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

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.

Evander Kane

Evander Kane started off the regular season with a bang, he netted the first goal of the 2018 – 2019 campaign for the Sharks. He also had a breakaway chance in the 3rd frame that almost broke the game open.

Kane was the San Jose Sharks most effective skater, he was relentless while driving to the net and exhibited his strength in key puck battles along the boards. He drove play from the 3rd line and eventually got inserted in whenever the Sharks were able to create consistent  offensive zone pressure.

The Vancouver native led this Sharks team with 5 shots on goal. Kane seems to be picking up right where he left at the end of the regular season last year. At even-strength Kane can tilt the ice in the Sharks favor at any moment. His game breaking straight line speed and finishing ability stand out on a team that’s been lacking an elite scorers touch.

The underlying stats showed that the 3rd line dominated when they were out on the ice. But Peter DeBoer knew that this Sharks team needed to score desperately and eventually slotted Pavelski at third line center. Expect Suomela to start there again tonight, but don’t be surprised if the coach shuffles the lines in order to produce some goals.

Special Teams

The Sharks only scored one point on special teams in their regular season debut. That came off spectacular highlight reel short handed goal by Tomas Hertl. Although scoring a man down is always a positive sign, the Sharks woes on the power play continued against the Ducks. The Sharks went 0/3 with the man advantage, and were only able to generate 2 scoring chances.

During their first power play San Jose experimented with EK65 down on the right side boards, with Burns taking point where he is more comfortable. It failed to produce consistent zone pressure even with the extra space on the ice. Coach Pete DeBoer tried different configurations as the game went on but the team still wasn’t able to create scoring chances with consistency.

Luckily San Jose had a day off yesterday, which gave them time to practice their power play. We all shouldn’t worry too much about their lack of success so far. Special teams chemistry that gets better with time, and the addition of EK65 was a positive but big shake up for a team that has been playing together for so long.

The Mercury News Curtis Pashelka noted that the team was working out different power play units.

During yesterdays practice the coaching staff decided to take Joe Thornton of the power play unit and replace him with Hertl. Jumbo seemed a little sluggish during his first game back which is to be expected from someone coming off two knee surgeries. But having Hertl on that unit is an interesting wrinkle. He was extremely impressive on opening night and seems to be this teams most impactful forward on special teams.