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San Jose Sharks Mid-Season Review |
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Here's a short opinion on last night's OT win over the Wild before we get into the review.
The Sharks battled hard last night and got the bounces – that’s how they won. It certainly wasn’t because they were significantly better than the Wild. Melker Karlsson got a generous bounce off the live boards for his goal, Tommy Wingels had a hockey angel come down and help him after botching his initial shot and Vlasic’s OT goal was one that Kuemper, I’m sure, would love to have another crack at. The Sharks are still not better without Joe Thornton than with him, if you watched the games you already know this.
The result was a much needed two points though so it’s time to stick-tap the hockey gods and move on.
*****
Mid-Season Review
The first 41 games of the 2014-2015 campaign have been a roller coaster to say the least. It started out great, went south for a chunk of games, back to the bright-side for a few, south again and now currently looking cautiously optimistic.
At this point in the season the San Jose Sharks are largely an average hockey team by all accounts – and to say otherwise would be with bias. Let’s look at some statistics.
6th In Western Conference
17th Score-Adjusted Fenwick 51.0
13th Score-Adjusted Corsi 51.7
11th CF% 51.3
22nd PDO 99.3
16th G/Gm 2.71
13th GA/Gm 2.54
14th PK 81.2%
8th PP 20.7%
16th SA/Gm 29.2
8th SF/Gm 31.0
The only thing that should jump out as a positive – aside from being in a playoff position – is the powerplay being at 8th in the league. That number has dropped since Thornton has been absent. When Joe Thornton is in the lineup the Sharks have a top-five power play in the league, so they are above average in one category.
Generally, in the grand scheme of things, the Sharks have put forth an average season so far and will continue to battle for a playoff position for the remainder of the season should they continue down this path. That’s not a bad thing – but it’s certainly not the quality of hockey that Sharks fans have been used to seeing during the regular season.
Mid-Season MVP: Joe Pavelski
I bet you thought I was going to say Thornton, didn’t you?
While Thornton’s worth to the Sharks cannot – legitimately – be denied, Joe Pavelski has done it all for the Sharks this year. He’s on pace to set a new career high in goals (42) – which would be his second straight 40+ goal season, he’s sporting a 55.9% CF% and has won 54.9% of faceoffs when asked to take a draw.
During the offseason and up to now I’ve read tweets, articles and comments suggesting that Pavelski isn’t worth his $6M per year salary. Hogwash. He’s worth every penny – and more. He leads the Sharks in points and since Thornton’s been out he’s stepped up and put the puck in the back of the net to give team teal a chance without their top middle man. Prior to the season I voted Vlasic for Captain, I’m ready to give that to Pavelski whenever the Sharks decided to bring back the third letter in the alphabet.
Defensive Woes and Mirco Mueller
Until the Sharks acquired Brenden Dillon there was zero stability beyond the first pair – and the Sharks defensive was horrendous because of it. When Dillon arrived he was able to settle down Brent Burns and stabilize a train-wreck of a defense.
The third pairing is still a question mark and might be considered one of the world’s great wonders at this point. A steady rotation of Tennyson, Hannan, Irwin and Mueller over the past month keeps a rolling question mark over the final defensive pair – and on a side note we still haven’t seen Taylor Fedun who had a good camp.
Mirco Mueller has been mishandled all year. First he was tasked with playing next to a forward turned defenseman, then he was asked to play with Irwin and Hannan. After that he was forced to sit in the press box while lesser-quality defenders played in front of him. When he was finally sent to the Swiss team for the WJC I was optimistic he would return to junior and get some ice-time so he could continue to develop. Clearly that was a dream because Mueller was a spectator for last night’s game.
Mueller’s best games in the last month have been when he played with Tennyson and that’s the pairing I want to see more of during the second set of 41 games for San Jose.
Todd McLellan
McLellan gets a capital D- rating for what he’s done in the first half of the season - it's only not an F because of the stretch of games he didn't implode the roster during. Poor player usage, cirque-du-soleil line juggling and questionable roster layouts – not to mention his early season bromance with John Scott – have turned him from a stable coach to a wild-child shell of his former self.
The players have battled and kept their coach alive – much to the contrary of the fan-driven rumors that the Sharks were playing to get him fired – after a horrible stretch of games early in the year.
Now, I’ve called for his firing more than once but I do think that a stable Todd McLellan – one who doesn’t panic and hurl players over the boards uncontrollably – is a valuable asset behind the bench. Unfortunately, for most of the season that hasn’t been the case.
The question in response to calling for his head always seems to be “Who replaces him?”. There are lots of candidates out there. Jeff Blashill, for starters. I’ve pumped that guys tires so much he should hire me as his agent. Most people seem to want an “experienced coach”, well how do you think coaches get experience? Does it just fall out of the sky onto their resumes?
For the time being McLellan isn’t going anywhere and he most likely isn’t until after the season, so I won’t ask to fire him anymore, but I’m also not going to say he’s done a good job this year.
Doug Wilson
Wilson talked a lot of nonsense in the offseason and failed to improve the team until he acquired Brenden Dillon. Since then, though, he’s gone off the grid – seemingly content with the current status of his roster.
The up-and-down assignments for Chris Tierney have been disappointing, as has the late arrival of Freddie Hamilton. He did cut the cord with Adam Burish so I will give him some credit there but Matt Irwin still remains on the roster so he’s not getting any pats on the back from me just yet.
Wilson needs to pick up the phone and improve this team. There are holes that need filling if he wants to have a legitimate run at the Stanley Cup. There has to be some pressure on him from the top to get the job done sooner or later and if he sits back and does nothing – and the Sharks flame out in the postseason again – I don’t see how the owners can look the fans in the eyes if they bring him back.
The Sharks are in a playoff spot, that’s really all that matters right now. Melker Karlsson has been a tremendous addition to the lineup since his promotion from Worcester, James Sheppard has done a nice job at 3C – often with a mishmash of linemates and Tommy Wingels is a jack of all trades.
A little more fine-tuning and the Sharks will move back to being an above average team in no time. Playoffs, here we come.
Thanks for reading.
San Jose Sharks Blogger • 
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