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"?
...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"?
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