San Jose Sharks
Sharks Almost Come Back, But Lose 4-3 to Golden Knights
LAS VEGAS — The San Jose Sharks visit T-Mobile Arena to take on the Vegas Golden Knights.
Will Smith (twice) and William Eklund scored, but the Sharks lost 4-3.
Period 1
1 in: Eichel thought he had Barbashev in the slot, but Mukhamadullin tied up his stick right on time, nice work. San Jose Sharks are a step behind so far though, got to push play the other way.
5 in: Big side-to-side Nedeljkovic save on Barbashev.
But then, Dellandrea and Graf able to get out on a 2-on-1, Lindbom stops Dellandrea, and Vegas counterattack. 3-on-2, but huge credit to Dellandrea, who tracks back to negate it. Really a great play.
Smith goal: Wennberg had a huge block on McNabb. Then Toffoli stretch pass to Smith, a beaut, and maybe Theodore made the Smith shot flutter?
9 in: Urgent shift from the Dellandrea line, keeping puck alive in OZ, leads to OZ faceoff. Great effort there by Ty, Graf, and Kurashev.
8 left: Reaves lights up Holtz.
7 left: Good call by Leddy, about to pinch on Stone, doesn’t go all the way. Stone has full possession, and also, it’s Mark Stone. Leddy backs off, and he’s able to be in good defensive position in the NZ to intercept puck coming out, which he wouldn’t have been if he had committed to a fruitless pinch.
Hertl goal: San Jose Sharks just can’t contain the Vegas size there, Hertl and Korczak along the wall. They’re defending to best of their ability, able to hold Knights to the perimeter at first, but the continuous cycle that they can’t kill leads to a loose puck in the slot, which Hertl pounces on for the score.
2 left: Toffoli protesting off DZ draw, thinks he got interfered with, probably, as two Knights got in his way as he tried to close on point. Broadcast says he took a high stick. Either way, he doth protest in vain.
1 left: Kurashev backcheck gives Dorofeyev no quarter, love. This line has been strong tonight, despite getting scored on.
Period 2
Beaut pass by Celebrini to Smith in slot, looks like Smith’s missed shot almost took Mack’s head off though lol
Orlov penalty: Orlov looked too wide on Theodore, got beat pretty bad there. Orlov took a penalty and Theodore had a good chance anyway.
4 in: Knights just had a full two-minute power play in OZ, top unit versus Graf-Dellandrea. Randy asks, he’s behind me, can Sharks survive the momentum shift? Then Celebrini basically takes it end to end, hits Smith with a pass in the slot, big Lindbom save. But that’s one way to blunt the Vegas momentum.
Sissons goal: Klingberg overskates it along the wall in OZ. 3-on-1 the other way, Nedeljkovic makes the initial save, but Sissons gets it across. That hurts, just an unforced error, but also a misplay that happens too.
6 in: Graf makes a good play high to force puck out of Hutton.
Marner goal: Marner gets Nedelkjovic to sell out on one side, for the too easy wraparound. Ned too aggressive, I wonder if Mukhamadullin could’ve defended that better, and again, something of unforced errors.
Goodrow penalty: This game is still close, so let’s see if the Sharks can stay in it, and not give in to the momentum. They couldn’t do it against the Avs.
Hertl goal: Sharks weren’t far from killing the penalty, Vegas wasn’t generating a lot, but long Marner shot-pass deflected in by Hertl. Just superior depth doing superior depth things. As much as Vegas has struggled this season, Eichel-Barbashev as your first line duo, Marner-Stone second, and Hertl-Dorofeyev third line is still intimidating.
Smith goal: Eklund and Celebrini second effort as Vegas thinks they’re about to PK clear, and the puck squirts to Smith, like Hertl’s first goal, who finishes. Smith has had lots of chances tonight. Notably, Klingberg was on PP1.
5 left: Leddy misplay, leads to Howden in the slot by himself, huge Nedeljkovic save. Sharks not playing great, but they’re still in it.
