Marc-Edouard Vlasic was the unlikeliest of hero’s with 21 seconds left in the third period. Goal scoring is not normally Vlasic’s forte but here we are only 33 games into the season and the Sharks top defender has four goals, two behind his career high.
Two of the Wests best hockey teams put on a good display of hockey last night with 5v5 play nearly even throughout the entire game – if you argue San Jose was severely out-played in the first you’re only looking at the shot-count and ignoring shot attempts.
A powerplay goal was a fitting end to such a tight game where the shot-chart was deceiving. Although the final shots were 30-20 in favor of San Jose the final 5v5 count was 23-19, painting a much different picture. Credit to Jake Allen who played a hell of a game in goal for the Blues.
The game winning goal by Burns was an interesting one because when he received the puck there were two Sharks in front of the net. When he released the shot it was a clear path to Allen. More often than not that’s a save by any goaltender. Regardless, it was an important two points as the Sharks continue to roll.
San Jose is now 9-1 in their last ten and winners of their last eight at home, including a five game sweep of the most recent home swing.
Thoughts
Melker Karlsson
Karlsson has put in quite the impressive body of work in his five games with the big club. It’s starting to seem like if he gets sent back to Worcester it should be torch and pitchfork time.
Karlsson has four assists in five games, he’s a +3 with a 51.7% Corsi while having a 24.6% offensive zone start percentage. He’s playing some great hockey right now and is part of the reason San Jose went 5-0 on the home stretch; you need depth players to play well.
Antti Niemi
While a juicy rebound caused the first goal and Steve Ott scoring at all isn’t ideal Niemi played an otherwise solid game of hockey. He made some big saves that gave the Sharks a chance, which was important in this one with two unsuccessful man-advantages.
Things are settling down for the Sharks now and you can see the comfort level in the goaltenders returning as well. Routine saves are becoming less panicked and the extra effort – trying to make a save look better – has subsided. It’s back to plain, old, unexciting Sharks netminding, which is just what San Jose needs.
Joe Pavelski
Pavelski was the Sharks best forward last night. He came in at 22:51 TOI, only behind Marleau for forwards, and went 67% in the faceoff circle, taking a strange 15 face-offs throughout the night while spending it with Joe Thornton as usual.
Pavelski had five points in five games during the undefeated home stand.
The Fourth Line
It was all fun and games last night – with the end result – while the Sharks rolled three lines, watching the fourth line sit on the bench for the majority of the second and third periods.
That gameplan isn’t going to get them very far down the stretch.
I’ll credit McLellan for his awareness of how bad the fourth line is but it doesn’t make it any less concerning to see which players get the nod night in, night out.
That shift chart from war-on-ice.com paints a story of a coach who is terrified to put forwards 10-to-12 on the ice. That can’t be the case if the Sharks want to contend. You have to be able to at least throw a line over the boards to rest the other nine players without fearing for the health of the twine behind Niemi.
When Matt Nieto comes back the bottom-six possession depth will increase significantly because he’s the Sharks best possession forward.
Let’s assume Wingels stays with 12-39. That puts Nieto in the bottom six with Sheppard and Karlsson while bumping Goodrow down to the fourth line and exiling John Scott. Nieto turns that third line from a serviceable possession line to a legitimate threat for shot attempts.
Does that make the fourth line (Goodrow-Desjardins-McGinn) much better? Not really. Better, yes. Much better? No. Goodrow-Tierney-McGinn is the ideal option right now. After injured players return it becomes Goodrow-Tierney-Kennedy. See where I’m going with this? The fourth line is ugly, no matter how you shape it. Wilson needs to go out and get some better hockey players for the fourth line, otherwise he’s going to continue to watch his coach cringe at the thought of putting them on the ice.
Thanks for reading.
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