So it's pretty clear beating Vancouver -2011 Western Conference finals be damned- will carry a little extra pep in your step if you're the San Jose Sharks tonight when they play the Canucks in British Columbia. The Sharks arguably need this win a little more if you consider Vancouver holds a two-point lead in a mostly pedestrian Northwest Division. Conversely, the Sharks are already nine points behind Anaheim in a Pacific Division that also features the defending Stanley Cup-champions, four of five teams currently in playoff position and another in ninth place but currently tied in points. The Sharks will have a makeshift lineup in place with Marty Havlat injured and unknown career journeyman Bracken Kearns -son of a former Canuck- getting his crack to provide the Sharks with some unexpected scoring punch.
So it's Good Guys Wear Teal against the Mean Old Whale. May the nicer team win!
If the Sharks can bottle up anything from Saturday's 2-1 win -in regulation!!!!!- over the Nashville Predators, it would be the above sequence that led to Joe Pavelski's eventual game-winning goal. It was the kind of determined and persistent hustle the struggling Sharks need to duplicate again and again if they're going to clearly break this funk they'd endured throughout the last month. What was an anemic power play that defined a miserable February of hockey epic failure had already scored one goal Saturday when Dan Boyle rifled in a one-timer through a traffic jam driven by Pavelski past screened Preds goalie Pekka Rinne. Now it was time to grind out another goal. Pavelski and Couture chased Joe Thornton's deflected shot behind the net. Couture managed to flick the puck past former Shark Scott Hannan back in front of the net. Pavelski then epitomized the term "dogged" he can Couture worked for and flipped a shot off Rinne and into the goal (Thornton scored his 1,100th career point). All of a sudden a power play that found the net just three times covering 14 games managed two against one of the elite goalies in the NHL (though Rinne had struggled mightily in the previous three games, so perhaps it's not appropriate to get too excited yet)...
...Still, the Sharks needed something to feel good about after going 33 days without beating anyone in regulation and thus not giving away free points to overtime or shootout losers. Those precious three-point games are going to impact the playoff race in such a tightly-bunched Western Conference. How tough? With two points scored the Sharks jumped from ninth to fifth in the West. And though there was some nervous energy building after the Predators pulled within a goal with just over five minutes left in the third, San Jose held on to prevent Nashville from ensuring yet another overtime period at HP Pavilion. Now the Sharks must regain...
...Some mojo on the road. They head to constantly controversy-free Vancouver Tuesday night, and need to continue firing shots on goal after sending 39 at Rinne. Nine of the next 11 games are on hostile territory, and who knows if the Sharks will be aggressive as the April trade deadline looms? That's a good segue to saying a few words about Pavelski, who quietly continues to perform at a high level. Ross McKeon, the San Francisco's new/old beat writer who's back on board as a free-lancer, called Pavelski the team's midseason "Mr. Consistency" during his midseason progress report for the Sharks. This is what McKeon wrote even before Pavelski was arguably the best skater on the ice against Nashville:
Joe Pavelski just keeps chugging along, producing points, playing well in all situations and providing leadership.
Well put. I wondered last summer as Rick Nash-to-San Jose trade rumors bubbled but never came to a boil if Pavelski's solid two-way play throughout his career was worth being the lead piece in a deal to land the explosive scoring and rugged Nash. Obviously neither Columbus nor San Jose agreed on any trade, so it became moot. And Pavelski is one of the few A-list Sharks not bogged down by any no-trade or movement clauses, so if San Jose General Manager Doug Wilson is forced to make a blockbuster move, Pavelski provides one bargaining chip who he wouldn't need permission to trade. But as the Thornton's, Boyle's and Patrick Marleau's get closer and closer to the end of their contracts and their prime, it's probably for the best if Pavelski, still about a year-and-a-half south of 30, can stay a Shark and form the next generation of leaders along with Couture, Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Brent Burns. But the Sharks have to feel like there is still some -but not much- time left to make one last run at a Stanley Cup. However, there is still much to prove as San Jose heads north of the border.
Driving with my pooch to the dog park this afternoon reminded me baseball season is approaching fast. The radio said as much, as it was my first opportunity to hear some spring training play-by-play of the Athletics' 6-3 win over Colorado in Phoenix. There's never too much to get excited about in exhibition baseball games, though Josh Reddick and Brandon Moss each homered and Tommy Milone threw a couple of scoreless innings.
But what was fun about catching a couple innings of audio was the banter among A's announcers Ray Fosse, Ken Korach and Vince Cotroneo. What's about fun play-by-play in baseball is you have to fill air space during a sport that even in the most tense of situations still maintains a level of passive moments. So Fosse, Korach and Cotroneo did what good baseball radio guys do best: You enjoyed their recollections of spending together so many March afternoons and evenings in Arizona. There was a Bill King memory, an encounter with Bob Feller, some good-natured jabbering to each other.
It was a reminder of how low-key baseball can be, especially on lazy and meaningless spring training Saturdays.
"It's the same story every game. We have to find a way to score more goals. Personally and as a team, we have to find a way to put it into the back of the net. You're not going to win many games scoring one goal, and we've found that out lately."
By next Thursday, I'll be in the Pacific Northwest starting for at least two months, just about the time the Stanley Cup playoffs will be in full force. Considering I'll be out of Comcast SportsNet California range by then, my plan is to order the NHL GameCenter Live to I can keep track of Sharks games on my laptop. I'm now having second thoughts if that 50 bucks is worth spending, because it finally hit me last night: The Sharks are becoming unwatchable...
...It's not because the effort isn't there, or the team is that overmatched, or that Antti Niemi's mostly heroic play in goal should be ignored. But watching Thursday's 2-1 shootout defeat to the Detroit Red Wings was just so darn frustrating to see what should be at least an above average offensive team get repeatedly smothered by opposing bluelines and goalies. San Jose has scored just 16 goals in its last 12 games, and contrary to how little I care about a boring ESPN show, numbers indeed never lie as to why the Sharks have won just two of those 12 contests. This team has proven goal scorers (Patrick Marleau and Joe Pavelski), arguably the greatest playmaker of his era (Joe Thornton), one of the game's bright young stars (Logan Couture), a veteran who when healthy is a steady scorer (Marty Havlat), and a defenseman who's known as a premier power play quarterback from the point (Dan Boyle). Yet with all this firepower -and even knowing this team isn't getting a lot of scoring from the third or fourth lines- the Sharks stink on the offensive end, and it's gotten to be a tired act. Twelve games covering a 48-game season is exactly 25 percent of the year, and it's now a large enough sample size to argue this isn't working. The Sharks had every advantage going into the Detroit game: the Red Wings played (and lost) in Los Angeles 24 hours earlier and trotted out the less than Hasek-esqe backup goalie Jonas Gustavsson against the Sharks. But everyone looks like a Monster in goal against San Jose these days...
