The slumping San Jose Sharks, 2-5-2 in their last nine games before Thursday Night did something they seemingly have not done for awhile. Down 4-2 with 13 minutes left in the third period, the Sharks got goals from Brent Burns, Joe Pavelski and Logan Couture within a 4 1/2 minute span, and held on late for a 5-4 win. The Sharks with the win moved their season record to 16-10-3 (35 points) and for the moment halted that usual queasy feeling that Sharks fans have been feeling since around December 3rd. I had the unique view of watching the game on Centre Ice while filling out Christmas Cards. The good news for me is that I finally didn’t need to take an Excedrin after the game for the first time in a week (but I had the bottle by my computer). As for the Sharks, this hopefully will be a spring board for this team as this game was the first a six gamer at the Tank in a homestand that will last literally to the end of the year.
Getting this first win was important for a lot of reasons. The Sharks will want to start stepping up their game a bit if they can all shake their collective slumps, and if they can it could not come at a better time. Edmonton comes into the Tank Saturday Night. This is also the late game of Saturday’s Hockey Night In Canada national broadcast. The Oilers are much improved over the last two years and look like a team that’s about a year or two away from getting into the top eight seedings if they do this thing right. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins leads the Oilers with 33 points (13 goals, 20 assists) and at age 18 looks like one of the stars of the future. Jordan Eberle, who just turned 21 this year has 32 points (11 goals, 21 assists). Meanwhile, veteran Ryan Smyth is enjoying his return to Edmonton with 12 goals while highly touted Taylor Hall has 9. In goal, another veteran Nikolai Khabibulin has a .933 save percentage in 19 games (10-6-3). The Sharks will have a lot of challeges as they are dealing with a team that is young, confident and fast.
Looking back at the Avs games:
The Lowdown in LoDo – Tuesday Night’s game in many ways had it’s peaks and valleys for the Sharks. The Sharks and Avs played a fairly even first period. So even that each team had 11 shots apiece. The only problem was the Avs’ 11th shot on goal. That was a laser shot by Stefan Elliott which beat Sharks goalie Antti Niemi top shelf to give Colorado a 1-0 with just :17 seconds left in the period. The Sharks now have before them the frustration of falling behind at the last few seconds and the Avs seemingly have all the momentun swung their way heading towards the 2nd period. The Sharks got an early break in the second period as the Avs Tj Galiardi drew a high sticking penalty, creating a power play opportunity for team teal. The Sharks had been 1 for last 28 power play opportunties, but that would change on Jamie McGinn’s goal with about :10 seconds left in the man advantage. The Sharks would take a one goal lead on Dan Boyle’s blast that he drilled past Avs netminder Semyon Varlamov with over six minutes left in the middle period.
In the third period the Sharks once again on their heels. The opportunistic Avs would take the lead and control of the game with goals from Daniel Winnik and Matt Duchene. Duchene’s goal came on a power play to give Colorado the lead. The Sharks actually had some good opportunities late in the period and started to mount a lot of pressure in the Avs defensive zone. As the Sharks pulled Niemi late, it looked like team teal was facing yet another regulation loss when the Sharks were able to get the puck in the Avs zone for one last rush. The puck must have gone thru a few Sharks and Avs players sticks before finding it’s way to L Couture, who then got a quick feed pass to his left where Patrick Marleau was. Marleau got his stick on the puck and was able to lift it over the outstretched leg pads of Varlamov to tie the game with just :22 left in regulation. However, after a scoreless OT, it was time for the shootout. Unfortunatly the Avs outscored the Sharks here 2-1 in five rounds, with the Avs’ Gabriel Landeskog scoring on his first ever shootout attempt. Not the result the Sharks wanted despite getting a point in the standings, but every point here counts. Anything can happen in a shootout.
Rocky Mountain Low & High – The Sharks returned home to host the Avs two nights later and early on things looked good when Rayne Clowe scored just 2:09 into the game. However, once again it would only be a short lived lead as once again the Avs would take advantage of the Sharks ailing penalty kill. Paul Stasny would tie the game slapping a wrister past Niemi. The remainder of the period saw both teams have some very good chances, however nobody buried those opportunities until once again the Sharks gave up a goal (abilet another penalty kill missed) as Ryan O’Riely gave the Avs the lead 2-1 with just :10 left in the period. The Avs outscored the Sharks 2-1 in the second period too. P Stasny & D Winnik scored to one better Michal Handzus’ goal which tied the game just moments into the period.
However, the Sharks facing a two goal deficite came out in the third period and started to slowly establish themselves before the three goal onslaught which catapulted the Sharks to the win. With 13 minutes left in regulation Brent Burns was able to gather his own rebound off of Varlamov and put it into the net. Just 89 seconds later, Joe Pavelski was able to gather his own rebound and put the puck into the net after taking a behind the net feed pass from Joe Thornton. Three minutes later L Couture tipped P Marleau’s shot into the Colorado net to take the lead. The Sharks after taking the lead continued to keep the pressure on and actually missed two chances for a sixth goal as D Boyle’s shot hit the post and R Clowe’s five hole wrister just missed crossing the goal line late. The Sharks finally had a solid third period effort which they were able to sustain and it was worth two points in the standings.
Time to be Boar Hunters – I saw a piece from Comcast Sports following a Raiders loss last week where former NFL’er Bill Romanowski gave this toughts that his former team needed to become boar hunters and not just bacon eaters. I am not implying here that the Sharks have been satisfied with being bacon eaters here, but Romanowski even in his off the wall thought process did have a point that I feel is applicable to the Sharks. If the Sharks are going to re-establish themselves as one of the NHL’s top teams once they all shake these slumps they are on, maybe they can use the Romanowski analogy and become the boar hunters instead. A boar hunter is tough, relentless, fast, has no fear and is all warrior when he needs to be. With the likes of Edmonton, Tampa Bay, and the returns of the L A Kings, Vancouver and the arch rival Anaheim Ducks on this homestand, if the Sharks want to have success here that will spring board them for the rest of the season and hopefully into the playoffs…Become Boar Hunters, and hunt your Bacon down. If the Sharks can do that, this early December glitch will be a thing of the past soon enough.
GO SHARKS
The King Shark
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