San Jose Sharks Seek Second Straight Victory

By Bradley Phillipps |

With the way the San Jose Sharks are playing, they will look to shake out of their funk against the Buffalo Sabres. Based on our opponent’s record the last two seasons, it looks like the Sharks will gain an easy win on their way to a successful road trip. Wait, did I just say the Sharks will bust their slump against the Sabres?

I forgot to mention the part where the Sharks never play well against the Sabres. In fact, San Jose has recorded just one victory against the Sabres in Buffalo with that lone win coming back in 2005. The Sabres have won eight straight against the Sharks so maybe this won’t be a walk-in-the-park for the boys in teal.

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Based on their recent performance, I hope Peter DeBoer has this team ready to play. If the Sharks can out-possess and beat an improved Sabres team, they will be on their way to making this season a positive one. That is because the Sabres will bring a lot more firepower than last year, and they’re playing with a ton of confidence as they look to inch above the .500 mark for the first time since 2013.

Over the offseason, they added four top-six forwards in Ryan O’Reilly, Evander Kane (injured), Jack Eichel and Sam Reinhart so their forward depth is much improved. But with another year of Rasmus Ristolainen on defense, him and Cody Franson will also limit the scoring chances the Sharks create tonight.

However, if the Sharks repeat their mediocre performance against the Detroit Red Wings last night, the Sabres are the perfect opponent for that. Ever since Robin Lehner‘s injury on opening night, the starting goalie for tonight’s opponent has been Chad Johnson. The Sharks can hope to get a couple of lucky bounces against a goalie with a .896 save percentage this season.

But given that Alex Stalock will start this second-half of their back-to-back, the Sharks shouldn’t be confident in their goaltending either. So don’t be surprised if this game turns into a high scoring affair.

Despite all of these factors, I think the most interesting matchup tonight will be on special teams. I don’t have to explain the Sharks’ struggles on the power-play as by now everyone is aware. But when facing a team with a bottom-five penalty-kill unit, I’ll be intrigued to see if the Sharks can establish the power-play tonight.

No matter what happens, I hope the Sharks play better than they did last night. Martin Jones was one of the few reasons they won and he won’t (or shouldn’t) be playing tonight. Getting out-shot the way they did won’t inspire many fans so lets hope for a better effort tonight.

Team Stats (at even-strength)

Buffalo Sabres/San Jose Sharks

Goals For/60: 1.57/2.24

Goals Against/60: 2.32/1.99

Shots For/60: 30.2/28.3

Shots Against/60: 27.1/24.3

Fenwick For %: 49.7%/52.4%

Corsi For %: 50.6%/50.3%

PDO: 96.6/99.7

Lines:

Sabres

Moulson-O’Reilly-Gionta

McGinn-Eichel-Ennis

Larsson-Girgensons-Reinhart

Deslauriers-Legwand-Foligno

Gorges-Ristolainen

McCabe-Pysyk

Weber-Franson

Johnson

Next: Sharks Eek Out Victory Over The Red Wings

Sharks

Karlsson-Thornton-Pavelski

Goldobin-Marleau-Ward

Donskoi-Hertl-Wingels

Nieto-Tierney-Brown

Vlasic-Braun

Martin-Burns

Dillon-Tennyson

Stalock

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