San Jose, CA

Reilly T. the Hockey Dog

With the return of Joe Thornton to the lineup, the Sharks are looking to establish the defensive consistency they are known for playing, because is has been lacking.  They are scoring.  Timo Time is my favorite time now, with the emergence of Timo Meier, the Swiss born forward.  Dude can play.  But their woes would continue on Tuesday against a rebuilding Rangers team as they fell in a shootout 4-3.

To their credit Tomas Hertl scored with 1.3 seconds left to tie the game and salvage a point from an otherwise rather drowsy game.  Martin Jones hasn’t gotten into his normal rhythm of facing a good number of shots to to stay focused and has given up goals at very inopportune times to snatch defeat from the grip of victory.

The Erik Karlsson era is a mixed bag by the eye test, if not by the analytics test.  I only watched him sporadically when he played with the Ottawa Senators, but what I saw impressed me.  Two years ago, he played in the Eastern Conference Finals with broken bones in his heel, and almost singlehandedly willed the Senators to the Stanley Cup.  He won two Norris trophies for for best D man in the league.  He can dangle through three or four guys and put sick shots on goal.

But…, he’s still learning how to play with his new team.  He has on several occasions given the puck directly to the other team and the turnover has led to goals for the other side.  His penchant for pinching up has given Karlsson some trouble with the transition game.  There is no question he is fast enough to “Play Fast” in today’s NHL, but again, I’m waiting for consistency.  From him and all the rest of the Sharks.

With a lot of San Jose’s players over thirty, one might try to say that they need to get younger.  I disagree and can articulate it this way: playing fast requires lightning reflexes, touch passes, stretch passes, Straight up North/South speed and incredible stickhandling.  The Sharks have all that and more, clutch scoring and even some snarl from Brendon “Dilly” Dillon and Evander Kane. Good balance across the board.   But something still needs some tweaking.

I miss Chris Tierney, he was in the Karlsson trade.

While it is debatable that I have an articulate thought, I’ll leave you with this one.  San Jose is supremely talented and might win the Cup.  Now wouldn’t that be nice!

Most games leave me hanging by a thread!