Detroit came to town Thursday night and were left hanging their heads in defeat at the Tank, losing 4-1. A voracious San Jose forecheck overwhelmed the Wings , especially in the second period when the Sharks tallied three times. Once the Sharks were up by three in the third period, the dirty Wings showed their ugly faces and tried to intimidate them with cheap shots, slashes, elbows to the head, just old fashioned goonery. Los Tiburones acquitted themselves admirably by standing up for their teammates and winning scrums, in general sending the message that they weren’t gonna take that shit no more. Pavelski had two goals, Desjardin had a beauty and Niemi played brilliantly when he had to. The lone bright spot for Detroit was Thomas Tatar, who had the only goal. Tatar, a rookie from Slovakia has quite the offensive flair and stick handling wizardry reminiscent of Datsyuk. Overall, a nice effort against a hated rival.
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Sharks Give St. Louis the Blues.. Again
Hey sports fans, welcome to a long overdue post about the San Jose Sharks, quite possibly one of the best teams in the NHL but also one of the most maddening. The Sharks have been in a bit of a funk lately, only one win in five and demonstrating a lack of ability to close out wins when they have a team on the ropes. On their recent homestand, they lost to a team that had lost TEN straight, the New York Isles after taking a 2-0 lead into the third. But I digress, last night’s opponent was the powerful St. Louis Blues who play a punishing style under Ken Hitchcock. They were a bit banged up, missing their captain David Backes and Vladimir Tarasenko but they still had most of their weapons. Jaroslav Halak was in net and the Sharks traditionally have trouble beating him. St. Louis had played the night before in Ottawa and lost in a shootout, so they may have been a bit tired from travel, but hey who am I kidding? These guys don’t have to do anything except get on a plane.
The game stated with a lot of offensive zone time for the Sharks and they were rewarded for their efforts with a goal off a designed play that utilized the lively yellow dasher board. On a shot from the point that was purposely directed wide the puck came to the Big Pavelski just to the left of Halak and he did not miss giving the Sharks a 1-0 lead. Three minutes later, on a rush by D man Matt Irwin who dropped the puck to Brad Stuart, the puck came off those darned boards again and onto Irwin’s stick who put it home for a 2-0 lead. The Sharks were out shooting the Blues by a wide margin and looked good going into the second. They took a 3-0 lead early in the second and were cruising along when the Blues began to up the tempo, pinching their defensemen and on a terrible giveaway by Andrew Desjardin, Kevin Shattenkirk made them pay with a nice wrister that eluded Niemi. Jay Bowmeester got the Blues within one with only 24 seconds left in the period on a shot past the screened Sharks netminder.
Things seemed dire for our beloved Tiburones, but I think there might have been some screaming from Todd McClellan between periods because the Sharks upped their game and Marty Havlat added an insurance goal off of a sweet pass from the Captain. There were a few nervous moments near the end when Logan Couture somehow put the puck over the glass with his hand? in the Sharks own zone (weird play, never seen it happen). But that actually was good because they played a strong penalty kill and made several nice clears even though they were outnumbered 6-4. All in all, a great road game, especially when they haven’t been great holding leads lately. Tonight they play the Kings in LA, where they haven’t won a game in a long time. Go get em boys!!
East Coast Throwdown-Pens/Bruins, Anaheim Stays Hot
The two powerhouse teams in the East battle for supremacy tonight as the Pens and the BBBB (Big Bad Bruins of Boston) vie for the top seed in the East. Both teams have great records, lots of scoring, great goalies and defense, and play an entertaining in your face skill style that just bowls me over. Sid the Kid leads the league in scoring with 45 points, Tuuka Rask has a goals against of 1.96, Chara is as foreboding to play against as he ever was and Kris Letang has more points (26) than Malkin! While the Bruins are known for their physical style of play and the Pens have skillz in abundance, both teams can turn the tables on their style of play. David Krecji, Tyler Seguin, and Milan Lucic are as talented with the puck as the Pens stars and the Pittsburgh can bring the hurt when they get down in order to turn the tide. As of the this writing the Bruins lead 2-0.