...And everyone in Teal looks as harmless as this "Monster" when it comes to firing the cookie into the jar. The Swedish Monster, in his first start as a Red Wing after he was chased out of Toronto for lack of productivity (the PC way to put it), stoned the Sharks save for a Couture one-timer in the third, a Sharks' lead that last all of 92 seconds. The Sharks couldn't get a puck Gustavsson otherwise, including three consecutive misses in the shootout. Todd McLellan, whose San Jose coaching seat may still be in the preheat stage but is warming nonetheless, clearly was losing his patience when asked about two odd-man rushes led by Marleau and Thornton that resulted in no shot taken and if he would have preferred more selfish play rather than a pass-first mentality that the Red Wings sniffed out both times:
“Yep, how’s that for an answer? I want to see Marleau shoot the puck, too. We talked about it between periods. We haven’t exactly been lighting it up. They’re smart people, they can watch the game and they know they’ve got to shoot the puck to score. It’s disappointing. We have those opportunities, we’ve got to make good on them. Other teams in the league are, we have to.”
I've got $50 and a laptop that says the Sharks need to start doing that soon or this season is toast.
I was trying to multi-task Tuesday night: Helping my niece put together an essay outline on Afghanistan for her high school history class, and keeping an eye on the Avalanche-Sharks game. As it turns out, both exercises were rather painful to be a part of! She trudged through and finished her assignment around the time the Sharks were barely fending off Colorado 3-2 in a shootout win at HP Pavilion. It was just the second time the Sharks had earned two points in a whopping 26 days, so there's little room to complain. Still....
...The Sharks should have won this game far more comfortably than they did. But that's what San Jose is right now, struggling to finish off victories even when controlling play for most of 65 minutes, yet still needing a couple of shootout goals from Michal Handzus and Patrick Marleau (in a rare SO appearance by the latter) to ensure the win. Somehow the Sharks were tied through regulation and overtime despite scoring a goal just 25 seconds thanks to Marty Havlat's forechecking, a brilliant Joe Thornton pass and Logan Couture blistering one-timer. They were tied despite outshooting Colorado 41-27 and getting five power plays to just two for the Avs (the Sharks dunked another donut again with the man advantage). And they were tied despite getting a rare goal from a forward not named Thornton, Marleau, Couture or Joe Pavelski when the embattled TJ Galiardi got his first of the season, fittingly against the man he was traded for Jamie McGinn from Galiardi's former team. That was a baby step for a team that still needs to address a weak spot of getting far too little secondary scoring...
...So let's look at it this way: San Jose needs to get on a bit of a roll starting about a week ago, and perhaps dominating play against an inferior opponent but still needing to grind out overtime and a shootout will actually keep this team grounded with two difficult games left on this short homestand. The respected but still abhorred Detroit Red Wings' arrival Thursday provides any Sharks' team with further incentive to take the ice focused on stringing together strong games. The Red Wings have suffered from some perhaps a little post-Lidstrom-shock-syndrome, recently endured a five-game losing streak before winning two in a row, and like the Sharks are hovering around the playoff cutoff line. So both teams should be expected to demanded that they play with some urgency. Detroit appearances in San Jose are always fun and filled with tension, so bring on the Winged Wheel.
Apologies for my absence for a few days. I just accepted a new short-term job opportunity that will soon take me out of the Bay Area for a couple months starting very soon. But I plan to still write some Sharks (and to a lesser extent, A's) posts on this site. But that's subject to change. I'll do my best to keep up.
It's now put up or shut up time for several key figures in the San Jose Sharks' family. The general lack of offseason transactions/urgency looks more like a mistake than the brilliant move it appeared to be when the Sharks started off with seven victories in succession. Now nine losses, three resulting in a point each, in 10 games has likely kept everyone wondering what's in store for this team. The Sharks host Colorado tonight without Brent Burns (leg injury) and Ryane Clowe (completing a two-game suspension), and it's unsure if Marty Havlat and Tommy Wingels are 100 percent. So the clock is ticking on what General Manager Doug Wilson will or should do to give his slumping team a boost.
In my mind, Wilson already blew his chance to shake up what looked like roster with some holes last summer after the Sharks appeared to be lagging behind the Western Conference's elite. Rick Nash to San Jose was feasible, though it likely would have cost Wilson at least Joe Pavelski and one of his young defensemen to have a shot at Nash. If not a big splash move like Nash, Wilson could have made a less sexy transaction to add some punch within the top six forwards. But Adam Burish was the team's only real addition up front, and even given a four-year deal he received to provide grit and toughness, Burish wasn't expected to provide much in the offensive zone. That clearly put some pressure on third and fourth-line returnees Wingels, Michal Handzus and TJ Galiardi to contribute some secondary scoring. But that trio has been mostly non-existent with just two goals among them, and both were scored in the same game. The Scott Gomez experiment has scientifically failed, and unless he somehow can suddenly be a playmaker centering the Sharks' sputtering wings like Patrick Marleau and Havlat, he's no longer the kind of player to move the needle. Tim Kennedy can only do so much, and that lack of electricity from your bottom six options is magnified when your big guns are misfiring as often as wingers Marleau, Joe Pavelski, Havlat and Clowe have during the Sharks' drought. Essentially, the team's only "dangerous" snipers have combined for six of 12 total goals scored in the last 10 games.
