Tag: Joe Thornton

Back Where They Belong: Unchange the Sharks

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(Ed Szczepanski-USA TODAY Sports)
(Ed Szczepanski-USA TODAY Sports)

By Mary Walsh

At the first intermission during the Sharks game Saturday, Jamie Baker said the Sharks seem to be missing something, possibly their mojo. If the Sharks have lost their mojo, it might be buried in Todd McLellan’s higgledy-piggledy line adjustments. It could be time to unchange all those lines.

Or maybe they found their mojo Saturday, in the process of being outshot 46-39 by the Dallas Stars, who average 31.6 shots a game. Maybe the Sharks found their mojo and that is how they survived going down by two goals, made it to a shootout and won 3-2. They won. That is important. But if a 4-2 victory in Toronto foretold of a losing streak to come, it isn’t likely that the Sharks will rest on those Dallas shootout laurels.

The Sharks started the season outstandingly well. To get back to that could be impossible, but to get back to winning more than losing is a reasonable goal. The key is to put the pieces back where they belong and leave them there for at least as long as they have been out of place. That would be nine games or so.

The Sharks’ coaching staff spent a lot of time thinking up forward lines during the off-season and training camp. The lines they started with might have some merit, even if you account for the insertion of players who came and went due to injury. During the ten game experiment the team just completed, only the Hertl-Thornton-Burns and Couture-Marleau connections lasted.

Those were dismantled Saturday against Dallas, beyond replacing the injured Hertl. John McCarthy took Pavelski’s spot as third line center, Pavelski moved to a new line with Thornton and Marleau, and Burns to Couture’s line with Havlat.

Putting McCarthy at center is not wrong per se. He played there in college and also in the AHL. But he’s been in San Jose for most of this season, playing wing. Maybe tossing him back to the middle isn’t the best way to stabilize the team.

When the Sharks started this rough patch after Toronto, San Jose started making line adjustments. Eventually, they made every line adjustment there was to make, until finally Martin Havlat was skating on a fourth line with Andrew Desjardins. The experiment may have provided some as yet unseen benefit to the team, but it certainly didn’t generate many wins.

Obviously, the inquiry into whether or not a pass can connect between Havlat and Desjardins was answered with an unequivocal “no.” But what about all those other adjustments? What about moving Pavelski to the wing? Pavelski is a perfectly capable winger, but moving him away from center punched a hole in one of the team’s most coveted qualities: daunting depth through center.

The decision to sit Tyler Kennedy for a game, then put him back in on the fourth line looked a lot like the path Havlat followed back to the second line. It’s all well and good to make a player watch a game to sort things out, then have him come back in with limited ice time.

Except it really isn’t well and good. Using the fourth line as a gateway back into the game can thoroughly handicap the fourth line if said player is not accustomed to fourth line duty. It’s hard enough for the energy line to do its job with limited ice time and the continuous changing of their membership.

When the rotation included McCarthy, Sheppard and Brown as wingers for Desjardins, at least it was just those four. They could get a feel for each other. Tossing Havlat and Kennedy in there didn’t do them any favors. They have to work fast and hard, they’re not a rehab service for top niners.

It wasn’t ideal for the top niners either. Martin Havlat, before Thursday’s game, was preparing to skate on a line with Couture and Marleau, the third line he’d played on in as many games. Despite playing all over the lineup, did Havlat think his game was becoming more consistent or not?

Not, but like you said, I’ve been all over the place. So we’ll see. I played with these guys half of the year last year at the end and it was great. So we’ll see how it is.

It went pretty well, better than other lines that night. It was the only line to score a goal and finish without a minus by their names. Tyler Kennedy was the only other skater without a minus.

Whether he sees it or not, Havlat’s game has been getting stronger. It may be taking longer than it would if he’d been left consistently with the same line-mates. While his game has suffered along with the team’s, he has at least maintained some defensive equilibrium. McLellan commented on that after the win in St. Louis last Tuesday:

When we look at Marty, I think since he’s been back in the lineup, he’s only been a minus player three nights. That’s pretty darn good. There’s not a lot of other guys that are in that situation. Would we like more offense from him? I think it’s coming.

Havlat isn’t the only player who might profit from a consistent line configuration. Kennedy did better than Havlat on the fourth line. He even got an assist in his second game there. Maybe all he needed was a little more time with his new linemates, a second game?

In Los Angeles, it looked like McLellan was ready to put the old bands back together, with Havlat and Marleau flanking Couture, and Pavelski back at center with Wingels and Sheppard. When Hertl went down, emergency changes had to be made, but otherwise the team was taking a familiar shape again.

