San Jose Sharks What To Watch For: The Clash with the Kings

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The San Jose Sharks are coming off a disheartening loss to the Ducks on Wednesday night. They dominated Anaheim on the stat sheet, but were inevitably blown out in their home opener. Look for the Sharks to bounce back against another one their division adversaries the Los Angeles Kings.

There are many unanswered questions remaining after the San Jose Sharks 5-2 loss against the Anaheim Ducks at the SAP center. October 3rd, 2018 marked the beginning of the Erik Karlsson era in San Jose. But their are still plenty of questions swirling around this new Sharks roster, expect the Sharks to continue to start slow as they the new roster configurations get more equated with one another on the ice.

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It was the San Jose Sharks first meaningful game together. They dominated on the stat sheet, and controlled play for much of the game. They only allowed Anaheim 15 SOG to their own 33. Shark’s goalie Martin Jones gave up some soft goals, but he also didn’t have much help from a penalty kill that ranked 2nd overall in the league last year.

Don’t be surprised if the Sharks have another slow start considering it will the Kings will be opening up their regular season as of Friday night.

The San Jose Sharks really struggled to convert scoring chances on Ducks goaltender John Gibson. The Sharks controlled much of the game flow, but the Ducks were able put some questionable pucks past Jonesy.

Using this Hockeyviz unblocked shot locator from Michael Blake McCurdy (@IneffectiveMath) one can see that the Sharks shot the puck from almost every angle but were only to translate two shots into goals.

The pairing of Marc-Eduoard Vlasic and Erik Karlsson seemed to be as good as advertised. According to Naturalstattrick the newly formed duo were outstanding. While they were one the ice together they maintained a nearly 68% corsi, produced 73% Scoring Chances For to Chances Against, and a scary 71% High Danger Corsi For.

That might seem like a bunch of random numbers, but it all manifests on the ice into some very exciting hockey. Peter DeBoer was not shy when deploying them against the Ducks best skaters. They did give up two goals against but one on the penalty kill and the other was a save that Jones probably should have made. Expect them to continue to impress as they formulate their chemistry throughout the season.

Overall the San Jose Sharks disappointed in their home opener. But their were plenty of positives to take from that performance, so let’s all take a few steps away from the panic button and take a deep breath.

The Kings are kicking off their regular season at Staples center against their biggest rival. LA is going to be electric tonight, so the Sharks are in store for another team looking to show the league what their all about.

According to Sharks reporter Paul Gackle the line combos are relatively the same as the end of last game.

I don’t think Pete DeBoer is entirely committed to any of the combinations. The Sharks were able to generate plenty of offense last game but were unable generate goals.

The San Jose Sharks are looking for a bounce back performance after a disheartening loss to the Anaheim Ducks. I’m sure the team has watched the tape and made their adjustments accordingly. It will be interesting to see how these alterations affect their game. There are few key things to watch for during tonight’s Pacific Division clash.

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