I don't get paid to make hockey decisions, but by now with almost half the season completed, the Sharks could use an offensive pick-me-up. Granted, there isn't much in the prospect pool -unless young goalies are in play- for the Sharks to make a trade for a forward capable of providing some goals without weakening another position. Burns' slow start coming off hernia surgery and his current leg issues complicate matters, but given how well young Matt Irwin filled in when Burns couldn't start the season, the Sharks seem to have some competent defensemen to deal. Either Justin Braun or Jason Demers are logical candidates. Perhaps Wilson could package one with one of his young goaltenders like Alex Stalock or Harri Sateri and return some value that can help now. Is there a combination that could secure someone like talented Buffalo veteran Jason Pomminville, or more realistically at the level of Columbus' Vinny Prospal? And could the Sharks' rather precarious salary cap total handle that kind of trade anyway numbers-wise?
The answer is complex, not for a team with so many veterans holding no trade or no movement clauses getting in the way. But it's becoming clear the Sharks can't stand pat with the roster they currently have. And no, I don't believe firing Coach Todd McLellan is the solution, either. Tonight's game should be one even the depleted, banged-up Sharks should not lose. But they just might because the Sharks are not very good right now, and teams seem to be sensing that and seizing the opportunity.
The Sharks are simply no longer an elite team in the Western Conference. I think it finally hit me tonight watching them put up a respectable effort in Chicago one week after looking feeble against one of the best clubs in the West. But as is, the Sharks, much like last season, will have to dig deep as the season wears on to make the playoffs. There just appears to be too much missing to be a serious threat to beat a team like Chicago in a seven-game series. The Sharks haven't even faced the teeth of the Pacific Division portion of their schedule, and the Pacific seems top to bottom the most competitive in the Western Conference. The Blackhawks made it 17 games without a regulation defeat, an NHL first to begin a season, with a workmanlike 2-1 victory over San Jose Friday. The Sharks have lost eight of nine games overall, and in the first five games of a six-game road trip, they've mustered just three of a possible 12 available points. The Sharks have some good things going right now, but the cons seem to...
...outweigh the pros to continue much longer without some kind of trade for help scoring goals both five-on-five and on what has become a dreadful power play. The Sharks have converted just twice on their last 46 man advantage situations spanning 11 games. And they're not any more lethal at even strength. Eleven goals in 10 games is the most simplistic reason why this team has dropped nine of those contests. What stung most of all was the Blackhawks' winning goal 2:24 into the third period. Short-handed as the Sharks were again not generating a dangerous power play that was down to the final seconds, Brandon Saad skated up the ice to get the puck out of the defensive zone. While Brent Burns seemed to have a lot of room to challenge Saad, the defenseman seemed rather docile and unaggressive when Saad let fly with an angled but hardly wicked shot that somehow beat Niemi, who shifted to protect the near post but left the far post tantalizingly open. Sharks' Coach Todd McLellan had the quote of the night in discussing that sequence that neither Burns nor Niemi will want on their highlight reels;
“I thought we let a player that wasn’t very dangerous – not because he’s not very talented, or anything – but a player in a situation that wasn’t very dangerous, skate into a primary scoring spot without even challenging him,” McLellan said. “Then, I’m not sure if our goalie was on the angle or not, but [I’m] disappointed we didn’t challenge him earlier.”
So the question now is it panic time or stay the course time? Surely, with an improved penalty kill and goalie Antti Niemi doing maybe his best work in the crease of his Sharks' tenure, San Jose is capable of being better than it's recent free-fall indicates. But the Sharks are not getting anywhere near enough from Joe Thornton, Ryane Clowe and Martin Havlat. And the bottom six forward depth just seems about invisible when it matters. Consider that six forwards have played a combined 71 games and yet to score one goal. Now, no one expects rugged Adam Burish to find the back of the net much, but TJ Galiardi and Clowe have zero goals between them, Havlat has totaled a meager five points, and Thornton managed only one goal and two assists in February. You wonder how much longer the front office will hold out before making a move to add another forward to the roster via a trade. Tonight's game at Dallas isn't a must win just yet, but with every defeat General Manager Doug Wilson has to be thinking "Is it time to change it up and bring in some new blood"?
There's no sugar-coating this: San Jose is a decided underdog again tonight. The Sharks visit the regulation-unbeaten Chicago Blackhawks, who after beating Vancouver earlier this week will attempt to be the first team in history to start a season with 17 consecutive games without losing after 60 minutes. So no pressure, Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau, Dan Boyle, Ryane Clowe and Todd McLellan. You're not expected to beat this team right now, not after losing seven of eight games and falling from grace as one of the NHL's feel-good stories in the first couple weeks. Now, the Sharks are supposed to be the Blackhawks' latest victims after losing to them twice already in the past two weeks.
OK, enough of this self-pity shtick. This is a major opportunity for the Sharks to send a message they remain a viable threat in the Western Conference. Tuesday's 2-1 victory in St. Louis finally snapped the losing skid at seven, and the quirky extra day off between games allowed McLellan to get a couple of rare back-to-back practices in Chicago on Wednesday and Thursday. The Sharks are also dealing with trade rumors involving -and it's shocking to believe this is possible- Boyle and/or Thornton, if you buy into what respected TSN reporter Darren Dreger has been told. (but I have to think General Manager Doug Wilson will make some kind of move for a forward in the hope to bolster his team's scoring woes if the Sharks continue to scuffle for goals).
So no excuses for the Sharks to not be significantly better than they were last Friday. That game seemed more like Fright-day in a 4-1 stinker of a defeat to that same Blackhawks team now 60 minutes away from making history. Of course, the Sharks would gladly take overtime or a shootout, as winning the game in any manner supercedes beating Chicago in regulation. And I don't believe Chicago's dressing room is likely fretting over what amounts to just a footnote in an anything but ordinary season. Late February is generally the dog days of the hockey season, when teams have been battling it out since October and are trying to keep it together with the playoffs approaching but still over a month away. But this 48-game sprint is difficult to measure given some teams are simply going to be much better by playoff time, while others who started quickly are going to lose steam. So you could actually argue the Blackhawks are ripe for the Sharks to take down tonight.
Last Friday, I wrote the Sharks were not going to win in Chicago, and they made me look smart for a change. Tonight, I have a better feeling. I did correctly predict a San Jose 2-1 win in St. Louis Tuesday, so let's hope I am on a mini-roll: San Jose 3, Chicago 2; in overtime, so the Hawks can play "Chelsea Dagger" to celebrate their season-opening record for 17 games without a loss in regulation, and the Sharks get that big victory they need. Everyone's happy, right?