Those lines did not win that game, but wins have been scarce for the kaleidoscope of line formations before and since. Those won three of eight games. Perhaps if McLellan gives the old lines a chance to find their footing again the team can reverse this losing trend.

Sharks Lose to Kings 4-1, Hertl Injured

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By Mary Walsh

LOS ANGELES- It appears that the Visitor’s Curse still haunts the San Jose Sharks at Staples Center. The mischievous spirit might even be getting more violent. Thursday night, the Sharks lost to the Kings by a score of 4-1. They also lost star forward and rookie Tomas Hertl to a knee-on-knee hit from LA’s Dustin Brown. How long the team will be without Hertl is not yet clear.

The fact that the Kings won was not at all out of the ordinary for these teams, the home team has won going back 15 games now. What was unusual was the score: 4-1. It has been some time since a game between these two ended with such a lopsided result. Patrick Marleau, playing his 1200th NHL game, scored the only Sharks goal.

McLellan made a couple of lineup changes for Thursday’s game, including moving Martin Havlat to the second line with Logan Couture and Patrick Marleau. He put Scott Hannan back in, paired with Brad Stuart. He also put Tyler Kennedy in, on the fourth line with Mike Brown and Andrew Desjardins.

The first penalty of the game went to the Kings at 3:25, to Drew Doughty for holding. The Sharks had several good chances, a couple that looked like dead certainties (one for Couture, another for Irwin) but they missed. The Kings had a good short-handed chance late in the penalty but Niemi gloved it.

The Sharks lost a lot of races to the Kings in the first period. Dump-ins were about as effective as turnovers. As a result, the Sharks were outshot through most of the period, though by the end of it they were only behind 13-11.

With a minute left in the period, the Kings’ Dustin Brown collided with Tomas Hertl just inside the Sharks’ zone. The knee-on-knee hit earned him a five minute major. Hertl left the ice hobbling. During the ensuing delayed penalty, Brent Burns earned a penalty for interference. The teams finished the period playing 4-on-4. James Sheppard was tapped to fill in for Tomas Hertl on the Thornton line.

The second period started with the teams still at 4-on-4, and when Burns’ penalty expired the Sharks still had over 2:30 left on the man advantage. The Sharks finally found a way to sustain pressure, but two good chances in close and an Irwin shot off the post were all the Sharks had to show for the power play.

The Kings’ goaltender Martin Jones was very good, but the Sharks were unable to take advantage of the second chances they did create. As McLellan said before the game, how well Jones has played was not the Sharks’ biggest challenge:

I think for our group it’s more about preparing to face six players rather than one goaltender. The five others that are on the ice do a tremendous job for them defensively and they position themselves well around the net, it allows the goaltender to feel comfortable and make a lot of saves. They’ve been successful playing that way. It’s not just the guy wearing the pads, it’s the other five that you’ve got to beat as well.

The first goal of the game came at 5:26 of the second, scored from above the left circle by the Kings’ Alec Martinez, with an assist to Tyler Toffoli. The goal came from a shot made possible when the Sharks failed to clear the puck or control it despite several tries. At least three, maybe four Sharks touched it in the defensive zone before Martinez got it.

Joe Thornton was called for holding against Anze Kopitar at 9:03. Despite starting in their own zone, the Sharks’ penalty killers (including Mike Brown now) cleared the puck five times and even got a couple of short-handed shots off. As soon as the power play expired, however, Slava Voynov made a clean pass from the Kings’ zone, right onto Tyler Toffoli’s stick at the Sharks’ blue line. He skated in and put a shot in the far corner to give the Kings a 2-0 lead.

An impressive series of saves by Martin Jones was punctuated by three inexplicably failed shots from Sharks Joe Pavelski and Tommy Wingels. Wingels even tried from both sides of the net, and he almost poked it in behind Jones but the rookie goaltender twisted around and stopped it with his glove.

During the second period, the teams were even in shots at ten, with total shots being 23-20 for the Kings. Of course, the 2-0 score was more significant, especially since the Kings had not lost when leading after the second since March 30.

Instead of challenging that pattern, the Sharks gave up another goal 36 seconds into the third period. Jeff Carter was given far too much time in the Sharks’ zone, and an ill-advised slide to block a shot left Niemi alone with one of the better shots in the league. Assists went to Dwight King and Robyn Regehr.

The Sharks drew another penalty when Jake Muzzin pushed Martin Havlat into the boards from behind. From camera distance, Havlat didn’t appear injured but he was certainly shoved from behind. He was out playing a shift later on the second power play unit.

The Kings killed the penalty off, and then they scored again. This time it was Dwight King’s goal, with the assists going to Carter and Regehr.

The Sharks got another chance on the power play when Mike Richards went to the box for high-sticking at 6:37. As soon as the penalty expired, the Kings went the other way 3 on 2, but didn’t score.

