Sheng Peng
Sharks players held their exit interviews on Saturday, and head coach Bob Boughner and interim general manager Joe Will held court today.
You can see my takeaways from Joe Will’s availability here:
As for Boughner, the big question with him is obviously his job security. But he had no answers for that yet, and I believe him.
He provided plenty of more insight on how the San Jose Sharks can add offense, how far the offense is from playoff-caliber, the little things that Brent Burns does on the ice, where Marc-Edouard Vlasic can improve next year, and what type of forward is ideal for Logan Couture’s line.
Team Defense
Bob Boughner: “Limiting chances and defensively, I think we’re 15th in the league in limiting chances, inner slot chances. If you look at, you know, our analytics, we’re a good team in the neutral zone. We deny a lot of controlled entries. We’re a shot blocking team. I think we’re second in the league in blocking shots. When we did have leads, I think we were 20-0-4 for leading after the second period. I think there’s only two other teams in the league that have that record.
“Those are some good things and it shows you that we’re in a lot of games. We had 23 games, I believe, where we had to pull our goalie and try and find that one goal that we needed.”
Takeaway: For what it’s worth, the San Jose Sharks finished the season 12th in the NHL in Quality Chances Against in All Situations, according to SPORTLOGiQ (which the Sharks also use).
That figure is somewhat skewed by their robust penalty kill – they were 17th in the league in Slot Shots Against at Even Strength. But it was an improvement: They were 26th in that category in 2020-21.
The Sharks did follow through with a greater commitment to team defense this season.
Offense
Boughner: “We’re about 40 goals short of being a playoff team.
“You don’t want to keep bringing up the name, but obviously, going into the season, losing your leading goal scorer or offensive player, that hurt us.
“I liked Tommy’s line with Timo and Barbie. I thought Cooch’s line, Cooch had a lot of guys coming in. It was a bit of a revolving door on that line with Rudy or Gregor or Dahlen. At the end of the year, it was Bonino and Niets. To steady that line out, I think, is the key moving forward.”
Takeaway: This comment seemed to draw the ire of many San Jose Sharks fans, I’m not sure why.
This was just an estimate from Boughner, an idea of how far away the Sharks offense was from even being in the playoff conversation. Maybe it’s 50, 60, 70 goals? Maybe 40 is enough because you assume if the Sharks score 40 more goals, they’d automatically give up less (i.e. some of those empty net goals). It doesn’t really matter, San Jose’s offense was far, far from playoff-worthy.
The more salient question: Could welcoming Evander Kane back into the Sharks room and a healthy Kevin Labanc have met that number? And would that have been enough to get the Sharks into the playoffs?
Let’s also assume you’re getting a mostly healthy Erik Karlsson too, because that’s critical to maximizing San Jose’s potential.
From 2019-21, Kane averaged 0.4 Goals Per Game, that’s 33 over an 82-game season. Labanc averaged 0.2, that’s 17 goals over an 82-game season.
Of course, you don’t just add those 50 goals into a vacuum. Other forwards would be getting less playing time with Kane and Labanc on the Sharks.
Kane and Labanc actually formed an effective line with Logan Couture last year. Between that trio and Timo Meier-Tomas Hertl-Alexander Barabanov, that could be a dangerous top-six.
Maybe Noah Gregor and Rudolfs Balcers could flank Nick Bonino on the third line, and Matt Nieto and Andrew Cogliano could be centered by Jasper Weatherby or Scott Reedy to round out your bottom-six. You could also add a veteran 4C to replace Weatherby/Reedy with relative ease.
Maybe Jonathan Dahlen becomes your 13th forward in this case? The more physical Jonah Gadjovich or Jeffrey Viel could mix in to.
Anyway, I’d estimate Kane and Labanc could add a net 35-45 goals to the Sharks, minus whatever you lose with their additions to the line-up, say some of Dahlen and Reedy’s goals.
So that does get you close to Bob’s estimate. That, coupled with Meier’s breakout season, Karlsson’s revival (say sustained over most of a full season), and better goaltending could have been about a 90-point team, I think. That’s not necessarily a playoff team, but it’s close.
Brent Burns
Boughner: “If you dive deep into it, no one’s played more minutes at his age. So I think that’s number-one is the situations he plays in. He plays against top lines every night. So, with our team, we played a lot in our end at times and sometimes it skews things.
“I think he’s still one of the leaders on our team generating offense, that’s forwards and defenseman included. He’s still one of the guys that’s got the most offensive kills in the small areas in the defensive zone. I think he’s what, a top 12 or 13 scoring defenseman in the league? He’s providing that offense running the powerplay, so there’s a ton of good things about Burnzie’s game.