I love the smell of a Sharks' lead in a hockey game...
I didn't know whether to cheer, cry, exhale or just savor the moment when Tim Kennedy got a wrister past St. Louis Blues goalie Jake Allen at 13:02 in the third period. The Sharks had gone 348 minutes, 33 seconds without leading a hockey game. That's almost six regulation games, and it had become an albatross that defined a seven-game losing streak. But Kennedy, who's proven to be quite the surprising boost in the arm for a team that's needed a pick-me-up, provided the game winner in Tuesday's 2-1 victory over the Blues. Frankly, this was a game the Sharks desperately needed...
...For various reasons. St. Louis had to be a little weary and irritable after a mechanical snafu with its plane delayed the return flight from Vancouver until a Tuesday morning touchdown. And though some of the same issues that have plagued the Sharks in February after such an effective January were prevalent again (led by another less than dangerous power play), San Jose looked like the superior, if fresher team on this night after St. Louis held a 1-0 lead into the second period. Joe Thornton got that goal back in the second period using a formula that served the Sharks well when they were winning games: Thornton was opportunistic in front of the net and jammed home a rebound to tie the game. It seemed from afar that the Sharks' lack of goal scoring for such an extended time were a byproduct of not doing the dirty work in front of the net. And you never know...
...If this was just a one-game reprieve with another dreaded visit to the United Center to play the "We don't lose hockey games right now, certainly none in regulation" Chicago Blackhawks on Friday night. But the Sharks have to feel a little better about their chances to end the Blackhawks' now shared NHL record for collecting at least a point in 16 consecutive games to begin a season. More on this rematch on Friday, but have the Sharks righted their ship enough to snap that Chicago streak and beat the Blackhawks in regulation?
“We’re the fresh team. We have absolutely no excuse to be able to outwork or at least out-compete that team all over the rink, or attempt to. That’s the first message, because if you don’t outwork teams, you don’t win. Secondly, we’ve got to get our execution level up so we play the game much faster.”
The Sharks need a win. Badly. They need to be in a position when the final buzzer goes off at Scottrade Center the skaters can bang helmets with goalie Antti Niemi, who frankly deserves better than his current 6-3-2 record (1.94 GAA, .930 save %). That postgame reaction of congratulatory head bumps and knuckle taps hasn't happened all of this month. But in theory having to play St. Louis is not exactly the ideal matchup for these Sharks to end a seven-game drought without drinking a victory brew. The Blues have won eight of the last nine meetings, 4-0 in the 2011-12 regular season and a rather easy -at least after Logan Couture's brilliant pick that set up a Martin Havlat Game 1 OT winner- first-round playoff series victory.
Fast forward a year, and the Sharks look vulnerable against the Blues again given not just their own struggles, but St. Louis seems to be on the right track again with a 3-0 road swing through Detroit, Calgary and Vancouver. It was in British Columbia, however, where the Blues were finally stopped. Not by the Canucks of course, but by mechanical problems with the team charter plane that stranded the Blues almost all day Monday. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch also reported the plane didn't land in St. Louis until 6:33 a.m. this morning. Not quite the kind of proper rest or routine most teams would prefer before a game, especially when it's not a back-to-back situation.
I felt zero confidence in the Sharks last Friday heading to Chicago, and the Blackhawks proved me right. But I'll combine the Blues' difficult trip back from Canada with the Sharks' urgency to get back on the winning track. Niemi will continue to play well, and though it might not be pretty, give it a 2-1 victory for the visiting team. But nothing seems very certain right now.
This Todd McLellan quote courtesy of CSNCalifornia's Kevin Kurz is all you need to know why the Sharks should be on red alert right now:
“I think everybody needs to be concerned about the performance of the team – players, managers, we’re all in it together,” McLellan said. “When you start pointing fingers at one individual, there’s three pointing right back at you. Let’s all clean up what we do, whether we’re a coach or a player, and let’s perform to our abilities.” The Sharks, as I had feared earlier in the day, were not in a good position to defeat the torrid Chicago Blackhawks on Friday night. This one really wasn't close; the Sharks were not at the level of their opponent on this night, and the 'Hawks' 4-1 victory at the United Center that ran San Jose's losing streak to seven after winning its first seven incited McLellan's brutally frank response to the question about possible changes in store for his team (presumably including his own job status). ... ...McLellan could be the fall guy if this team doesn't get this turned around soon, and with another trip back to the Midwest to play St. Louis on Tuesday and then back to the -gulp- United Center again on Friday to play Chicago, the Sharks could fall further back before returning to some normalcy. The problem for McLellan is not so much that he's done a lousy job, it's the surplus of no-trade or no movement clauses for the team's most likely candidates to be shipped out that complicates the thought process of making a significant change to the roster. In many cases, the coach, right or wrong, becomes the de facto goat .... ...Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau, Dan Boyle, Brent Burns and Marty Havlat all have some form of clauses in their contracts that would make it difficult for General Manager Doug Wilson to trade any of them. There are ways to waive no-trade clauses, especially for players who may be unhappy with their role (Mr. Havlat, raise your hand) and thus agree to be dealt. But I don't see Marleau, Thornton or Boyle in any rush to want to go elsewhere. Given that it became clear without being official Logan Couture, who looks to me like this organization's next captain, was a non-starter last year in any potential Rick Nash conversation, it in theory further shrinks the pool of trade candidates. The Sharks probably don't want to move Joe Pavelski either; though in any blockbuster-like move in the mode of the 2005 Thornton coup the Sharks pulled off, Pavelski would be the candidate who could bring back an elite talent. But Wilson had his chance to shake up the roster in the offseason, couldn't pull the trigger on a Nash deal and mostly stayed away from seriously chasing free agents. ... ...Here's what I see over the next week or two: Wilson will find a partner for a package that could include one of his defensemen (Justin Braun? Jason Demers? Douglas Murray just seems to have little value right now) and a young forward (Tommy Wingels?) for a veteran scoring top six winger with some skill who can change the offensive and power play woes the Sharks are suffering from. That's probably what Wilson would rather do than make a drastic move like firing McLellan during the season. But the aftermath of the Chicago game left an ugly bruise on this team, and the postgame comments seemed cryptic to me. One thing's for sure: the feel-good story of those seven consecutive victories has deteriorated into a low-budget slasher flick with a lot of blood being spilled.