With just over two minutes left in the game, San Jose’s second line made it in to the Kings’ zone and Marleau scored his 16th of the season. A lone assist went to Martin Havlat.

The final shot count was preposterously even at 32 for each team. The Sharks’ power play went 0-4, their penalty kill was 1-0.

The Sharks play their next game at home on Saturday against the Dallas Stars. Puck drop at 7:30 pm.

Sharks Beat the Blues, Again

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sharks-blues-20111210-blog2

By Mary Walsh

SAN JOSE-Friday afternoon, the San Jose Sharks defeated the St. Louis Blues, scoring six goals against them for the second time this season. Four of those came in the first period, during which time the Blues went scoreless and only registered two shots on goal. The Blues’ game picked up after that, but that first period gave the Sharks a lead too great for St. Louis to overcome. The final score was 6-3, with three goals for the Sharks coming from Brent Burns, and one each from Tommy Wingels, Joe Thornton and Tomas Hertl. The Blues’ goals were scored by Ian Cole, David Backes and Jaden Schwartz. The Sharks outshot the Blues 32-24.

Is scoring six goals against St. Louis likely to become a pattern? Tommy Wingels addressed that and some possible reasons for the Sharks’ success against the Blues this season:

I think our game is simplified when we play a team like that, … making the easy play. We know that they’re aggressive and if you don’t, we’re probably going to be hemmed in our zone… are we going to score that many goals against them every time? I doubt it. Other games might be 1-0, 3-2 games but we’ll take the goals as they come.

The Blues started Friday’s game with a blind spot that their starting goaltender Brian Elliott could not make up for. Through the first period, the Blues treated the space between the inside of the right face-off dot and the slot like dark territory. Three Sharks scored from that space: Joe Thornton, Brent Burns and Tommy Wingels. Joe Pavelski took a shot from there as well, but Elliott grabbed it.

Two first period goals were scored by Burns. The ex-defenseman went on to score again in the third period, for his first career hat trick. Burns might seem to be back to 100% since returning from injury, but he thinks there is more improvement to come:

Hopefully the legs are going to keep getting better… I feel like I stayed in really good shape but gym shape and game shape [are] different, so I think it’s going to get better every game. I’m hoping to feel better than… today was a little weird with Thanksgiving yesterday, a lot of food, and then no skate in the morning. I think it’s going to keep getting better and better.

Sharks Head Coach Todd McLellan was very pleased with the start.

A hell of a period. Really happy with it, excited about going out and playing the next, a really good start.

Nevertheless, the Sharks had to be prepared for the Blues to push back, as they did:

They’re a first place club for a reason. They’re not going away, they weren’t happy obviously with their first. They came back and played their game and that’s the type of team you’ve got to play against for the last forty minutes.

The Sharks started the game fast and furious, going right to the Blues net. After 25 seconds in the Blues’ zone, Brent Burns put the Sharks up 1-0.

The Blues’ Kevin Shattenkirk went to the box for interference 2:06 into the first. A shot from Couture bounced off of Brian Elliott. Pavelski picked up the rebound and back-handed it to Joe Thornton, who did not wait to shoot it. 

With the score 2-0 Sharks, after four minutes of play, the Blues still did not have a shot on goal. Their first came in the next minute, but it was clear that the Sharks had come ready for the top-ranked opponent.

The Blues did not score with that shot, and did not get credit for another shot until 6:40 into the period, when they also took another penalty. Patrick Berglund was called for cross-checking Martin Havlat. Eight seconds later, Logan Couture went to the box for hooking Roman Polak, so the Sharks’ second power play was neutralized.

No matter. Shortly after the penalties expired, the Sharks made another fast rush through the neutral zone, and Burns scored his second from the slot off a pass from Thornton. The second assist went to Tomas Hertl.

Blues Head Coach Ken Hitchcock called a time out. When that was over, the Sharks went right back on the attack.

Wingels got on the board at 11:27 of the first, putting the Sharks up 4-0. The shot count now stood at 11-2. Assists went to Couture and Justin Braun.

With 5:08 left in the period, Patrick Marleau was called for tripping Alexander Steen, giving the Blues their first full power play of the game. They did not register a shot through the power play, though one shot rang loudly off the outside of Niemi’s post.

The Blues started the second with more composure and a new goaltender as Jaroslav Halak replaced Elliott. The Blues had a good early chance in front of Niemi, and the Sharks’ goaltender had to be sharp, stretching out a toe to stop a shot from T.J. Oshie. It took the Blues a little under six minutes to triple their shot count.

By then, it was time for another penalty. David Backes took it, two of them: a cross-checking minor and a ten minute misconduct. The Sharks’ power play did not score, though Couture had a good chance off a Thornton pass.

