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The San Jose Sharks fell 4-1 against the Nashville Predators in Prague today, as part of the NHL Global Series to open the regular season.
The game started poorly for the Sharks as only about a minute into the game, a rebound landed out front and was buried by Kiefer Sherwood to open the scoring early for the Predators.
A little later though, the Sharks tied the game just after their power play expired, as a loose puck popped out to Tomas Hertl at the side of the net, who buried it past Juuse Saros to tie the game. Then on a second power play, the Sharks really started to build some momentum and managed to get quite a few high danger opportunities around the net, but couldn’t capitalize.
James Reimer did have to make a big cross-crease save on Filip Forsberg late in the period to keep the game tied but the Sharks were arguably the better team in the opening frame.
The Sharks found themselves down early once again in the second frame, as Eeli Tolvanan ripped a shot past James Reimer through a bit of traffic to put Nashville up 2-1 under two minutes into the period. The Sharks did pressure after that and did a good job denying zone exits and keeping the puck in the Predators’ end but couldn’t generate a ton of great chances off those turnovers.
Nashville then built some momentum near the end of the frame though and with just under five minutes left in the period, Dante Fabrro put a pass to Nino Niederreiter on a 2-on-1, who buried it to extend the lead to 3-1.
We saw a pretty low-event third period after that but the Sharks didn’t manage to get much going in an effort to tie the game. They did outshoot the Predators 9-6 but an empty netter from Matt Duchene with only about 30 seconds to go sealed a 4-1 win for Nashville.
Some quick notes on the loss: Despite going 0-for-4, San Jose’s power play looked pretty good, especially with their first period chances. Saros had to make some pretty great saves to prevent San Jose from taking the lead going into the second period.
That said, the Sharks struggled to generate quality chances at even strength and didn't get much going in the back 40 minutes. I did think the Sharks’ top line of Tomas Hertl, Timo Meier and Luke Kunin looked good for the Sharks overall though.
While the Sharks struggled to generate chances as the game went on, however, they also weren’t consistently giving up a ton. They were far from perfect defensively but it was moreso a few bad odd-man rush chances rather than sustained pressure from Nashville.
I don’t think there were a ton of surprises in today’s game to open the season - the Sharks aren’t going to score a ton of goals, but they did keep it a competitive game.
The Sharks and Predators will be back in action tomorrow for the second game of the Global Series.
QuizMaker 
San Jose Sharks Blogger • 
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