The Sharks are hoping to reverse their six-game losing skid tonight in Chicago. But the Blackhawks have yet to lose a game in regulation: 13 games, 10 wins, three defeats but all in overtime or in a shootout. That doesn't bode well for San Jose, and I don't see this game as the one that ends this victory drought. My prediction is Blackhawks 3, Sharks 1. That's not to say I'm giving up on this team about one-fourth of the way into this shortened season. But the Sharks might take a couple more steps back before they can move forward again.
News of Grant Balfour's knee injury and subsequent surgery that will cost the Oakland closer almost the duration of spring training is not the kind of news A's fans want any part of. Injuries always seem to be a rite of passage in Oakland, particularly with its pitchers. And you just hope Balfour's issue, fortunately not an arm injury, won't carry any bad mojo throughout the staff.
Brett Anderson is expected to the the ace of the staff and likely the team's starter for Opening Day and appears to be in the best shape of his young career. But Anderson has also been a regular on the disabled list and having undergone Tommy John surgery in 2011. He needs to stay healthy for the long haul in 2013, ditto Balfour and the rest of the pitching staff. If the A's are going to fend off the Angels and Rangers in the expanded (welcome to the party, Houston Astros and old Green and Gold buddy Chris Carter) A.L. West, the A's may need to throw out the best starting and bullpen staff in the division. Having a healthy Balfour and Anderson would certainly make that quest easier.
I don't know either, Fred Willard, from one of my favorite (and underrated) movies, "A Mighty Wind". So what's happened to the Sharks during their six-game losing streak after opening the season with seven wins in a row?
First, the pluses:
+Antti Niemi is the Sharks' savior, and in a perfect world will be in the Vezina Trophy discussion if he continues to keep his now offensively-inept team in as many games as he has during this losing skid. His overall numbers (1.74 GAA; .935 save percentage) are brilliant. That in his last two starts he's shut out both of his opponents in regulation while the Sharks went scoreless is all you can ask for during a goal slump like this one.
+The penalty kill continues to impress. Yes, that streak of 36 consecutive short-handed situations thwarted was finally snapped in the Columbus game -everything went wrong that night. But this is the Sharks' biggest improvement from last season.
+Tim Kennedy. He's played just one game since getting called up from Worcester in the American League, Tuesday's Nashville defeat. And Kennedy needs another chance at Chicago Friday to see what he can do. He's an NHL veteran who's never been a dynamic player. But the Sharks are not scoring goals, and Kennedy played well enough to merit a second assignment on the active roster.
+Adam Burish and TJ Galiardi played one of their best games on Tuesday while on a line with the demoted-to-the fourth line Martin Havlat. We'll see if this group stays together and works respectably together the next time the Sharks take the ice.
+Brad Stuart, at least to me, has just seemed like his usual steady self throughout the season and during the six consecutive losses. (He was even a plus-1 in the Columbus game!).
OK, now those minuses:
-Pretty much everything else. Just kidding (sort of).
-The power play is just not working well enough to make a run in the playoffs, let alone make the top eight and a competitive Western Conference. Nashville's Martin Erat was on a quest to gift-wrap the Sharks a goal on the PP when he first high-sticked Justin Braun and drew blood for four minutes, then added two more minor penalties. That all happened in about 10 minutes of game action. Yet the Sharks couldn't convert, nor could they cash in with 41 seconds of 5-on-3 time at one point.
-Ryane Clowe needs to register a goal yesterday, Patrick Marleau and Joe Thornton are now playing the ultimate typecast roles as "streaky scorers", while Logan Couture, Joe Pavelski and Martin Havlat are being shut down while playing in various line combinations, and they need to be more dangerous on the power play. The Sharks clearly aren't going to get a lot of secondary scoring barring a surprise. So these six forwards will have to carry this team, or the Sharks will not be much of a threat in the West.
-Coach Todd McLellan's decision-making in terms of lineups and line/defensive pairing combinations has been at times baffling. The latest was the inconsistent defenseman Douglas Murray back in the lineup on Tuesday while Brent Burns was scratched as McLellan didn't give a very specific answer. If Burns is not healthy enough to play he should be sitting until he's 100 percent. But if he's well enough to go he needs to be out on the ice trying to get back to game speed, despite McLellan citing Burns' poor play at Columbus (a lot of Sharks were bad that night) played a factor in his sitting down. With San Jose having a couple days off now before the Chicago game, no excuse to not have Burns back out there on Friday unless he indeed is hurting again. He needs to play if healthy enough to play.
If you're trying to dissect why the Sharks haven't tasted victory since the last day of January: unofficially, if my Fresno State math skills are accurate the Sharks haven't played with a lead for the last 235 minutes, 31 seconds. The Sharks led Chicago 3-2 on Feb. 5 when the Blackhawks got a Marcus Kruger goal at 11:37 of the first period. Chicago scored the final two goals that night to win 5-3. That was followed by three regulation games against Phoenix, at Columbus and at Nashville. The Sharks also played a full overtime in the Phoenix game, followed by 2 minutes and change in Music City on Tuesday and haven't led during that stretch. They lost in a shootout against Phoenix after a scoreless tie through regulation and OT. Columbus never trailed in Monday's 6-2 fiasco and Nashville broke yet another scoreless tie at 2:08 in overtime Tuesday to win 1-0. ...
...That's a long stretch for any team to either be behind or tied, but that's what the streaky Sharks -seven up, now six down- are facing with a couple days off before playing at -gulp- the Blackhawks on Friday night. Did we mention Chicago has yet to lose in regulation after Anaheim won 3-2 in a shootout Tuesday? I'll have more on Wednesday, but the Sharks -first with seven consecutive wins, now six consecutive defeats- are looking awfully streaky right now. And that's what you don't want in such a short season.
Apologies up front for what will be a Theo Fleury-short post about a real stinker of a performance by the Sharks at Columbus. My heart's just not in it right now to hate, and this is what we're supposed to do on the blog-o-meter, so I will be an epic fail in that department tonight. Yet, San Jose's 6-2 loss Monday is begging to be ridiculed, cut to shreds and spit on. Try this or this instead to get your dagger fix...