With nine seconds left in that power play, Pavelski was called for interference. The Blues’ power play started to show some of its mettle, with the Blues holding the zone fairly well and getting a couple of shots off.

As the power play wound down, the Sharks had a short-handed chance but that ended when Havlat was called for high-sticking Alec Pietrangelo. The Sharks would have had to kill back to back penalties. Instead, the Blues’ Derek Roy took an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty with 1:21 left in the Blues’ power play.

With the teams playing four on four, the Sharks had a couple of good chances before the Blues went the other way and Ian Cole shot the puck in to make it 4-1.

The Sharks took another penalty at 17:23, when Dan Boyle was called for holding Vladimir Tarasenko. As that penalty expired, Niemi made a beautiful glove save on a shot from the blue line, despite being screened by numerous players. That puck had been going right where the first Blues’ goal got by him.

By the end of the second, the shots for the period were even at 12 apiece. The total count was still 24-14 Sharks.

The Sharks started the third period with an early penalty, to Brad Stuart for tripping Tarasenko. It took the Blues over a minute and 20 seconds, but their power play finally produced, closing the gap to two goals. The goal was scored by David Backes, with assists going to Derek Roy and Alexander Steen.

That goal woke the Sharks up. They made themselves comfortable in the Blues’ zone for a couple of shifts after the goal, but the Blues were not backing down. The teams traded chances and both goalies were busy for a few minutes before T.J. Oshie took an interference penalty at 5:19. This gave the Sharks their fifth power play of the game, and possibly their least impressive. They didn’t score and spent too much time trying to get set up. The Blues’ penalty kill made it nearly impossible with timely clears and extended board battles.

The Blues followed up that penalty kill with some very tough play in the Sharks’ zone. Brad Stuart was pushed into the boards but it went uncalled. After a couple more players were knocked to the ice, Niemi covered the puck as it sat on the outside of the net. Tensions boiled over behind the net but the referees quieted the scrum without assigning any penalties.

At 9:26, they did call Boyle for high-sticking. Sharks blocked shots relentlessly, and managed three good clears, including a solid kick of the puck from Stuart. With several line changes and a timely stop by Niemi, the Sharks’ penalty killers stayed fresh until the Blues’ power play was neutralized with a holding call to Kevin Shattenkirk. With just seven seconds left before the Sharks’ power play would start, Vladimir Sobotka skated into the sharks’ zone, two-on-one with Jaden Schwartz. Sobotka passed and Schwartz scored, making it a one-goal game at 11:19. The second assist went to Roman Polak.

Seconds later, as the Sharks’ power play was just getting under way, Burns skated down the left side with the puck, evaded the Blues’ defenders and threw the puck at the net from the left faceoff circle. With Pavelski in front of the net, Burns’ shot went by Halak on the far side, giving the ex-defenseman his first NHL hat trick. That also restored the Sharks’ two-goal lead.

With just 3:54 left in the game, the Blues took a defensive zone tripping call on Shattenkirk.

That power play didn’t pay off for the Sharks. The Blues pulled their goaltender. With under 50 seconds left, Tomas Hertl extended the Sharks lead to 6-3, with assists on the empty netter going to Burns and Thornton.

The Sharks’ scratches were James Sheppard, John McCarthy and Jason Demers. That left room for both Mike Brown and Matt Pelech on the fourth line, and Matt Irwin on the blue line.

Sharks Short Lightning 5-1

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By Mary Walsh

SAN JOSE- Thursday night, San Jose defeated Tampa Bay 5-1, but it was not the way a 5-1 game usually looks. Sharks goaltender Antti Niemi had to make a lot of good saves and some very tough ones. Four Sharks scored, with two goals coming from Tommy Wingels, and one each from Brad Stuart, Brent Burns and Patrick Marleau. Despite the team having many good chances, the only Lighting player to score was Tyler Johnson.

The big news of the night was that Brent Burns was back in the game for San Jose. His  line did have their moments, but they were not as dangerous as they had been earlier in the season. Head Coach Todd McLellan didn’t sound too worried about them:

Burnzie’s line with Jumbo and Thomas, it’ll take some time to get their legs going again, and feel each other out, but they’ll be back to where they’re supposed to be.

Before the game, the question was raised: would the Sharks be ready to compete, after two days off and just one practice since their last game? McLellan acknowledged that it was a gamble:

Now that we won, I’m glad that we took those days off. I still think there were a few guys that didn’t have their legs because of it. But we made it through the night and they’ll be better tomorrow. Hopefully by the time the New Jersey game rolls around everybody will be real fresh. You take the chance of overresting at times.

