Following their six-game, 10-day road trip, the San Jose Sharks faced a fairly light schedule over the Thanksgiving holiday, playing just twice since they concluded their historic trip with a victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets last Sunday.
San Jose faltered against the Chicago Blackhawks by a 5-2 margin as the Blackhawks took the game to the Sharks from the get go. However, San Jose bounced back with a big 5-2 victory over the Calgary Flames which helped the Sharks keep pace at the top of the Pacific Division. Currently, San Jose sits in second place with a 14-9-0 record and 28 points.
The Los Angeles Kings continue to set the tone at the top of the division with 29 points, following contests against last season’s Stanley Cup finalists. The Kings dropped a shootout decision against the Tampa Bay Lightning, wrapping up their five-game road trip with a 2-2-1 record. Los Angeles returned home and defeated Chicago in overtime as the Kings stingy defense, first in the league in goals allowed (49) and second in goals allowed per game (2.13), continues to be the driving force behind this team.
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The upstart Arizona Coyotes continued their surprising season, rattling off three straight wins last week to pull within two points of the Kings. The Coyotes have been an exciting team to watch this year, led by Max Domi who leads Arizona in scoring with eight goals and 12 assists and a plus-eight rating. With Domi and fellow youngster Anthony Duclair, the Coyotes are tied with the Sharks for 10th in the league with 2.83 goals per game.
As mentioned in this post on a weekly basis, the Vancouver Canucks continue to be one of the most puzzling teams to figure out. Vancouver has an astounding seven overtime or shootout losses which is helping to cover up for a fairly mediocre team. The only truly elite portion of this team are the Sedin twins who have combined for 50 points through 25 games.
The Anaheim Ducks are in a much better place than they were at the beginning of the season, but they continue to struggle with consistency. The Ducks wrapped up a 1-1-1 week with a shutout over the Canucks last night. The biggest change for Anaheim is their star players have upped their games, led by Ryan Getzlaf who’s recorded nine assists in his past six games.
At the bottom, the Flames and Edmonton Oilers will likely battle it out for the cellar of this division all season long. Sharks fans got an up close and personal look at Calgary over the weekend and it’s pretty evident why they are where they are. When you have the worst defense and penalty kill in the league, it’s going to be pretty hard to win games in the NHL.
Next: San Jose Sharks Weekly Roundup
San Jose begins a big week of hockey tonight with a national TV broadcast against the Pittsburgh Penguins, before back-to-back games against two Stanley Cup contenders in the Ducks and Lightning this weekend.