...Let me just say this: San Jose played at Columbus on Feb. 21, 2012. The Sharks lost 6-3 (but at least that team had Rick Nash and Jeff Carter, who had a hat trick that night), so that's 12 Columbus goals scored in two home games against the Sharks. Since that game, the Blue Jackets have played 35 times and scored more than six goals just once, tallying seven in the 2011-12 season finale against the New York Islanders. Makes you want to throw up and turn the page toward Tuesday at Nashville for a chance at some redemption and a less sickening feeling.
*Get some points vs. Blackhawks and Blues
It's pretty clear the Sharks are going to be in contention for the playoff berth all season. Even in losing four games in a row after that 7-0 start, San Jose played relatively well against Nashville, Anaheim, Chicago and Phoenix and barring injuries should stay in the hunt. So even with just 74 available points on the board, the 12 at stake over the next 12 days won't make or break the season. But there are some big opportunities to make a statement with games against Western Conference contenders Chicago (twice) and St. Louis. You wouldn't expect the Sharks to go 3-0 in these games, but perhaps a split in the two meetings at Chicago's United Center -the Sharks should not lack motivation given what happened when the teams played last week in San Jose- and at worst steal a point against the difficult to match up with Blues would help the Sharks' psyche. They very well may meet the Blackhawks or Blues in a playoff series, and right now San Jose would have to be considered the underdog against either opponent. Struggling in these early-season matchups would only enhance that perception.
*Get Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau back on track
It's fascinating how quickly success and production can go off the rails in hockey. Baseball players slump even in MVP-level seasons. But there are so many at-bats and so many games to play, you can get right back into the batter box. But when Thornton and Marleau both slow down after that torrid scoring pace to begin the season, it's magnified since hockey players are on the ice for a minute here, another short shift here; and when it's not clicking and the circumstances in a game change, it can seem like an eternity waiting for pucks to get put back in the net. Coach Todd McLellan has shuffled his lines frequently, even breaking up what over the first few games was an seemingly unstoppable Marleau-Thornton-Joe Pavelski top line. On paper, I really the like the potential firepower of Marleau playing to the left of Logan Couture and Martin Havlat on the right side. And Thornton still has Pavelski and -if last Saturday's active performance can be duplicated- a goal-hungry Ryane Clowe. But Marleau and Thornton have combined gone scoreless over the last five games after churning out 25 goals or assists in the first six. The Sharks need to find some offense again, as save for that first-period flurry in the Chicago game last Tuesday, San Jose has been stymied offensively.
*Keep up the nifty PK, but get something going on the PP
The Sharks are the epitome of good news, bad news in terms of special teams. The once maligned penalty kill is rolling with 34 consecutive short-handed situations repelled. But conversely, San Jose has scored just once on a power play in its last 25 chances. Perhaps Marleau's and Thornton's pointless drought has a lot to do with the latter. But it will be interesting to see how that trend evolves on this road swing.
*Stick with the defensive pairings if possible
David Pollack of the San Jose Mercury News suggested Douglas Murray would be back in the lineup tonight in Columbus, but I for one really liked the combinations San Jose used in its shootout loss to Phoenix last week. Murray has undoubtedly helped the team's penalty kill prowess, but the big Swede seems like a big anchor when the tempo accelerates. Murray may replace Jason Demers against the Blue Jackets, so he's getting a team that doesn't scare anyone with its skill level. But keep an eye on how Brent Burns progresses after having a solid debut in his return from hernia surgery.
*Start and finish strong
The Sharks open the road swing in Columbus, where the post Rick Nash-doldrums are in full bloom. And San Jose ends in Dallas, a Pacific Division rival. Whatever happens in between be damned, Columbus and Dallas provide four points the Sharks should and frankly must get.
I'm usually not zeroed in on the countdown to the first day of practice (at least from a fan standpoint; when you've worked as a sportswriter for this long you were usually assigned day one stories for high school football, college baseball or college basketball practices. Yes, it's pretty meh work) But I must admit that today's reporting to Phoenix for Oakland Athletics' pitchers and catchers provides optimism for Green and Gold fans. And it hasn't been that way in a long time, anticipating A's baseball quite like this build-up that figures to grow even stronger as Opening Day approaches.
When pitchers Tommy Milone, Jarrod Parker, Ryan Cook and Sean Doolittle break bread today with new catcher John Jaso, A's fans will have hope. While I have discovered in my own personal life hope is important, it can also be frustrating, confusing and ultimately depressing. Thus, hope can be a dangerous gamble and then a letdown. But it's OK to have high hopes for these Athletics.
Why? In a nutshell: This was such a fun team in 2012 you couldn't but help but fall in love with the Bernie Lean; the pies; the unlikely final week sprint past Texas to win the A.L. West;the Balfour Rage; the simplistic joy of watching a team that when all signs -dollars and sense- pointed to failure instead proved poignant and inspiring. Maybe 2013 will be even better. Isn't that what the coming of spring is supposed to create among baseball fans? The 2012 A's made a skeptical, battered and disillusioned fan base believe again, even if the stands remained mostly empty until late September and early October. Now, can they do it again? Can the still modestly paid Athletics overcome what looks like an average infield, what remains a questionable overall lineup, not to mention the Angels' opening of the checkbook again to throw bags of money at a familiar anti-hero from past American League West gunfights. Josh Hamilton may now wear a Halo on his cap, but to the A's, he remains the black-hatted bad guy. Can Oakland's chemistry, young and unflappable starting staff and splendid bullpen hold off the budget is no object Angels.
Is this Oakland's time to capture a few more of the Bay Area's hearts? Admit it, Athletics' fans: We're jealous of the Giants. We're sick of the Giants. We want to feel like fans of the Giants. We want to get on this winning it all jazz again. Nineteen-eighty-nine feels like 1989, a long time ago. We want those 2001, 2002, 2003 seasons where the A's seemed to be in position to win World Series but melted down in division series heartbreak, avenged. We shouldn't feel bitter about that Game 5 loss to Justin Verlander and the Tigers last October. I was in the stands that night too, and the raucous applause saluting the losing team should be embraced and not mourned as the end of a deliciously shocking season. But we also want it to be the beginning of something even more special in 2013.