The Logan Couture line with Patrick Marleau and Tommy Wingels turned some heads, though hardly with surprise. They have been consistently productive players for the team. They were the most dangerous scoring threat of the night. After the game, McLellan said of that line and the Joe Pavelski, Martin Havlat, Tyler Kennedy line:

That whole line played very well, against their top players for most of the night. I also thought that Marty, Pav and TK had a really good night. Those three looked like they belong together and played well. So, good balance through those two lines.

A point of curiosity was how the Tampa Bay Lightning plays without Steven Stamkos. It turns out, they play a lot like they did with him. Obviously they could not replace his scoring touch, but they did prevent the Sharks from sustaining extended zone time. The shot clock reflected a game of traded chances, ending 37-36. That is very close except that in victory, the Sharks habitually outshoot their opponents by a sizeable margin.

The first four minutes of the game were uneventful except for one very good first shift from Logan Couture’s line that resulted in several shots but no points. They didn’t score until their next shift, when Tommy Wingels scored from the left faceoff circle. Assists went to his linemates, Couture and Patrick Marleau.

Eight minutes into the period, Tampa Bay asserted themselves in the Sharks’ zone after stripping the puck at the Sharks’ blue line. A couple of shots later, San Jose iced the puck to get out of trouble. The Sharks regained their composure when the fourth line of James Sheppard, Andrew Desjardins and Mike Brown drove play the other way. They held the offensive zone for San Jose until the next whistle.

At 14:43, Tommy Wingels was called for tripping Valteri Filppula. The Lightning had a good long spell with six skaters before Wingels finally cleared the puck. That was enough for the referee to blow play dead.

The penalty kill unit was Hannan, Marleau, Pavelski and Brad Stuart. Tampa Bay’s power play was not easy to chase off. In fact, the Sharks skaters did not get a chance at a shift change for the full two minutes. Tampa Bay managed several shots, but it brought to mind the old saying: if they didn’t have bad luck they would have no luck at all.

The beleaguered but successful penalty killers seemed to inspire the Sharks because they finally sustained an attack. Stuart came back out, recovered from his penalty killing marathon. The puck came to him above the faceoff circle and he slapped it past Tampa Bay’s goaltender Anders Lindback.

With 51.9 left in the first, Victor Hedman went to the box for holding Marleau. The Sharks didn’t dawdle this time, but Tampa Bay still managed a short handed rush, this time it was Nate Thompson and Tyler Johnson. The Sharks pushed back and got one shot off before the period ended.

The period ended with the Sharks leading 2-0 on the scoreboard and 18-12 in shots.

The Sharks started the second period on the power play. With Thornton, Couture, Marleau, Pavelski and Boyle on the ice, Lindback stopped two shots before the power play expired. Havlat came out on a line with Kennedy and Desjardins. The makeshift line was quickly trapped in their own zone. The second line came out for a defensive zone draw and managed two rushes up ice before going off, but without being able to do much more than one and done shots. The top line of Thornton, Burns and Hertl had no more success. Tampa Bay was very attentive to their defensive duties. Niemi had to be sharp, though Tampa Bay rarely got more than one shot on net in a stretch.

Once they had some distance from the penalties, McLellan reverted to his starting lines.

About seven minutes in to the second period, Scott Hannan just missed with a hard one-timer from the half boards. The puck landed square on his stick off a beautiful backhand pass from Havlat. That was followed by a good chance to jam it home for Kennedy. The Sharks were finding a way to sustain the attack beyond one shift, but Lindback held on.

Another good shift from Couture’s line seemed about to fail when Patrick Marleau got the puck behind the net. He passed the puck past a Lightning defenseman, right to Tommy Wingels in front of the net. Wingels’ second of the game put the Sharks up 3-0.

Tampa Bay outshot the Sharks in the second period, 12-9 but had yet to make one of those shots count for a goal.

The third period opened with the Couture line on the ice. Both that line and the Thornton line that followed spent most of their shifts defending, until the end of the top line’s shift when they did get a draw in the offensive zone. The Pavelski line after them managed extended time in the zone but not many shots.

At 4:23, the top line finally got their point. A shot from Scott Hannan above the faceoff circle was deflected in by Brent Burns. Assists went to Thornton and Hannan.

Seconds later (19 to be exact), Patrick Marleau skated in around a blue and white defender and back-handed it over the goalie for the Sharks’ fifth goal. Assists went to Logan Couture and Justin Braun.

The Tampa Bay Lightning finally got on the board with a breakaway shot from Tyler Johnson at 7:39. Assists went to Ondrej Palat and Richard Panik. Niemi had been very sharp up until then, and he had to be. The Sharks had allowed too many shots for comfort.

