruins on the ropes for a bit. I wonder how many people became Habs fans then? It isn’t that the Bruins are so easy to root against, but they won the Cup so recently, and they are reputed to be big tough guys. The Habs are supposed to be quick and light in the way they play. (Hence the utter confusion about the Douglas Murray signing.) Yet even if the Bruins are the hounds and the Canadiens the foxes, it usually takes several hounds to take down one fox. That makes us root for the fox. We know one hound could never catch a fox on his own, but it still seems unfair to gang up on the little fox like that.

The thing is, it isn’t true. Apart from Zdeno Chara, the Bruins are not bigger than average for an NHL team, and the Canadiens are not small. Even their playing styles are exaggerated– the Bruins play fast whenever possible, and the Canadiens don’t scamper around the rink without standing their ground defensively.

Neither team shows the defensive recklessness of some teams (hello Pittsburgh), though both teams get reliable goaltending. Tuuka Rask and Carey Price are both exceptional, in their prime, and playoff hardened. Neither has been surprising in a good way or a bad way. They have performed as expected: very well.

The teams were more evenly matched than advertised, but hyperbole makes it a better story.

What is not exaggerated are their respective playoff records. The Bruins won the Cup in 2011 and made it to the Finals last season. The Habs haven’t been to the Conference Finals since 2010, and they haven’t won a Cup since 1993. One of these teams is due, the other has won recently enough to remember the way clearly. The latter will not go quietly, if at all. The Bruins demonstrated as much by taking the lead in the series on Saturday.

Here in the West, Sharks fans may or may not be watching the Freeway Series between the Los Angeles Kings and the Anaheim Ducks. If they are watching, they may have noticed how strange it is that two teams that did so well at home have now turned into road warriors, if across town really counts as a road game. In any case, it is strange to see the Ducks cast in the underdog role, since they were so dominant in the regular season.

One of the more talked about issues is the way Bruce Boudreau has been handling the Anaheim goaltenders. He pulled Frederik Andersen twice before he had to be replaced for injury, always putting Jonas Hiller in. Hiller has played well, has experience, and probably deserved to start Saturday. But the Ducks started the season overloaded with young goaltending talent. They even traded one away to the Oilers, they had so many goalies. Now they can’t seem to find one the coach can rely on.

It doesn’t really breed confidence, to keep switching goaltenders. It also doesn’t breed confidence to have a goalie the team doesn’t trust to make all the stops he needs to make. Here is the problem with that– some teams play better defense with a backup in the net, precisely because they don’t trust him. Doesn’t it make more sense to give defense extra attention, no matter who is in goal? What if your awesome unbeatable goalie has an off night? It wouldn’t matter if you were helping him out enough.

See the Minnesota Wild and Ilya Bryzgalov for how to make it work. Bryzgalov has one of the most mercurial records in the NHL. This season alone, he had to claw his way back into the league after starting off signed to a PTO with an ECHL team. He is not stealing games for Minnesota, but they are doing pretty well for a team working on its fourth goalie in the season. In response, he is playing better behind them.

See the LA Kings and Jonathan Quick in Games 1 & 2 against Sharks for how to let it take you down. No matter how the Sharks lit him up, it took the Kings two games to figure out that their super-duper goalie was not going to win the game for them and he needed some help. Once they gave it to him all was well, but how it could take them so long to get their act together is mind-boggling.

They say that a goalie has to steal a couple of games along the road to a Stanley Cup. That may be true but it seems awfully risky to assume that your team is going to simply fall apart for a game or two along the way. Yes, if a Sharks goalie had stolen a game, or two, maybe they would still be in it. But after the way the Sharks played in Game 5, did they deserve to be?

Sometimes a team has no choice but to flip flop goalies through the playoffs. The 2010 Flyers made it as far as the Finals, changing starting goalies mid-playoffs due to injury. Michael Leighton had only been cleared to play the day before he replaced Brian Boucher, and each goaltender gave exceptional performances in turn. In the end, they were still being swapped mid-game, I suspect because neither was truly 100% healthy. Through it all, the rest of the team held it together, killed themselves on defense (Ian LaPerriere almost literally) and went further than the Sharks have ever gone.

Maybe confidence is over-rated. Maybe will is all.

Antti Niemi was a raw rookie in his first season of North American hockey when he won. He didn’t even play in the minors. The Blackhawks made due. There really is no sure-thing formula for the role goaltending plays in a Cup run. Everyone needs to pull their weight and a little more if possible. Should it matter to the Ducks whether Anderson or Hiller or Gibson is behind them? No. If the puck is behind them, they need to get it back in front of them ASAP, no matter who is perched in the paint. That’s a good rule for any team to follow.

One of Three Sevens: Sharks, Kings Must Win or Go Home

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By Mary Walsh

Seven. Each NHL Playoff round is a best of seven games, and three of eight first round match-ups have gone the distance. Second round dates have already been set, even for the Penguins who do not yet know who they will play.

With three Game Sevens today, it seems likely that we will see at least one upset… if you define upset as the triumph of the team with the lower position in the standings. In the case of the Pacific Division contest, the predictions have been for the third place team to upset the second place team all along, so would that even count as an upset? Is it really an upset if it was expected? Will the Kings live up to expectations, or will the Sharks reassert themselves?

