SAN JOSE, CA- The Sharks looked sharp in Denver and Edmonton but took the night off in Calgary.
After a two game home stand that the whole organization would like to forget, the Sharks were looking forward to hitting the road. They started in a building that they have come to know quite well and a place where they have been successful in the recent past. The Pepsi center in Denver has become a Sharks friendly zone after last year’s playoffs. San Jose won games four and six of the series eliminating the Avalanche in the latter from the post season in 2010.
Some pitchers like certain mounds in visiting stadiums just like Joe Pavelski and his teammates enjoy playing in Colorado.
Joe scored his first two goals of the season against the Avs and had this to say about playing at the Pepsi center.
“Maybe it’s the lighting. I don’t think it’s the altitude, the only thing the altitude does for us is it makes us keep it a little simpler with shorter shifts. We definitely had more energy.” The consensus from those who debate anything and everything about why a team wins or loses, myself being one of them, felt that the Sharks had to use the K.I.S.S system which stands for Keep it Simple Stupid (or Silly depending on how thick the player’s skin is.) San Jose did just that in achieving two points against the Avalanche.
The first goal was a beauty, from the fourth line and hard work paid off for Jamal Mayers who played in his first regular season game as a Shark. On a 2-on-1 down low, Mayers showed great patience and waited for Scott Nichol to get into a passing lane before he feathered a hard pass in between the defenders stick and legs resulting in the first goal of the season for Nichol and a 1-0 lead that they carried into the first intermission.
The next two goals came courtesy of Pavelski, with the man advantage and Logan Couture rounded out the scoring with an empty net goal late in the third for 4-2 victory.
The momentum carried over to Edmonton where the Oilers rookie Jordan Eberle opened the scoring at 1:22 of the first period while shorthanded but from there on it was all Sharks. Coach McLellan felt that goal got his team going.
“It woke us up a little bit,” he said. “It didn’t look like we were overly prepared to play, but then we got our game back.”
From that point forward, San Jose scored six unanswered goals from different players. Dany Heatley tied the game late in the first period on the power play and in doing so, quieted the boos from Edmonton fans who voiced their displeasure of Heatley for rejecting a trade with the Oilers before he became a Shark in the summer ‘09. With the man advantage, the Sharks went 3-for-7, receiving additional goals from Pavelski and Dan Boyle. Adding to the score sheet were Couture, who ended with the game winner, Ryan Clowe and John McCarthy.
The Oilers looked like a young team who were just going through the motions from the half way point of this game. While the Sharks continued to add to the scoreboard, they perhaps should have saved some of that touch for the Calgary Flames.
The Flames came out hot in Saturday nights contest, scoring three goals on five shots against Antii Niemi until he was relieved by Antero Niittymaki. Niittymaki let in the sixth shot of the game and it was all but over for the Sharks. The final was a 4-0 routing from a team that has been offensively challenged.
Sharks coach Todd McLellan had a tough time hiding his displeasure with his team. “In the first period, there could have been two pucks on the ice and we wouldn’t have had either one of them.” He summed the game up by saying “We were that slow. We were pushed off pucks. We didn’t compete along the boards. We weren’t playing the way we were supposed to play as far as the system went. Very disappointing.”
Momentum created in the first two games on the road, was not carried over to the third. This team has spoken about not being mentally engaged and the Flames game was an example of that.
These are two teams that have created quite the rivalry over the past few years and if the Sharks can’t find the mental edge when playing a foe like Calgary there is reason for concern.
Concern on the goaltending front. So far the Sharks have given their latest signed goalie every opportunity to cement himself as the number one man with failed results. Antti Niemi’s play has been sub par and the form he had in winning the Stanley Cup last spring seems eons away from what he has shown Sharks fans so far this year.
The power play for San Jose is off to a rampant start, but the lack of scoring 5 on 5 is also reason for concern. So much so, that after experimenting with line changes to spread out the scoring depth, the coaching staff has gone back to two front heavy producing lines and two checking lines.
Just when it looked like this team had turned the corner towards playing consistent hockey, they put on a display like the one witnessed on Saturday night.
The Sharks will try to get back into the win column on Wednesday night when the New Jersey Devils visit the Shark Tank for their lone visit to San Jose this year. Game time is 7:30 pacific.
Keep your sticks on the ice,
Contact the writer at: Cam.Gore@prohockeynews.com
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