San Jose Sharks Struggle to Beat Basement Colorado Avalanche
By MJ Kasprzak
The San Jose Sharks struggle against another backup goalie and subpar team Saturday, Jan. 21. Hence, they allowed the cellar-dwelling Colorado Avalanche to escape SAP Center with a point.
The record over the past few years is undeniable—the San Jose Sharks struggle against inferior competition. The Colorado Avalanche certainly qualified and were visiting SAP Center Saturday, Jan. 21. They battle again Monday night in Denver in their only other contest of the 2016-17 NHL season.
Worse yet, Colorado started Spencer Martin for the first time in his NHL career. San Jose has especially struggled against goalies that are not established starters. Numerous have now held its offense to two or fewer regulation goals: Kevin Kinkaid, Joni Ortio, Jacob Markstrom, Al Montoya, Connor Hellebuyck, Darcy Kuemper, Karri Ramo, Louis Domingue and Steve Mason—once alone and once with the help of Anthony Stolarz.
Moreover, plenty of marginal starters have held this team below three goals. Jake Allen has done it twice this year while proving to every other team he is not starter material. Thomas Griess did it twice this season and once last. Cam Ward found the 2006 time machine for a 1-0 win in November.
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The difference this time is the Avalanche lack so much talent as to need Matt Nieto on a scoring line. His 70 points over 221 games led to the Sharks waiving him Jan. 5. He has just a goal and assist in six games with his new team.
Despite this imbalance of talent, the teams stood tied at the end of regulation. Colorado earned a point for just the third time in its last 19 games. (Its other two overtime games were wins.)
Were it not for a great Brent Burns defensive play about seven minutes into the game, San Jose may have lost in regulation. He scooped the puck out of the net as it was crossing the line.
Numbers
In fact, the event summary shows the Sharks lost almost every statistic. They were two in the red on possessions (33-25 faceoffs but 26-15 giveaways with just a 9-8 edge in takeaways). They were outhit 13-29, outshot 30-33, out-attempted 59-64 and out-blocked 20-21.
On an individual level, Marc-Edouard Vlasic had six giveaways but four blocks. Chris Tierney and Joe Thornton both won seven of nine faceoffs. Andreas Martinson had seven hits and three blocks for the Avalanche in 10:41 ice time.
However, San Jose won the statistic that matters. Scoring first and last is a good formula for winning.
The Sharks got their power play underway with the first score 5:36 into the game. Thornton came out from behind the net and pushed the puck across the crease. Joel Ward finished it off at point-blank range.
San Jose’s only full-strength goal came from the fourth line. Ryan Carpenter made another great play. After taking possession of a Cody Goloubef giveaway, he fired the puck toward the net. Melker Karlsson deflected it home to regain the lead with 4:59 left in the second.
That was about the only bad play from Goloubef’s line. He registered six shots on goal while line-mate Nathan MacKinnon had seven. Both had assists on the only Mikhail Grigorenko shot 10:30 into the second.
That line was also on the ice for the tying Francois Beauchemin goal with 9:36 left in the game. The Sharks held on until David Schlemko danced a Logan Couture rebound past Martin 1:18 into overtime.