Secondary scoring helps Sharks sweep Alberta, LA

SAN JOSE, CA – For many of the San Jose Sharks players, the contest against the Calgary Flames was a night to get off the “Schnied” (a word that won’t be found in any dictionary but used by hockey players meaning they are in a goal scoring slump). Calgary came in to San Jose Monday night not playing well, but as a team that has had success at the HP Pavilion going 4-0-1 in their last 5 visits. Mikka Kiprusoff usually plays well against his former team and is one of the NHL’s top goaltenders. For Devon Setoguchi his slump ended Saturday night when the Sharks dealt the flailing Edmonton Oilers another loss. Setoguchi scored 2 goals for San Jose in a 4-2 victory. The Sharks momentum kept on rolling the following night with a visit to Los Angeles beating up on the division rivals 5-1.
The question is what got a number of players of the schnied. If you believe in superstition, and most athletes do, then you will marvel at what actions were taken to put an end to the latest scoring slump. The night before the Oilers came to town, Setoguchi shaved his head. He took it down with shears, and gave himself what many people call the military cut. Seeing as how he wears a helmet we won’t go into the aerodynamics theory but he had plenty of jump in his step which resulted in lighting the lamp twice in the 4-2 win. Seto, as the home town fans call him, said it worked for him in junior hockey so why not try it out to in the bigs. When all else fails, go off the radar and try something completely irrelevant to increase your production. You could say he was in the right place at the right time and got a lucky bounce or two but you have to be good to be lucky when you play at the highest level a sport can offer in the world. Good players work for their breaks and number 16 has been doing the right things without the results. He knew that if he kept moving his feet and got to the net good things were bound to happen. The difficult part of being in a slump is knowing what to change, and in this case Setoguchi hit the nail on the head.
Proof would come two nights later against the Calgary Flames where he scored a goal that was seen on highlight reels everywhere. It seems as though breaking the slump is contagious in the Sharks locker room. At the end of a 9-1 drubbing against Calgary, 8 different players in teal found the back of the net and collectively broke out of a 100 game goal scoring slump. Kiprusoff was chased from the game after two periods but back up Curtis McIlhenney didn’t fair much better. Let’s not take anything away from a team who has been doing the right things without the results. Coach McLellan has his players shooting from everywhere and went to the net hard for rebounds. Both Calgary goaltenders had a tough time with rebound control as did Jonathon Quick of the LA Kings on Tuesday night, but that is also a credit to the Sharks players for making good decisions when shooting the puck and attacking the net like blood thirty mosquitoes in spring. They swarmed the net for any sign of a rebound after the Sharks coaching staff did their homework and found that the majority of the goals scored lately have been from within a few feet of the net. What it comes down to is who wants to go to the dirty places and earn that exuberant feeling one gets when the red light is lit. After that you get to share in a group hug with teammates who helped contribute to the most recent result. There is no better feeling than a group of players succeeding at their goal and the smiles on their faces immediately after tells all. As do the frowns on the faces of the team who has suffered the most recent set back. If you want to score goals in the NHL you are going to have to earn them in the trenches close to the blue paint. Goaltenders today are too good to be beaten by long shots so you have to be willing to take the abuse that comes with going to the net. In San Jose there has been no shortage of commitment. Manny Malhotra and Ryan Clowe switched spots on the 2^nd and 3^rd lines and that seems to have made a big difference with the teams secondary scoring. Malhotra brings more speed to the second line which has been difficult for other teams to defend and Clowe is the man with the scoring touch on the 3^rd line as the go to guy.
The momentum kept on rolling into the Staples Center Tuesday night against the LA Kings. The Sharks were up 3-0 at the end of the 1^st period. From that point forward they did a good job of managing the puck and the game. Special teams were at the forefront for San Jose which will please the coaching staff especially when playing 2 nights in a row with travel involved. The penalty kill was perfect and power play scored 3 goals on 7 attempts. Patrick Marleau and Ryan Clowe each had a pair of goals along with Dan Boyle netting 1 for the Sharks, while Wayne Simmonds potted the lone marker for LA. Marleau’s two goal performance earned him top spot in the NHL goal scoring department followed by Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins who tied him earlier in the night with a pair of his own.
The Anaheim Ducks visited the Shark Tank Thursday night but left with a 3-1 loss. The win was San Jose’s fourth win in a row. The Sharks are on a roll right now and it will be interesting to see if the Buffalo Sabres have what it takes to stop the momentum Saturday night against the league leading San Jose Sharks.
Keep your sticks on the ice,
Contact the author at cam.gore@prohockeynews.com Contact the photographer at jack.lima@prohockeynews.com