Out West, Chicago has finally lost a couple of games and Anaheim continues to surge, climbing in the power rankings to number one on NHL.com! Yes, the fucking Ducks who didn’t make the playoffs last year are getting balanced scoring across all four lines, Sheldon Souray and Francois Beauchemin are playing like they’re on HGH, and they have two goalies who can steal a game, Jonas Hiller and Victor Fahst (1.92 GAA). The usual suspects Getzlaf, Perry and Ryan are hot but they are getting contributions from two ex Sharks, Nick Bonino and Daniel Winnick chipping in with 10 and 12 points each from the the third line. I must interject some snark as a Sharks fan because my team can’t score to save their lives and these two weren’t good enough to stay? Just sayin……………..
The Slide Continues for San Jose and the Saturday Stew
The Sharks and Blackhawks faced off in United Center last night and the results weren’t pretty for San Jose as they fell for their seventh consecutive loss after starting 7-0. The offense was woeful and they consistently put themselves behind the eight ball with penalties as the Hawks made them pay, winning 4-1. The Sharks were 0-4 on the power play and a decent 4-5 on the PK but Chicago’s offensive talent clearly outclassed a beleaguered San Jose squad with a relentless onslaught of quality chances. Newcomer Tim Kennedy scored the only goal for the Sharks on a nifty move to beat Ray Emery, hopefully he can inject some life into the moribund team. The Sharks have scored twelve goals in eight games after scoring 23 in 5 to start the season. Look for the death watch to begin for T Mac….
The Ducks continue to surge (gag me), beating the Dead Things 5-2. They are getting balanced scoring from all lines and their rookie Swedish goalie Victor Fahst is a smoking 7-0.. The Western Conference is jam packed with several teams within a point of each other, with five points separating 7 teams, making it tough to declare a clear leader in the conference. Besides Chicago.. The Stanley Cup champs are mired in 12th place, having a similar problem as the Sharks, scoring goals.
In the East, the usual suspects are in the top eight with a few surprises including Toronto and the Habs doing well to start the season. Three playoff teams from a year ago are on the outside looking in Philly, Florida and Washington. For the Flyers, it is the inevitable goalie bugaboo and for the Panthers the same could be said also. Washington got off to a horrible start under new coach Adam Oates and has played a little better of late but they still grace the bottom of the standings. More to come..
San Jose Pissing Away Great Start
Hello hockey fans, welcome to the latest chapter of San Jose Sharks futility! San Jose began the season on fire the first four games winning all of them by a good margin, the power play was clicking and Patrick Marleau scored nine goals in his first five games. Oh for a return to the days of yore, when they could actually score a goal. Since starting 7-0 the Sharks have lost six straight games because of… well several reasons.
It isn’t the penalty kill, they killed thirty six straight (yes I said 36 straight) before laying a huge egg in Columbus last night, losing 6-2 in a game that wasn’t as close as the score indicated. Again, I digress…. the problem is a power outage with very few goals scored despite stellar play from Anti Niemi and his backup Thomas Greise. Beginning February 1 the Sharks have scored 10 goals in eight games with three coming against Chicago in one game. They actually won two games of the eight scoring only two goals and winning in the shootout against Anaheim and Edmonton. What is the answer? Todd McLellan sure as hell doesn’t seem to know, calling out his team yesterday after losing to the Blue Jackets. I say he doesn’t know because they followed the blowout with exactly the same level of play we have seen for the last 8 games. It would be understandable if they weren’t getting good looks at the net, outshooting and outchancing the opponent most nights. Their big line has been scoring, they upgraded the defense with the addition of Brad Stuart but they just keep finding ways to lose. Like losing to the backup Steve Mason in Columbus
Fucking maddening to watch, so ….. I think we’ll talk about Anaheim and their resurrected play to begin the season. Their rookie goalie, Victor Fahst, has stolen several games for them, has 1.72 GAA and they lead the Pacific Division. Bruce Boudreau has these guys playing out of their minds! We’ll see if it lasts. In the East, New Jersey is leading the conference with 8 wins and 19 points to start the season. Led by the ageless wonder Martin Brodeur they continue to play tough, in your face, opportunistic hockey. Toronto is a bit of a surprise, as they are fourth in the conference and right behind the Big Bad Bruins of Boston. Comeon, alliteration rules right??!! I know, I know but hey its my first blog of the season and I need to get warmed up too! More to come, please come back..
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