Tampa Bay, with nothing left to lose, pushed hard. The Sharks, with as much motivation as a team with a four-goal lead can have, had trouble getting through the neutral zone and their infrequent forays into the offensive zone did not last long.

The final shot count was 37-36 Tampa Bay, but the count that mattered read 5-1 San Jose.

The Sharks’ scratches were Matt Irwin, John McCarthy and Matt Nieto.

The Sharks next play Saturday at 7:30 at SAP Center in San Jose, against the New Jersey Devils.

Sharks Sweep The West, Beat Edmonton 3-1

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By Kahlil Najar

EDMONTON — The San Jose Sharks beat the Edmonton Oilers 3-1 on Friday night and completed their first sweep of Western Canada in franchise history. Joe Pavelski, Tomas Hertl and Patrick Marleau all scored with help from veteran Joe Thornton contributing on each goal. San Jose Shark goalie Alex Stalock stopped 30 of 31 shots on goal and brought his record to 3-0-0.

“Coming off back-to-back nights, you want to get off to a good start, and we were able to do that with two early ones,” Thornton said. “We just kind of rolled on after that. It is always nice to get a 2-0 lead like that when you are playing back-to-back.”

On his win, Stalock said, “Every game, you hope for a shutout. Of course that would be awesome, you look at why they haven’t scored goals lately, but they have unbelievable skill up front with their forwards. They are going to be a scary team when they start scoring goals. My biggest thing is to get the win and to give the team a chance to get two points every night.”

Pavelski got the Sharks on the board first when on a power-play Marleau smack a backhand shot on Dubnyk who was able to turn the puck away but Thorton was able to get in his way and leave Pavelski wide open to make it a 1-0 Sharks lead. Rookie phenom Thomas Hertl gave the Sharks a 2-0 lead when at 17:13 he took a pass from Thornton and got it past Dubnyk for his 12th goal of the season.

The Sharks made it a 3-0 game when after a Thornton interception of an Oilers pass in the Sharks zone led to a three on two and Marleau ended up with the puck and shot it past the Oilers goalie.

The Oilers Yakupov finally got Edmonton on the board at 12:48 of the second when he launched a bouncing puck at Stalock and was able to beat him stick side and make it a 3-1 game.

The Sharks finish off their road trip against the Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday.

Sharks Lose to Jets in Shootout, Losing Streak at 5

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By Mary Walsh

The San Jose Sharks started a five game road trip with a 5-4 shootout loss to the Winnipeg Jets. Sharks Head Coach Todd McLellan summed up the good and the bad of Sunday’s game:

That was much better. Not everybody that watched tonight’s game got to see what we did against Vancouver, which was poor. So we made strides as far as competitiveness, I still don’t think we were at our best. Thought we looked slow, especially to retrieve pucks. They’re a very quick team and they exposed some of our speed issues in certain areas that we have to get better. The goals they scored, we’d sure like to have a couple of them back but full marks to them.

The Sharks will need to polish their shootout skills. Unlike last season, when they had exceptional results in shootouts, now they have scored only three times in five shootouts, and won only once. McLellan acknowledged this in the post game interview:

We practice it probably too much now. We created a whole bunch of different situations in practice, we’ve gone through different guys, they’ve got to score. There isn’t magic, you’ve got to beat the goaltender. Right now there’s too much pressure on Niemi in a shootout to be perfect. I don’t know what we are now, we’ve tried different guys, the only one who’s scored this year is [Couture.] So we’ve got to find a way.

With a shortage of shootout specialists since the Spring purge of 2013, San Jose will need a few more shooters to come forward.

Seven times this season, the Sharks have scored in the first two minutes of the game. They did not do so Sunday in Winnipeg. Instead, the Sharks took a penalty. While Sharks defenseman Scott Hannan sat in the box for high-sticking Devin Setoguchi, the Sharks’ penalty kill went to work against the 29th ranked power play in the NHL. Penalty killed off, the Jets continued to attack. The Sharks didn’t have a shot on goal until six minutes had elapsed in the period. By the 13 minute mark, the Jets had outshot the Sharks 10-2.

Moments later, Jets Captain Andrew Ladd went to the box for tripping Sharks’ defenseman Dan Boyle. It took Boyle 14 seconds to score with a blast from the slot. During a CSN intermission interview, Boyle credited Joe Pavelski with clearing the lane for him, while Logan Couture and Patrick Marleau got in front of Jets goaltender Ondrej Pavelec.

The audience went quiet. They stayed quiet as Tomas Hertl burst across the Jets blue line moments later. Jason Demers’ pass from the Sharks zone was perfectly timed to hit Hertl just shy of Jets territory. It was a great pass and a good shot, modest enough to offend no one while still scoring.