“Sometimes, people don’t give him enough credit for a lot of the little things that he provides and what he means to this team in the dressing room and how he sets examples for young players.
“I thought he’s had a good season, a really good season.”
Takeaway: Brent Burns may not be a Norris Trophy-caliber defenseman anymore, but he can still play at a high level. Burns is still Boughner’s most-used defenseman because he’s still Boughner’s best-overall defenseman. If he’s overused, that’s more because of injuries to other blueliners and the organization’s lack of clear top-four options besides Mario Ferraro and Erik Karlsson, who were both out for extended periods this season.
Dump & Chase?
Boughner: “I’ve heard we’re a dump-and-chase team. We’re not a dump-and-chase team. No one’s ever said dump the puck if you’ve got an outnumbered rush or if you have a situation where you’re getting creative. We chip and dump pucks when need be.
“If you look at the best teams in the league, I think you’ll find that usually the best teams in the league are the best forechecking teams. The teams that manage the puck the best.
“You know, people said that about the St. Louis Blues a few years ago, they led the league and dump-ins, they led the league in forecheck and they won the Stanley Cup. So there’s different ways to play with your personnel.”
Takeaway: I’ve called the San Jose Sharks, ideally, a dump-and-chase team. I didn’t mean it pejoratively. The Islanders of recent vintage, for example, used dump-and-chase hockey to their advantage.
Considering that the Sharks were dead-last in the league in Successful Controlled Entries and Controlled Entry Success % at Even Strength, a little recovery on the dump and chase probably wouldn’t hurt them. The Colorado Avalanche, by the way, lead the NHL with a 59.1 Controlled Entry Success %, the median is 55.4, and San Jose is dragging at 52.4.
Evander Kane
Boughner: “I think it was time for both sides to part and I think it was the right decision, first of all.
“Do we miss his offense? Of course. But, there’s a vision and a focus of this group moving forward, and it’s No. 1, you have to win the game in the locker room before you win on the ice.
“We have a strong locker room. I think we have guys that really care for one another, play hard for one another, and they want to take that next step as a group. So to assess whether the whole thing was positive or negative, I think we didn’t go into this with our eyes shut and thinking that we weren’t going to lose some skill and offense, but also at what cost?
“I think at the end of the day, it was time for both sides to part. I think he’s probably in a better situation, and I think we are too.”
Takeaway: Boughner has, unprompted, brought up Kane a few times in the last few months, always in reference to a shallow Sharks forward corps being even more shallow without last year’s leading scorer. But I’ve never gotten the sense that he misses Kane in his room.
Offensive Zone Possession Time
Boughner: “We used to be a team, when we had Jumbo and we had Pav, we used to be a team that rimmed a lot of pucks out the offensive zone up to our point and it was a low-high situation where we get people in front of the net. It was Pavelski tipping or [getting it to] Jumbo in the corner. He’d sling it all the way around and rim it up to the D, and that works.
“We’ve changed that a little bit because we want to be a quick strike team underneath the tops of the circle and I think we’ve done a better job of that. Now with that comes you gotta be able to cycle, you got to be able to hold on to pucks. You got to have your D involved and I just didn’t think we had enough situations, or sometimes it’s personnel like I said, but situations where you’re working in almost a five-man motion in the offensive zone.
“With that, one of the teams that comes to mind is obviously Tampa Bay, Nashville does it well, that you really, you got D on their toes keeping pucks alive. You got forwards holding onto the pucks using that back of the net, resetting it, and quick-striking to the slot. That’s the kind of team we want to be.
“Young guys have to learn how to protect pucks and we have a ton of those guys in our line-up, as we’ve talked about all year. That’s a skill and that’s an art that comes with experience.
“Then I think getting faster as a team, I think you look at our team from top to bottom, especially our forwards and team speed is important nowadays. If you’re asking me what we can do better, we need to get faster and hold on to more pucks and that’ll help with our possession.”
Takeaway: The San Jose Sharks were dead-last in the NHL in OZ Possession Time at Even Strength at 4:15. The Edmonton Oilers lead the league at 6:51 and the league average is 5:43. No one is suggesting that San Jose needs to vault to the top of the league in this category, but you don’t want to be 32 of 32 either.
Playing Fast
Boughner: “You can go in and get on the forecheck, and we do a decent job of that.
