The Sharks weekend in St Louis and Chicago needless to say did not go quite as they would have planned. A bitter 1-0 loss to St Louis Saturday Night was followed up with a 3-2 OT loss to the Blackhawks in Chicago Sunday. Defensively (outside of a lapse in the final 1:10 and OT vs Chicago) the Sharks played pretty well, however their inability to score goals particularly in power play situations has become somewhat of a disturbing trend. Not only are the Sharks not scoring in these situations with a man advantage, but the opposing team with a man down is clearly in some case simply outplaying them. If you are not scoring on your power plays, the opponent will start take more “liberties” and continue to do so until they see proof that your power play will execute. Going back to last Thursday night’s game against Dallas (with the Sharks winning 5-2), the Sharks had a 5 on 3 power play opportunity and did not even manage a single shot on goal. Now, you do have to give some credit to the other teams being able to successfully defend the Sharks power play and the goalies they are facing are top line net minders.
As for Sharks goalie Antti Niemi, he did everything he could do Saturday except pitch a shutout. Unfortunately, that’s what he would have had to do as 18 saves were not enough. Against the Blackhawks, he had stopped 27 shots before the final 1:10, again not good enough. It’s not necessarily his fault since he’s not getting a lot of goal support. So as of now the Sharks are in 8th place in the Western Conference Standings with a 15-10-2 mark and 32 points. The Sharks will try to change their luck Tuesday night in Denver against the Avalanche in the final game of this three game road trip, and the first game of a head to head set of games against the Avs. The good news for the Sharks, Tim Tebow doesn’t play of the Avs (otherwise all bets would be off here).
As for the weekend:
No Blues Clues – A 1-0 game in any sport leaves the victor feeling like the won and survived a battle, which is what St Louis did. Meanwhile the Sharks, who only gave up one goal late in the first period to Kevin Shattenkirk as the result of a 5 on 3 power play for the Blues, they were left to wonder about a “bounce here” or “a shot there.” This was made possible thanks to penalties to Michal Handzus and Justin Braun for hooking (Handzus at 17:35, and Braun at 19:02). At 19:34 (1 second before Handzus would be out of the penalty box), Shattenkirk drilled the puck past Niemi for what turned out to be the game winner. The entire game would be a witness to the Sharks utter frustration which seems to best sum up this season to date. The Sharks had 6 power play opportunities in the game, and if they convert just one they at least have OT and guarantee themselves a point in the standings (and who knows what would have happened either in the OT or a shootout). If they convert two of the six, that’s two points in the standings and a good win. However, Brian Elliot (who is now 11-2-0) was going to have none of that and slammed the door on the Sharks, who now have been shutout four times this season.
Chelsea Dagger’d late – Sunday’s game was (for 58:50) a very though hard fought effort by the Sharks. The Sharks controlled the first two periods of the game and with goals from Jamie McGinn and Justin Braun led 2-1 after two periods. The Sharks were so dominent in the first two periods they actually had a 33-13 shot advantage thru 40 minutes of play. The only problem was that there was still 20 minutes left and Chicago played very despirate in the 3rd period and out shot the Sharks 16-3, with about 90% of the play being on the Sharks defensive side of the ice. Despite the despirate play of the Blackhawks, the Sharks were able to hold the fort. Then the Blackhawks called time out with 1:10 left and pulled goalie Ray Emery for the extra attack.
On the ensuing faceoff, Jonathan Toews was able to pass the puck to Duncan Keith, who in turn passed it over to a wide open Marian Hossa who drilled a slap shot. Niemi stopped the shot but could not gain control of the puck, which was subsequently tipped in by Andrew Brunett to tie the game. This sequence took all of four seconds. In the OT, the Sharks looked fairly gasses and it turned out only to be a matter of time before the other shoe dropped. Patrick Sharp was able to tip in another slap shot by Hossa in the extra period as Sharp basically shoved Brent Burns out of the way. The Sharks did at least get a point in the standings for their efforts here, but in the process let another game they should have been able to win slip away. The Sharks had only two power play opportunities in this game and were 0 for 2, and now are 1 for their last 28 overall.
Tough Sledding – The Sharks are clearly struggling much like they did last season in January. The have dropped six of their last eight, and had to go to a shootout to get one of those wins. I feel that defensively outside of the debakle against Florida Dec 3rd, they have been fine. The penalty kill was decent against the Blues outside of the 5 on 3 Blues goal, and good against Chicago as the Sharks turned away three Blackhawks power plays. A lot of this slide has to do with many of the players locked down in horrendus slumps that right now they just cannot seem to shake. As far as Coach Todd McLellan goes, he’s certainly NOT the problem. Coach McLellan has installed game plans that are very solid, but they require execution which by and large is just not happening. McLellan is as strong of a coach and hockey mind as their is in the business. He did not stay three years on Mike Babcocks staff for nothing. I’ve read some message boards that are critical of McLellan, but I can assure you he is not the problem, not even close. He IS the very coach I would want in this situation if I owned this team.
Right now, the Sharks need to shake their slumps like most of us have to shake bad colds or flus. There is no easy fix for these slumps. I 100% agreed with McLellan when he said after the second Phoenix game that it was all in the players heads. Most of these players outside of Burns and Havlet, and Niemi have played with each other for awhile now. The solution for these slumps have to come from within. They must play through it. Plus, keep in mind this is December. It is not March or April. Lets see if the Coyotes and the Blues of the world are still there at that time. If they are, all the credit in the world goes to them. The Sharks need not worry about an opponent because they should know their opponents. What the Sharks need to worry about is themselves, because much of this is truly up to them.
GO SHARKS, BEAT THE AVS!!!
The King Shark
PS: “Tweets of Teal? Are you kidding me?” Why…Yes, Virginia, their are ‘Tweets of Teal” too. Follow “Blades of Teal” on Twitter @bladesofteal….and ofcourse there is also Facebook too…