Hey, Wha Happened?
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.
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.
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