Jets Head Coach Claude Noel responded by calling a time out. He used it well. The Jets continued to lead the Sharks by a wide margin in shots and zone time. During the last minute of the period, Evander Kane went to the box for goaltender interference and put the Sharks back on the power play. The period ended with the Jets challenging short-handed.

The Sharks had a two goal lead but by every other measure, they were being out-played. By the end of the period, the shot count was 15-9 for Winnipeg.

The Sharks started the second period on the power play. The Sharks had a few good chances but did not score. The Jets went back to work, but the Sharks pushed back quickly, showing more confidence and accuracy with their passes, giving Pavelec more work.

The Jets caught a break when a Matt Irwin shot was blocked and then taken away by Matt Halischuk, who carried the puck in. Halischuk’s pass came late enough to look like he would shoot, and Frolik got by Dan Boyle to put the Jets on the board from the other side of the net.

The audience had barely finished cheering when Tommy Wingels responded with a quick shot over Pavelec’s shoulder. Braun cleared the puck off the boards and it hit Wingels just as he crossed the line. The Jets couldn’t stop him. The goal came 41 seconds after Frolik’s.

It took the Jets a minute and 20 seconds to answer with another goal, this one from Dustin Byfuglien (his first of the year) on the blue line. The Sharks left him briefly uncovered with a clear lane for his shot all the way to the net.

At 12:21, Devin Setoguchi earned a power play for the Jets, an intereference call on Hannan. The Jets’ power play didn’t tie the game for them, but five minutes later, a shot from Grant Clitsome bounced off Justin Braun and past Niemi’s glove to tie the game.

In the final second of the middle period, Dustin Byfuglien shot the puck over the glass for a delay of game penalty. The Sharks escaped the second without giving up the lead, and would start the third on the power play.

That power play was underwhelming. The second unit’s strategy through the neutral zone failed twice as they shot the puck in from the red line. Jets got to the puck first and sent it back out before all five Sharks were in the zone.

The Sharks had another chance at 3:19 when Halischuk went to the box for tripping Tyler Kennedy. San Jose’s first power play unit of Thornton, Marleau, Pavelski, Boyle, and Couture took 40 seconds to score.

Logan Couture, lurking by the side of the net, took a pass from Joe Thornton and sent the puck through his legs behind him, where Boyle found it and put it in the net. Had Boyle not succeeded, Joe Pavelski was nearby as well. It was a beautiful play.

At 11:05 of the third, a bizarre series of penalties cycled through a 5 on 4 SJ, to a 4 on 4, to a 4 on 3 WPG, back to 4 on 4 and to 5 on 4 SJ. The numbers changed so quickly, it didn’t seem to matter who had more men on the ice, the play went back and forth throughout the sequence.

The teams didn’t slow down once they were back at even strength. The back and forth play went down to the last minutes, when Todd McLellan used his time out. The Jets appeared to benefit more from the break than the Sharks did. They won the next faceoff in the offensive zone and Ladd tied the game two shots later.

Two minutes into overtime, Tommy Wingels was involved in his second discounted goal of the season. Wingels, positioned in front of goaltender Pavelec, lost the shoving match and ended up too close to Pavelec. The goal that followed seconds later was disallowed for goaltender interference. McLellan commented on the call after the game:

If you’re a Shark you’re questioning it, if you’re a Jet you agree with the call. It’s a discretionary call that occurs in a game. He was allowed to make the first save easily, it’s the second one, it’s the rebound and I don’t know who has the right to that ice, I don’t understand it. But we move on.

The Sharks were not penalized further on the play, and the game went to a shootout.

The Jets shot first, with Andrew Ladd shooting third for Winnipeg and scoring the shootout winner. He skated in and lifted the puck from what appeared to be an impossibly close angle. Niemi saved the first two shots from Blake Wheeler and Brian Little. The Sharks’ shooters were Logan Couture (save), Tommy Wingels (miss), and Dan Boyle (save).

Final shot count: 46-34 Winnipeg. The Sharks’ power play went 2-6, their penalty kill was 2-2.

Notes:

The scratches were Brad Stuart and John McCarthy. That put Matt Irwin in as Dan Boyle’s partner, and left Mike Brown on the fourth line.

The Sharks’ next game is Tuesday in Calgary at 6:00 pm PST.

Sharks lose heartbreaker in shootout

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By: Phillip Torres

November 2, 2013

SAN JOSE-The San Jose Sharks (10-1-3) were defeated by the Phoenix Coyotes (10-3-2) Saturday night at the SAP Center in a heartbreaking loss 3-2. The game was determined by shootout.