One of the benefits of the Sharks' 7-0 start seemed like it was going to take some of the pressure off a tricky six-game road trip that loomed in mid-February. And sure enough, at least as of Saturday afternoon they regained the Pacific Division lead by a game (edit: Anaheim's shootout win in St. Louis later Saturday put the Ducks back in first). But now, in such a condensed schedule, San Jose's four consecutive games without a victory before heading out out of town shifts at least some urgency back into the fold as the team prepares for its (last?) tennis trip. This will be quick recap of Saturday afternoon's 1-0 shootout loss to Phoenix. The Sharks shook off a very shaky first period to mostly control the play against the Coyotes, outshoot them and outchance them. Ryane Clowe played his best offensive game of the season, which the Sharks can use while both Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau continue to be shut down. But the Sharks' power play continues to be a bugaboo...
...For a team that frankly is nowhere near as scary when it's struggling to score goals with a man advantage. Granted, Phoenix goalie Mike Smith smells blood whenever the Sharks are swimming in his waters. But his fourth shutout of San Jose since last season was particularly aggravating considering the Coyotes were short-handed three times in the third period (one penalty had carried over from the last minute of period two). But the combination of a suddenly sickly San Jose power play -one goal in the last 25 chances- and Smith's recent domination against this team sent the teams to overtime...
...And then the shootout, when Smith denied both Michal Handzus and the curious two hole choice of James Sheppard for his first career attempt. Phoenix quickly gained the extra point when both shooters got pucks past Antti Niemi. So while the Sharks got better as the game went on and threw a lot of pucks at Smith in the second and third periods thanks in part to the surplus of power plays, it wasn't a very productive day at HP Pavilion, save for the much-awaited and needed return of defenseman Brent Burns. More on the road trip Monday. Because there really wasn't much else to point out from Saturday's loss.
Admit it folks: if you're like me and saw the Yahoo Sports NHL blog headline Plight of the goalless: the NHL's surprisingly unproductive players, we all thought "Ryan Clowe". This is actually an interesting list, with Clowe ranking fourth in the group of players who have yet to score a goal. Here's what Harrison Mooney of Yahoo wrote about Clowe in his list:
Considering the insanely productive top six in which he plays, and considering he's registered 22 shots, you'd think Clowe would have put one in by now. But no. In his defence, he's also the league-leader in penalty minutes. Maybe he'd have more than 0 goals if he wasn't spending half his time in the box.
This blog has voiced its concern about Clowe's struggles to stay out of the box for extended stretches. Twice this season the power forward has instigated fights that cost him almost an entire period of penalty box sentences. The Sharks expect Clowe to play with an edge, because every successful team in the NHL is likely going to have one of its top six forwards running amok and wreaking havoc on the ice. But the caveat is that player needs to toe the line between effective and reckless. Whether or not Clowe has crossed the line too much early in the season is just that: too early to determine, so give him the benefit of the doubt. The Sharks need a player like he is to not just play rough with others but contribute some goals. Then again, search out "Ryane Clowe" on YouTube and you mostly get his best fights: Clowe throwing down with Vancouver's Zack Kassian; with Los Angeles' Kyle Clifford; with the New York Rangers' Brandon Prust; with ex-San Jose teammate and Chicago tough guy Jamal Mayers.
Admittedly, take fighting and the pest factor away from Ryane Clowe and he's not going to have the same impact he's made during his career as a Shark. But at some point he needs to start scoring a few goals. The Sharks need you, Clowe-y.
Here's some proof he's more than capable of doing just that when it matters most:
Let's get it out of the way right now: It was a regrettable call; OK, a questionable call; nay, a pathetic call. Sharks' fourth-line forward Andrew Desjardins did nothing wrong in Tuesday's game against Chicago. The video above is the Comcast Chicago broadcasters Eddie Olczyk (one of my favorite analysts in the game) and Pat Foley, who themselves questioned why Desjardins' hit on former Shark Jamal Mayers drew the former five minutes for the dreaded "illegal hit to the head" and a match penalty to end his night early. Only Blackhawks' defenseman Duncan Keith's decision to go all Ryan O'Byrne on Desjardins and pick a fight that cost Keith 17 minutes worth of sin bin time saved San Jose -tied with Chicago 3-3 in the second period at the time- from enduring an entire five-minute power play against the dangerous Blackhawks. The teams skated four-on-four But the most contentious fans who blame officiating for everything had easy fodder to cite the injustice on Desjardins for the Sharks' 5-3 defeat in a matchup of the Western Conference's top two teams in points. The conspiracy theorists have a point in this case...
...Considering Chicago took advantage of the open ice and some regrettable Douglas Murray stick work (we'll get to the sloppy Sharks later) and Jonathan Toews' brilliance set up Patrick Kane's game-winner when the teams skated with four each since the Sharks in reality should have been on their own power play. Coach Todd McLellan of San Jose wasn't happy, nor should he have been:
Even before the game ended, the Sharks were informed the officials made a mistake and Desjardins should not have been punished (the NHL then rescinded the match penalty). And I'm sure a standup guy like Mayers would by now change his mind after he was quoted as claiming Desjardins hit him illegally in the head. But the Sharks already were in a difficult enough spot playing an outstanding team, and anyone who says that sequence didn't affect the outcome are kidding themselves. And it's not even the first time this month a team was burned by a phantom hit to the head that wasn't match penalty. So it's a trend the officials need to be cognizant of going forward. But I consider myself objective and have been that way during my sports reporting career. So it's just one setback the Sharks had plenty of chances to overcome....
However, San Jose couldn't do that, and three consecutive defeats after a 7-0 start will sting during a needed three-day break until the next game. The Sharks only have themselves to blame for letting slip away 2-0 and 3-1 leads. You knew this was going to be a battle when Michal Handzus put San Jose ahead 3-1, the Blackhawks won the faceoff, Viktor Stalberg hit Bryan Bickell behind the net, Andrew Shaw somehow got right in front of Antti Niemi in the crease and ripped in the puck just eight seconds after the Sharks regained a two-goal lead. The Sharks' last lead then lasted all of 42 seconds with the first of two...
