Mike Yeo accuses San Jose Sharks of embellishing
Power play, after power play, after power play was the story for the San Jose Sharks in the majority of the game against the Minnesota Wild
Dec 12, 2013; San Jose, CA, USA; San Jose Sharks center Tomas Hertl (48) attempts a shot on goal against Minnesota Wild goalie Niklas Backstrom (32) and defenseman Marco Scandella (6) during the first period at SAP Center at San Jose. Mandatory Credit: Ed Szczepanski-USA TODAY Sports
on Thursday night. In only the first 12:47 of the game, the Sharks found themselves with the man-advantage four times. Understandably, Mike Yeo, the coach of the Minnesota Wild was ticked off but not at his own team’s 7 penalties, at the Sharks’ “embellishment.”
Here is what he had to say (quotes from David Pollak at Working The Corners):
"“It must be nice to draw penalties like that. The other team goes stick on puck and you just kind of hold your head. Make sure you look at the first penalty. Because to me, that’s embarrassing. I don’t know. I guess we’ve got to ask our players to embellish more.”“This is why I’m pissed off. Because our guys battled hard tonight. We didn’t do enough, there’s no question. We were obviously in the box too much and we didn’t finish well enough. The penalty kill we can’t — it doesn’t matter how many times they dive, we’ve got to make sure we kill them off – or embellish, I shouldn’t say just dive.”"
Although Yeo didn’t mention it, one of the ref’s calls was completely wrong when they assessed Wild’s Zenon Konopka a double-minor for high-sticking. Joe Pavelski ended up scoring his second power play goal of the night on the ensuing power play. Replays showed that it wasn’t Kenopka’s stick that hit Jason Demers, it was the Sharks’ Freddie Hamilton’s.
On the Sharks side of things, one thing is for certain, the power play looks like it is emerging out of it’s 4 for 39 slump. Pavelski had two power play goals, and Tomas Hertl scored his team-high fifteenth goal on another power play.
Oh yeah, and they didn’t blow a lead this time.
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