Sharks Rattle Jones’s Cage, Shut Out Kraken 4-0

The San Jose Sharks welcome in the Seattle Kraken to SAP Center. Logan Couture, Evgeny Svechnikov, Noah Gregor, and Mikey Eyssimont put four on the board and San Jose beat Martin Jones in his first SAP Center start since his summer of 2021 buyout.

Period 1

Martin Jones, starting his first game at SAP Center since his buyout, has a lower save % (.891) than James Reimer (.895). What a difference a team makes. Reimer is 8-14-6 and Jones is 23-9-3. I wonder if Seattle looked into Reimer over the summer before signing Jones, makes sense. Obviously they were hoping from more out of Grubauer.

6 in: Karlsson tries a backhand diagonal pass through the NZ, through two Kraken. Telegraphed turnover. His game looks riskier than you like so far.

Megna, for a guy who just played 92 Sharks games (plus a season with Cuda), gets a very warm round of applause from SAP Center crowd today. Well-earned!

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) February 20, 2023

Ferraro wants a call after Tanev crunched him in corner. Yea that looks like a 100 percent board.

9 left: Bonino forces a turnover high, then intercepts a cross-slot pass on PK. Strong shift.

6 left: Karlsson throws another burger up the middle in DZ.

PP2: Benning-MacDonald-Labanc-Lindblom-Kaut

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) February 20, 2023

Sans Karlsson, is this the worst on-paper line-up that the Sharks have trotted out since 2019-20? It down there, but Karlsson’s Norris-caliber season saves it. To the San Jose Sharks’ credit, they’ve competed against the Kraken. 2-0 High Danger at 5-on-5 per Natural Stat Trick, 1-0 Shot Shots. This is a snoozefest so far, at least in terms of offense.

Period 2

3 in: Couture finds Gregor coming out of box, breakaway, post. An offensively-challenged affair continues.

7 in: San Jose Sharks record their first shot of the period.

8 in: Eberle takes it up high from Benning, just outmuscles him, not good, but Benning recovers and separates behind Reimer. Good battle between ex-Oilers teammates.

10 in: Don’t love that Labanc decision. On entry, Sturm actually provides interference, KLB cuts toward middle, bodied off, loses it in the middle. He could’ve put it behind the d-man, instead went for the big offensive play. Understand the instinct, but…Reimer bails him out on the other end, counterattack off turnover in middle, Gourde one-timer in slot.

San Jose Sharks getting loose in the slot, DZ faceoff loss, Bjorkstrand misses it high and wide in slot.

Couture goal: Own goal off Gourde faceoff win. Couture’s gonna laugh at Jones for years about that one.

Svechnikov goal: Vlasic pinches, keeps Kraken in zone. Then Dunn passes it up the middle, Svechnikov jumps on it. Consecutive unassisted goals for the San Jose Sharks.

Gregor goal: I looked up to see if the sky was parting. Speed and shot though, that is Noah’s game. Nice work.

It's all coming back to me now, Jones 11 saves on 14 shots

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) February 20, 2023

Sharks have upped it 7-2 Slot Shots — the Kraken have no-showed this one.

Period 3

Gorgeous Karlsson feed to Eyssimont in slot, but Jones makes the save. Thought they might pull him, to be honest.

6 in: Eyssimont walks down slot, makes a move, fires away. Just had an end-to-end wraparound too. Good game for him again.

10 in: Eyssimont with a beauty reception of a Karlsson lead pass, could’ve been a suicide pass if Eyssimont didn’t finesse it through the forechecker. Leads to Barabanov slot chance. Good work, Mikey!

8 left: Not beautiful hockey from Barabanov, but like the effort to poke it out, off Dunn’s stick, that extra effort gets it out of zone. Nothing doing in OZ, but on backcheck, bounces off a Kraken player, forces turnover. Not Selke smooth haha, but it works.

7 left: Outstanding work by Benning to body off Gourde going for loose puck behind Reimer.

5 left: Karlsson steps in front of lead pass, fine work. That’s Karlsson defense, his brain. Instead of skating and bumping with lead skater, the typical, he just outthinks the opposition. EK65 not good in opening frame, excellent since then.

Eyssimont goal: That’s well-earned from a guy who’s had a great game but hadn’t hit scoresheet yet. Brilliant high-to-low pass from Karlsson and Couture, and Eyssimont gets stick free on Borgen.