The questions in San Jose were certainly loud this off season. The signing of Martin Jones as the number one goalie for the Sharks drew raised eyebrows and some consternation among fans as the Sharks are getting long in the tooth and time is winding down on a Cup run.
But, while the season is still young, Jones is proving his critics wrong.
On Saturday night, Jones made 27 saves and the Sharks got offense from one of the old-timers, Patrick Marleau, who scored twice en route to a 2-0 win over the Anaheim Ducks.
Martin Jones – File photo by Jack Lima
“That’s a big, strong team up front and typically they do a really good job of getting in front of the net with bodies and sticks,” Jones said of the Ducks. “I thought we did a really good job boxing out. I was able to see a lot of pucks tonight.”
San Jose head coach Peter DeBoer was pleased with his club’s effort.
“I think a statement was made that the Sharks are back and we’re for real this year,” DeBoer said. “We talked about it through training camp. We’re only two games in but we played two tough teams. I think our game is getting better every day. I think the guys are feeling good about what we’re doing. We just have to keep moving forward with that.”
Frederik Andersen made 42 saves in the loss.
“We just have to keep battling,” Andersen said. “All I wanted to do was give the guys a chance. We probably need more shots. We passed it away too many times.”
The goalie battle did not surprise the Ducks bench boss.
“I thought it would be a tough goalie’s night, and I really wanted to score the first goal,” Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau said. “They got it. Both teams played well, but we didn’t get enough traffic in front of the net. I could count on one hand the number of times [Jones] didn’t see it. Don’t get me wrong, he played a great game.
“We couldn’t get going in the third. They were holding us in our zone with puck possession. Once we get it out, we were dumping it for line changes and couldn’t get much pressure on them.”
So the Sharks are out of the gate fast while the Ducks stumbled along with other favorites in the Pacific Division this first week.
“We kind of got better as the game went on right from the start,” Sharks captain Joe Pavelski said. “Second period was a little better, third was definitely our best and it needs to be and I would say last year, that was one of the problems in this rink. Hopefully we can continue that trend. Having one game here early in the season and then going on the road, it was important to get this win and guys played good.”
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