...Terrible moments by Sharks' blueliners that should be equally be attributed to the loss as the Desjardins fiasco. Justin Braun, who like many San Jose defensemen has been up and down thus far, tried to skate out just in front of the net, but he left behind the puck to Marcus Kruger for another rather easy tap-in. Then came Kane's deciding goal on the heels of the Desjardins incident. Murray, whose speed is in question but strength to get the puck out should not be, gained possession and started to break out. But Toews rather easily stole the puck from Murray, flipped it to Kane, and Niemi had no chance with the right side of the net. It was the kind of giveaway Sharks' defensemen have been guilty of throughout the early season. Brent Burns, you're still missed. Get well soon. ...
Time to move on to Phoenix coming to San Jose Saturday afternoon before the Sharks' six-game road trip beckons (with those two visits to Chicago's United Center, so circle those games on your must-see calendar). But a quick shout out to -finally!- some San Jose secondary scoring. The third line of Handzus, Tommy Wingels and James Sheppard seemed like the team's best on Tuesday. First, it was Handzus finding a streaking Wingels down the left side and a top shelf laser past Corey Crawford. Minutes later, Wingels returned the favor, firing a dart through some traffic to Handzus, who like Wingels found the back of the net for his first of 2013. Can that line be effective against Phoenix and beyond to take some pressure off the five forwards who prior to that flurry provided all the front line scoring for the season?
Something is decidedly different in San Jose these days: The Sharks are penalty kill heroes, they are power play zeroes. I wouldn't expect that trend to continue as the season drags along. I don't believe the Sharks are going to be this good short-handed, like 27 straight power plays killed good. Nor will the Sharks -if they get healthy- continue to come up this short with the man advantage as they have with just one goal in the last 18 opportunities. So it's not surprising from a special teams standpoint San Jose had reason to feel equal parts pleased and miffed with Monday's 2-1 loss at Anaheim. And for the first time this season...
...There is a hint of adversity to deal with in the dressing room. The Sharks lost in regulation for the first time on the heels of the season's first defeat on Saturday in a shootout. Now, the Sharks will have turn around quickly, erase the sting of another disappointment at the hands of emerging nemesis Anaheim, and welcome the Chicago Blackhawks to HP Pavilion tonight. But first, let's look back at what happened at the Honda Center before looking ahead...
...Let's get the negative stuff out of the way first. The Sharks relied offensively on essentially four players to jump out 7-0 on the season: Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau, Joe Pavelski and Logan Couture. Combined, that quartet has scored 51 of 80 total points. In the last four games -two shootout wins, a shootout loss and Monday's first regulation loss- only Couture has kept up the pace with three goals and recording a plus-3, scoring his team's only goal last night. Pavelski also has scored twice, but was barely noticeable in the two defeats. Thornton and Marleau have really slowed down after leading the NHL in points and goals, respectively, in the first two weeks. Marleau is a minus-3 and has totaled just a single assist in the last four. Like Marleau, Thornton also got an assist in the first of the four games but nothing since. Hey, we're not going to beat down Marleau, Thornton or any of these guys for not producing like were a few games ago. They'll be back because they're too talented to be hemmed down for a long stretch. But when they are not clicking...
...San Jose is looking like it's going to be just an average team that will have to ride its goaltending and defense. Martin Havlat was very solid last night and came close to beating stingy Anaheim backup goalie Viktor Fasth a couple times. But it's been a big dropoff thereafter in terms of dangerous offensive forwards. Ryane Clowe is still looking for his first goal, and for the second time this season instigated a fight and racked up 17 minutes worth of penalties. Clowe's grit and strength is much needed among the top six forwards. But he has to stay on the ice, and he's already at 56 penalty minutes in nine games. The rest of the forwards have been mediocre in the offensive end. Scott Gomez has potential to contribute some secondary scoring, but he continues to receive fourth-line TOI, and unless he's on a line with the team's best scorers or leading a power play unit, Gomez is not going to be a big factor if he's flanked by offensively challenged wings like Adam Burish and Andrew Desjardins, who did get the primary assist on Couture's goal when the lines were discombobulated, but eight Sharks' forwards on the active roster have yet to score a goal, and just five forwards have goals. Contrast that with Anaheim and Chicago, who each have at least one goal by nine different forwards. And while in theory San Jose has survived with one puck-handling defenseman and power play quarterback (Brent Burns). But when Dan Boyle can't play like last night and Burns is still out, the power play is not going to be as dynamic. Let's hope Boyle is ready to go tonight. However, all was not bad for the Sharks against the Ducks...
...Bad luck was a factor, though not the deciding factor. With the Sharks up 1-0, Tommy Wingels simply tried to bang a puck around the boards behind his own net. But the puck deflected back right in front of the net, and with Thomas Greiss looking the other way, Saku Koivu got surely the most gift-wrapped of the veteran's 238 career goals with an easy putback while Greiss was unsure of the puck's location (Yes, I instantly flashed back to this lowlight in Sharks' history, too). Just a tough break, and the Sharks have gotten their share of friendly posts on their home ice. So. Deal. With. It. Not to be forgotten was Jason Demers' stick save on what should have been a layup by Andrew Cogliano.
And how about the PK? If it's assistant Larry Robinson responsible for this resurgence, give that guy a raise. But let's hope it keeps going. The 5-on-3 situation Anaheim didn't cash in was simply a brilliant minute-and-a-half stretch for the Sharks, who thanks to Marleau, Douglas Murray and Brad Stuart not only quelled the two-man deficit but nearly scored an unthinkable short-handed times two goal. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough...
...Leaving the Sharks unfulfilled and surely motivated to salvage the second half of the back-to-back against the Blackhawks. I don't know if it's ironic, frustrating or satisfying, but the Sharks are 5-2-1 against Chicago since that fateful eight-day stretch in May, 2010, when it looked like the Sharks' best opportunity in almost a decade to reach the Stanley Cup finals was swept away in a Windy City dust storm. The Sharks were relatively rested entering the Western Conference finals having finished off Detroit in five games. The Sharks had home ice advantage, took a 1-0 lead in Game 1 against the 'Hawks... And then this guy happened :(.
