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The San Jose Sharks continue to stumble defensively and in net since returning from the holiday break, falling 6-2 to the Detroit Red Wings tonight.
Logan Couture and Lane Pederson were out for the Sharks after joining Mario Ferraro in COVID protocol, while Marc-Edouard Vlasic was a healthy scratch.
Detroit controlled the play for the better part of the first period and opened the scoring about two-thirds of the way through the frame. It was a pretty brutal first goal to give up for James Reimer, as Tyler Bertuzzi threw the puck in front from behind the net and it bounced off his stick and in. For someone who’s been so good for most of the year, Reimer’s had a very rough stretch of games. The Sharks ended up on a five-minute power play late in the period, after a hit against Jacob Middleton (who didn’t return), but couldn’t convert before the end of the period, as it remained 1-0 for the Red Wings.
In the second period, however, it was the Red Wings who capitalized on San Jose's power play, as Brent Burns mishandled the puck at the blue line and Pius Suter went the other way to score on a breakaway. Then 37 seconds later, Detroit got a 2-on-1 and Tyler Bertuzzi buried his second goal of the game off a pass from Carter Rowney. So just as it looked like the Sharks had a great chance to tie the game heading into the period, they found themselves down 3-0 after giving up two shorthanded goals on the same power play.
San Jose did get on the board right after that, as Jasper Weatherby tipped in a point shot by Brent Burns. However, the Red Wings would respond midway through the period, as Timo Meier showed very little urgency on a pass from Erik Karlsson in the defensive zone and the puck stayed in after the turnover, with Michael Rasmussen getting a pass to Suter, who put the Red Wings up 4-1 with his second goal of the game.
The Sharks pulled the lead back to 4-2 just two minutes into the third period, as Carter Rowney turned the puck over and Tomas Hertl’s shot went in off Alexander Barabanov. Just two minutes later though, Dylan Larkin came down the wing and snapped a shot by Adin Hill, who replaced Reimer after the second period. Then just over a minute after Larkin’s goal, Robby Fabbri buried a shot off a turnover from Brent Burns to make it a 6-2 game, which would end up as the final score.
It was another poor defensive effort from most of the lineup. San Jose’s defensemen are terribly prone to turnovers and even when they can get the puck up to the forwards, there’s a lack of urgency from the wingers to get the puck out. We've seen way too many odd-man rushes as well, with players being caught out of position.
That said, goaltending has been disastrous too. James Reimer has allowed too many poor goals, such as the first one tonight.
Between the defensive effort and the goaltending, the Sharks have allowed at least six goals in three of their last four games and 24 goals during the four-game stretch overall. The worst part is their quality of competition hasn’t even been all that high over the four-game stretch, considering Pittsburgh was the only opponent who even ranks top-20 in the league in points percentage.
San Jose’s next game will come on Thursday against the Buffalo Sabres.
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Supersurvey
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