I forgot to mention this in last night's recap for the Sharks' season-opening win, but there was both good news and bad news in how the scoring was distributed in San Jose's 4-1 win at Calgary. Covering four goals, eight different Sharks got on the score sheet. Here is how the breakdown went:
Dan Boyle: 1 G, 1 A
Ryane Clowe: 1 A
Logan Couture: 1 A
Martin Havlat: 1 G
Patrick Marleau: 2 G
Joe Pavelski: 2 A
Joe Thornton: 2 A
Marc-Edouard Vlasic: 1 A
First things first: Every guy from the top two lines got his hands dirty in game one. Havlat and Clowe have lots to prove given each had struggles of varying degrees in 2011-12, Havlat due to injury and Clowe for a mostly disappointing performance. Not that they earned three stars recognition in Calgary Sunday (my own personal choices would have been 1. Antti Niemi; 2. Marleau; 3. Boyle). But here's why the Marleau-Thornton-Pavelski and Clowe-Couture-Havlat lines will both need to be productive: San Jose still needs to prove it can get some significant secondary scoring from the bottom two lines, which in recent seasons were sore spots.
Game one didn't change much. While the third line of TJ Galiardi, Michal Handzus and Tommy Wingels provided some respectable minutes (Wingels was especially noticeable on the ice), they're going to have to grind their way to some goals. If Sunday was any indication, the Sharks aren't going to be comfortable rolling out all four lines as the Frazer McLaren-Andrew Desjardins-Adam Burish trio -let's give Burish some props for doing some instigating and pestering, which this team will need- didn't crack double-digits in minutes played.
So you hope at some point the third line will make some noise on the offensive end, especially if they're all going to get about 16 minutes worth of ice time. The Scott Gomez watch is still on, so if signed he'll be an option too. Defensemen Boyle and Vlasic chipped in with three points Sunday, but it's tough to pinpoint what to expect from the Sharks' blueline until injured "offensive" defensemen Brent Burns and Jason Demers get back on the ice.
Both the beauty and reality of this condensed schedule is there are so many games to be played in such a short time -San Jose will have played seven games by the time the calendar shifts to February- is we can find out rather quickly what this team's identity can be.
Dan Boyle: 1 G, 1 A
Ryane Clowe: 1 A
Logan Couture: 1 A
Martin Havlat: 1 G
Patrick Marleau: 2 G
Joe Pavelski: 2 A
Joe Thornton: 2 A
Marc-Edouard Vlasic: 1 A
First things first: Every guy from the top two lines got his hands dirty in game one. Havlat and Clowe have lots to prove given each had struggles of varying degrees in 2011-12, Havlat due to injury and Clowe for a mostly disappointing performance. Not that they earned three stars recognition in Calgary Sunday (my own personal choices would have been 1. Antti Niemi; 2. Marleau; 3. Boyle). But here's why the Marleau-Thornton-Pavelski and Clowe-Couture-Havlat lines will both need to be productive: San Jose still needs to prove it can get some significant secondary scoring from the bottom two lines, which in recent seasons were sore spots.
Game one didn't change much. While the third line of TJ Galiardi, Michal Handzus and Tommy Wingels provided some respectable minutes (Wingels was especially noticeable on the ice), they're going to have to grind their way to some goals. If Sunday was any indication, the Sharks aren't going to be comfortable rolling out all four lines as the Frazer McLaren-Andrew Desjardins-Adam Burish trio -let's give Burish some props for doing some instigating and pestering, which this team will need- didn't crack double-digits in minutes played.
So you hope at some point the third line will make some noise on the offensive end, especially if they're all going to get about 16 minutes worth of ice time. The Scott Gomez watch is still on, so if signed he'll be an option too. Defensemen Boyle and Vlasic chipped in with three points Sunday, but it's tough to pinpoint what to expect from the Sharks' blueline until injured "offensive" defensemen Brent Burns and Jason Demers get back on the ice.
Both the beauty and reality of this condensed schedule is there are so many games to be played in such a short time -San Jose will have played seven games by the time the calendar shifts to February- is we can find out rather quickly what this team's identity can be.
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