Phoenix started off very strong as they scored just 36 seconds into the game. The goal was scored by Antoine Vermette and assisted by Rob Klinkhammer and Mikkel Boedker. The Sharks had a chance to tie the game up after a Coyote penalty lead to a four minute power play for San Jose. San Jose could not convert on it and the Coyotes led 1-0 after the first period despite being outshot 16-7 by the Sharks.

Joe Pavelski put the Sharks on the board early in the second period as he scored his sixth goal of the season at 1:16. Dan Boyle gave the Sharks the 2-1 advantage shortly after with his second goal of the season on a power play. The goal was assisted by Joe Pavelski and Joe Thornton at 5:10 in the middle period.

The Coyotes tied the game at 2-2 midway through the period with a goal from Boedker. Derek Morris earned the assist on the game tying goal. With the score tied at two goals apiece going into the second intermission, the Sharks outshot the Coyotes 31-14.

The third period went scoreless resulting in a tie at the end of regulation, forcing an overtime period. Overtime also went scoreless and the game went into a shootout.

The Sharks lost the shootout 2-1 with Vermette scoring the clincher to give Phoenix the 3-2 victory.

The Sharks will be back on the ice on Tuesday as they will host the Buffalo Sabers. The puck will drop at 7:30 pm.

Larry Levitt on Sharks and Bulls hockey

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 by Larry Levitt

DALY CITY–The San Jose Sharks who opened up their first three games at SAP Arena and won all three there’s nothing like home cooking that makes a big difference. The team is well rounded they have strength throughout all four lines now. The fourth line is a little weaker than what I would have expected but surprisingly their coming through really strong probably the biggest surprise obviously is just analyzing the guys individually it looks like Joe Pavelski has taken his game to another level too.

Pavelski is one of those players that’s out on the ice a lot and does a lot of the little things that doesn’t get noticed by most people and it’s really exciting to see him have a good year. For Tomas Hertl scoring four goals on Tuesday night against the New York Rangers he doesn’t speak much English so maybe when the fans are yelling at him he doesn’t get too excited and doesn’t realized what he’s done or what he hasn’t done and he’s a 19 year old rookie.

Hertl is exciting the best part he puts the fun back into the game he’s always smiling and on the other hand you have to feel sorry for the Rangers they were playing on back to back nights coming from Los Angeles where they played the Kings the night before and it was a tough game. They really didn’t have their legs and were always slow to the puck and there have never been more pucks that have bounced the right way than that night.

Everytime the puck went off something it went right to a Shark and Joe Thornton got a lucky bounce it was a clearing pass it went off the end of a stick that was laying on the ice that was broken and went right to Thornton so he was able to pass it right up to Hertl and there was a goal. Every bounce seemed to go right for the Sharks that night to a Shark player.

The Rangers goalie Hendrick Lundquist was pulled from the game and sometimes when you pull the goalie to make a statement to your team because they’re not playing well and sometimes you pull the goalie because he’s not playing well. It was a combination of both but the team didn’t really support him at the beginning the Rangers did get the first goal of the game but it was on a five on three power play but after that they really didn’t support him. They were really slow to the puck and when they were shooting it and getting the puck they were trying to knock it off the boards and it would bounce right to the Sharks players.

The Sharks win that one 9-2 and played the Canucks on Thursday night and continue their winning streak now at 4-0 after winning their first road game in Vancouver.

San Francisco Bulls update: Bulls head coach Pat Curcio is quite a head coach and he’s really helped a lot of players and one of the players actually made it to the NHL playing for Toronto they see that Curcio has a lot of heart he’s put a lot into the team and therefore their going to try and benefit from that and make their career better for that reason.

The Bulls are an exciting club to watch in their first year they did very well they made the playoffs their expectations were set any lower. The thing is just keep that exciting brand of hockey going and keep it out in the neighborhood that their playing well and playing hard and the people who are really enjoying the sport will come watch them.

The longest part of travel for the Bulls are when they make their long trek to Alaska to play the Aces which they have on tap for the first week in April. The Bulls will miss the freezing ice and snow and the beginning of April will work for them. The players love to play the sport it’s just a matter of the travel and once your in the ice rink and skating it’s all just a game.

As far as the travel when your in a minor league set up like the ECHL your going to have the buses your going to have the long drives not as much luxury but that’s part of paying your dues to get in the Big Boy league.

The Bulls have a long eight game road trip to open up the season with the rodeo coming to the Cow Palace which takes precedence so they’ll melt the ice after these two pre season games at the Cow Palace. The Bulls will go on the road and sometimes being on the road forces a team together more and maybe be more solid of team players. There’s no where to hide when your own the road. Your so close to each other and that might be a benefit if they play their cards right they make it a benefit.

Larry Levitt does weekly commentary on San Francisco Bulls and San Jose Sharks hockey for Sportstalk Radio