“But once you hit that puck, you have to be able to escape out of the pressure and that’s about playing fast and that’s about making quick decisions. You see the best teams do it when they get in, they forecheck, they get the puck. They’re finding a way to bring that thing to the net or to the slot right away.
“That’s the kind of identity we want to have, that we will work at.
“That’s the next step for us as a team.”
Takeaway: Speed isn’t just about skating, it’s about playing fast. Let’s see how this lines up with who the San Jose Sharks add this summer up front.
Thomas Bordeleau & William Eklund
Boughner: “[Bordeleau] did a great job coming in after his college career was over and I felt that he made an impact in our line-up right away.
“Talk about a guy with some speed that can hold onto pucks. And his skill level, you see that and for a guy that’s fresh to the league, that’s pretty impressive that he can do that.
“And that’s what we’re sort of talking about that next step, it’s Eklund that comes, we saw him hold onto pucks and he’s playing fast. Bordeleau plays fast, so those guys come in and make the team, that’s an automatic upgrade, right?
“With Bords, the first thing I talked to him at the end of season was making sure, I know he’s gonna maybe play the World Juniors or World Championships or whatever he’s doing, but I think that it’s important for him to get in the weight room and get bigger and stronger, No. 1. Same with Eklund.
“Big summers for these guys for building up their bodies.”
Takeaway: I’m of the opinion that the rookie Bordeleau has a lot to work on – but I can see it coming together as soon as next year. That could be a surprise if you’ve followed my Bordeleau coverage to close the season, but I’ve been very impressed with his hockey smarts – that’s the unteachable stuff. The teachable stuff, or stuff gained by experience or hard work, like a stronger body and better decision-making, can happen very soon.
I still wouldn’t be comfortable starting the season with a rookie at an uber-important role like 3C, and the Sharks would probably be better served by letting Bordeleau start in a lower-pressure situation, but I’m not counting the kid out.
Erik Karlsson
Boughner: “That [forearm injury in January] tipped the scales pretty hard on us.
“From the time I’ve been here anyway, I thought that was the best hockey we’ve seen Karly play [up to that injury]. He was engaged. He was aggressive. He was jumping on the play, running the power play. He was just doing a little bit of everything.”
Takeaway: Boughner also said, “This team goes as Erik goes.” Karlsson showed early in the season that he can still be an impact player. But can he do that at anything close to a full year has been the constant question of his tenure in teal.
Logan Couture
Boughner: “I think [Couture] needs some speed on his wings. For Cooch, playing against top lines, someone that has a great hockey sense and someone that has speed.
“Whether that’s an Eklund coming in, or you go outside the organization to find that? Again, I think that’s one of the keys for us to move forward and expect offense obviously out of Cooch’s line. Some nights, as we saw, if Tommy or Timo were off, we had a tough chance of winning those games and getting points in those games. We shouldn’t have to be reliant on that one line to score every night.”
Takeaway: I’ve said that I believe finding a rock-solid 3C should be the Sharks’ priority this off-season, but maybe they’re thinking at least one winger to complement Couture is the way to go. Of course, much depends on cap space created by Kane’s termination getting upheld and/or buying out Marc-Edouard Vlasic.
Either way, Couture needs help. Couture played with Timo Meier to start the season, but over the last 50 or so games, his most common linemates at 5-on-5 were Noah Gregor, Rudolfs Balcers, Nick Bonino, and Matt Nieto. Not surprisingly, Couture’s 5-on-5 production dropped in the second half.
Marc-Edouard Vlasic
Boughner: “I think that Picks, his game got better as the season went on. I thought his second half was much better than his first half.
“He’s had slow starts for the last two years, I think coming into camp, having a better training camp and not waiting the two or three months for his game to come around, I think that’s important for him personally.
“His minutes increased as his game got better. There’s not a coach out there that doesn’t want to play players when they’re at the top of their game when they can help a team every night. And of course, you’re going to load those minutes up on guys like that. So if Pickles comes back and plays the same way he finished and he starts the same way he finished, then there won’t be any issues.
“But there’s no set who’s going to be in the top-four, or this is how many minutes guys are gonna get. You get what you earn and what you deserve. I’ve always been like that.”
Takeaway: I think Vlasic did have a better second half than in the first – but you couldn’t tell, based on his usage. In Feburary, he averaged 16:56 Per Game; in March, he averaged 15:43; and in April, he averaged 14:55. You can argue that they relaxed Vlasic’s minutes to get a closer look at the younger blueliners, but point is, he still wasn’t playing against the opposition’s best forwards. Until he does that at 20 minutes a night – and well – I’m not buying any stock on a Vlasic revival.