All three of today’s games came to be with a Game Six win won by three goals. The Flyers and the Wild both beat their opponents 5-3 and the Kings beat the Sharks Jose 4-1. A little more eerie than that is the Philadelphia connection to Los Angeles: Mike Richards and Jeff Carter were both part of the Flyers team that upset the Bruins in 2010, and now they are in another Game Seven after a three game comeback, while their old team is playing a Game Seven on the same day.

The Sharks are not playing in three games, only one. They are not even playing in seven games, they only have one tonight. Is it any different from any other game? Sharks forward Logan Couture said:

Every playoff game has a different atmosphere compared to a regular season game. I mean, guys know, obviously, what’s at stake. I don’t think it’s any big difference.

Playing in and winning a Game Seven is every young hockey player’s dream. But after squandering a three game lead in the series, the Sharks might be feeling some extra pressure. This morning, Sharks defenseman Dan Boyle was asked about the fun and the pressure of a Game Seven:

This is fun, you know everyone’s going to talk about how we got to this point but at this point it really doesn’t matter. We’re in Game Seven, we got to win a hockey game to move on and we’re at home. So you’re right this is fun and we’ve got to channel our energy the right way.

The Kings won three games in a row, as did the Sharks, but the Kings played all of those games with the threat of elimination hanging over them. They were all “win or go home” situations. Is it any different for the Sharks now that they too must win or go home? This morning, Sharks defenseman Jason Demers said:

I don’t think so. But it’s like I said, it’s just about executing. You can talk as much as you want about x’s and o’s, but it’s just about executing those x’s and o’s… Just executing when we need to execute to win.

Sharks head coach Todd McLellan’s approach to the win or go home situation is to go back to his core group:

I think our core on our team has to step up, and they were there early in the series. LA’s core has been there later in the series. Tonight’s the deciding game and in my opinion Nemo’s a very big part of that core and they’re going to get their chance to perform in Game Seven.

It is April 30, 2014, or 4/30/14. Add month and day together without the zeros and you get seven. Divide the year by two and you get seven. All three games start in the seventh hour, two of them at seven sharp. It seems like it should mean something, but I can’t tell what that is or what could possibly be done about it. Probably a safe bet that everyone should steer clear of deadly sins.

Sharks goaltender Antti Niemi said his routine would not change for this game:

I just got to think about my own game… and do the same things to get ready as I do every day.

Sounds like a plan.

Sharks’s OT win breaks Kings’ home playoff win streak

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Photo credit: AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill

By Pearl Allison Lo

LOS ANGELES– Patrick Marleau scored his third playoff goal in Game 3 of this series to lead San Jose to a 3-0 series advantage with a 4-3 win over the Los Angeles Kings Tuesday.

Up until the Sharks’ win, the Kings had won all of their playoff games at home since June 11, 2012.

Besides two straight Los Angeles goals, the scoring went back and forth.

Marleau was aided by Scott Hannan at 6:20 in this much tighter game than the previous two. The goal was their only shot in overtime. Goalie Antti Niemi is now 12-2 in OT careerwise in the playoffs.

Teammate Logan Couture commented on overtime, “…they really took it to us for the first five minutes of that overtime, then we got a lucky bounce and that’s the way things go sometimes.”

On their second shot of the game and 11 seconds into their power play, San Jose’s Brent Burns scored at 3:16 of the first, helped by Joe Thornton and Dan Boyle.

The shot on goal margin for the Kings increased to 7-2, but they could not get the puck in the right spot.

The Sharks paid for a puck over the glass penalty by Jason Demers at 3:23 of the second. Los Angeles’s Tyler Toffoli was able to pass the puck just past Tommy Wingels, and Jarret Stoll shot right away to even the game at 1-1 at 4:48. Drew Doughty also assisted on the play.

The Kings’ Marian Gaborik then single-handedly intercepted one of the passes on his teams’ side and turned it into a 3 on 2 man advantage and goal at 7:59 for the 2-1 lead.

It was short-lived though. Marleau fished the puck out from alongside the boards and passed it to Jason Demers near the blue line. Demers then aimed at the net and Long Beach native Matt Nieto tipped in the puck, to even the game back up at two at 9:17. It was Nieto’s first career playoff goal.

Los Angeles got their fourth power play when James Sheppard was called for tripping. San Jose put the puck over the glass again, but the referees did not make the call.

The other half of Sheppard’s power play continued in the third. Seven seconds before it expired, Jeff Carter had a tip-in from Anze Kopitar and Doughty.

It took more than two power play opportunities following that goal, but three seconds after the second one at 9:17, Sharks’ rookie Tomas Hertl put the loose puck in, persisting several times after it went off goalie Jonathan Quick. Overall in the period, San Jose outshot the Kings 23-8. Hertl was aided by Wingels and Marc-Edouard Vlasic.

The Kings’ head coach Darryl Sutter said, “It’s a tough field, and we won’t go away quietly.”

Game notes: The Sharks go for the sweep at Staples Thursday at 7:30pm.