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The San Jose Sharks dropped their second game of the NHL Global Series against the Nashville Predators today, falling 3-2.
The notable lineup changes for the Sharks were Evgeny Svechnikov coming into the lineup in place of Noah Gregor, while Jaycob Megna replaced Scott Harrington on the blue line. Kaapo Kahkonen also started in place of James Reimer.
It was a relatively slow opening frame, with few quality chances exchanged. On San Jose’s second power play of the frame though, Mario Ferraro got the puck on net and while Luke Kunin’s initial rebound attempt was stopped, he followed up a second time to slide the puck past Kevin Lankinen, giving the Sharks the lead. San Jose led 11-7 in shots after the frame and did a pretty good job of keeping Nashvile’s forwards to the outside on rushes and limiting good opportunities.
In the second frame, Ryan Johansen made a great move to get around Jaycob Megna to put a shot on net, before Nino Niederreiter buried the rebound to tie the game. Only 10 seconds after that though, the Sharks got their lead back right away, with Mario Ferraro making a zone entry, before Steven Lorentz fed Logan Couture, who one-timed a shot past Lankinen. However, the back-and-forth continued soon after, as Kaapo Kahkonen couldn’t hang onto an initial shot from Filip Forsberg, and Forsberg took the puck and converted on a wraparound to tie the game once again. San Jose generated chances after that on a power play but just couldn’t convert and then only about a minute after their power play came to an end, Niederreiter scored his second goal of the game off a great pass from Eeli Tolvanen to give Nashville their first lead of the game.
San Jose came out strong in the third period, forechecking hard and getting shots on goal. They ended up outshooting the Predators by a huge 15-3 margin in the frame - though while they did pile on a lot of shots, not a ton of those were necessarily high-danger chances. The Sharks were the better team by far in the closing period and did press right until the end but couldn’t convert, falling 3-2.
It was certainly a better effort from the Sharks today, outshooting the Predators 33-18 overall. They played a more well-rounded game and may have deserved a better fate. Perhaps the most impressive part of San Jose's performance was how few high-danger chances they gave up, especially off the rush.
It's worth noting that with the departure of Brent Burns, the Sharks are already (expectedly) relying heavily on Erik Karlsson and Mario Ferraro to play big minutes. Karlsson played over 27 minutes, while Ferraro played more than 25 minutes. There are certainly question marks surrounding the rest of the defense group, so unless someone else emerges as a key option, we can expect to see Karlsson and Ferraro each tasked with a huge role.
While the Sharks aren’t likely to have a hugely successful season, they’ve been competitive in each of their first two games against a good team, which has been positive to see. San Jose will be back in action next Friday against the Carolina Hurricanes.
Supersurvey
OTHER ARTICLES FROM OCTOBER
Sharks announce additions to Hockey Operations staff, sign Scott Harrington
Sharks drop season opener in Prague, fall 4-1 to Predators 
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