Sharks lose two at home and find themselves in deep water

SAN JOSE, Calif -The theme for the San Jose Sharks this season and even more so in the post season has been overcome, and never more so than now will that concept be tested for the regular season Western Conference Champs.
The good news for the Sharks is that they are going to Chicago for the next two games where the home team record is three wins and three losses in the playoffs. The fans at the United Center can’t be too disappointed with their team, however they may want to see them play more games on the road than at home. The Blackhawks lost their first away game in round one against Nashville, since then they have not come up on the short side of the stick away from the windy city. This team has won seven games in a row on the road tying an NHL playoff record.

In both games in San Jose the Sharks have come out flying in the first few minutes creating ample scoring opportunities but have no goals to show for it. The chances are there but results are not. The reason has been the stellar play of Antti Niemi pronounced AN-tee nee-YEH-mee. This second year player was signed by Chicago in May of 2008 and only played in three NHL games in the 2008-09 season recording 1-1-1 record. He is 26 years young and came into his own this year taking the starting job away from Cristobal Huet who earns approximately seven times more than the second year goalie. No matter how you slice it the lack of scoring by the Sharks can be credited to Chicago as a team but if you had to point a finger it would be at Niemi. Early in the game last night Devin Setoguchi had a chance to beat the 6’2 Finn but was denied by the left pad that came out of nowhere in the butterfly style that most young goaltenders use today. This really seemed to take some wind out of the sails of the fans as well as the team at a sold out Shark Tank.
The inability to score in the opening frame after dominating play early proved costly. At the 12:48 mark of the period Andrew Ladd crossed the blue line and beat Sharks goalie Evgeni Nabakov on a snap shot from 55 feet out. These guys are professionals but at any level of hockey you play at when you are the better team to begin the game and have nothing to show for it and then the opposition gets a soft one like that it is deflating. Nabakov was not screened and it was a two on two break so he did not have to be aware of a cross ice pass. For the remainder of the first period the Blackhawks net minder was challenged with minimal shots. No doubt that the opening goal of the game was the turning point.
According to coach MacLellan, “That goal took a lot out of us, for some reason. I was disappointed, because we have had that resiliency in our hockey club, but you could feel it on the bench. It took us a while to climb back and get the energy level back up where it needed to be. “When that happens against a team that is playing that well, you will have some miscues and some mis-execution. I thought we let our guard down a little bit after the first goal, and they took the game over for a while.”
In the post game interviews, one common expression from the Sharks players was that they all have to be better, they all have to take a look in the mirror.
Dan Boyle had this to say, “When you’re not scoring goals desperation needs to come up, again if you’re not scoring there’s gotta be a reason. During the regular season you have 82 games to get out of it (referring to the scoring slump) we have two right now”
So far in this series, the difference has simply been that the Blackhawks’ top players have been better than the Sharks. Starting in between the pipes, Niemi has outplayed Nabakov. The Chicago defense has played extremely well and not let pucks get in deep behind them and the pairing of Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook have been the league’s top shutdown pair all season long and so far in this series they are living up to the bill. Up front the line combination of Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and Dustin Byfuglien have owned the Sharks by scoring text book goals and by going to the tough to play places in front of the net.
On top of that coach Joel Quennville has done an admirable job of getting either his top defensive pairing and or his checking line out against Joe Thornton‘s line. The secondary scoring that carried the Sharks through the first round and got them going against Detroit in the second has dried up here in the third. Chicago has been the more opportunistic team receiving goals from depth players and taking advantage of their scoring chances.
The Sharks have their backs against the wall and are in unfamiliar waters. They have not lost two in a row at home this post season and you could tell that their frustration level was at an all time high. Thornton took a slashing penalty off the draw towards the end of the game last night on Dave Bolland the Blackhawks checking line center and there was a major scrum with less than a minute left in the game.
On the bright side if you are a Sharks fan both goals were scored by Patrick Marleau in the 4-2 loss. The first one came on the power play when he positioned himself on his off wing and found the top shelf after receiving a cross ice pass from Joe Thornton. For the second goal Patty was in the right place at the right time and capitalized on a rebound after Dany Heatley showed great hustle and determination to get the puck to the net. Marleau will be a key for this team if they are to come back in this series, he is yet to play his best hockey. The good news is this line did show up last after going a combined minus 6 in game 1.
Rounding out the scoring for the Blackhawks was Dustin Byfuglien, Jonathan Toews, and Troy Brouwer all on tip ins. If you’re not seeing the pattern all you have to do is look at some of the highlights from the previous rounds and you will realize these guys score playoff goals. They may be ugly but at the end of the day the final score is what counts.
As far as the Sharks go, to turn things around they must do something to contain the bodies in front of the net. The tip ins are killing them. Chicago has four lines who can all wheel. It is no secret on how to stop speed in this league, the Sharks need to be more physical they must hit them hard every chance they get.
Although San Jose has been good so far in this post season they must remember that to hoist Lord Stanley’s Cup good doesn’t cut it, you must be great and so far the Blackhawks have been just that.
Keep your sticks on the ice,
Contact Cam.Gore@prohockeynews.com