3 left: That was a fantastic shift from Celebrini and Smith and Ferraro keeping puck alive in OZ, couple Celebrini chances. Celebrini was a dervish off the draw on Theodore and McNabb. I’m not sure those vet d-men knew what hit them there. I don’t know how you watch that and keep Celebrini off Team Canada for the Olympics.
Eklund goal: Ferraro has had a game, stand-up on Holtz in NZ, Gaudette hits Eklund with the pass, three Golden Knights puck-watching Gaudette, Eklund has a breakaway and puts it away. We have a game!
1 left: The home crowd worries when Celebrini has the puck in the OZ, there’s an audible murmur.
Period 3
San Jose Sharks dodge a bullet on the opening shift, both Ferraro and Ostapchuk close high, leaving Hertl and Dorofeyev low on a 2-on-1. I think Klingberg got a stick on the Hertl pass. Great work there, but also fortunate.
4 in: Kurashev doesn’t like that icing call, and I tend to agree. I know the point of touch-up icing, but I think the refs can safely allow for more skating and competing before whistling it.
5 in: Maybe a bad change? Nedeljkovic stops a Barbashev breakaway. Another unforced error? Then a Klingberg pass puts Toffoli in a bad position, NZ turnover, counterattack. Sharks are competing, but they’re certainly still playing a sloppy game.
9 left: Ferraro post, great Klingberg pass to Wennberg, who circles behind net, finds Ferraro.
8 left: McNabb. hurt, huge block on Toffoli chance.
Good recovery by Leddy, couldn’t beat two forecheckers, but stayed with it, got the puck back, gave it to open man Mukhamadullin.
6 left: Retreating Klingberg shakes F1 Barbashev nicely. You still see pieces there.
5 left: Stone though mistreats Klingberg high though. Playing too confident there.
Dam… That’s a tough one, cuz it felt like we were right there!!! We almost beat Vegas, and the compete level was amazing. I’m stoked the Sharks are able to put the pedal to the metal and crank it up when needed.
We will never put together a 3,4 win streak if they keep putting Uncle Ned every Saturday.. He is not a good goalie.Had the Knights tonight, but a bad 2nd period
Lol. A month ago it was send Askarov to AHL and ink Nedeljkovic to long-term deal.
Dude what were you saying last month. Listen to yourself
I was at the game.
If Ned did not make several critical saves…it could have been 6or7-3. Easy.
Sharks just could not sustain consistent offensive puck control, cycling
Getting harder and harder to defend Klingberg’s presence in the lineup. Leddy is just a lost cause. Good battle in the second, but you’d like to see more than five shots down a goal in the third.
Klingberg just needs to come to terms that he’s washed. He needs to stop trying to play the game he used to play. He doesn’t have the skating to pull it off anymore. That sequence late in the third where he tried to walk the blue line and Stone manhandled him with ease was brutal. Looked like a guy who just does not belong on the NHL ice there.
He is actually a better player when we don’t anchor the offense on him.
I’m also not sure about snake bitten Toffoli on the first line anymore either. I can’t wait to live in a world where we aren’t asking these guys to be our #1 d and top 3 forward respectively.
Klinger I can at least believe is attempting to do the right thing but he’s clearly over leveraged. Make him 3rd pair RD and maybe PP2 qb and play him 15 min a night at most. Leddy I really thought he would play better for another contract unless he’s planning on retiring and it’s just playing out the string. Maybe he’s not fully healthy still? I dunno. I expected more.
Outshot in 15 of the last 16 games. At what point do we wonder if the goaltending is papering over systemic issues for the Sharks. There’s definitely a talent deficit but you shouldn’t be getting outshot this often.
It’s definitely not systemic issues.
It’s a spiritual problem, too many of their scales are unbalanced. They gotta go trip out on Ayahuasca in the desert tonight, work some shit out, and come back ready to shoot that puck! Doctors orders
Ayahuaskarov
So do you think it’s purely down to less talent that the Sharks underlying metrics are currently worse this season than they were last season?
Yes. It’s obviously less talent. The system and goaltending and Celly are the only reasons they are in all these games.
There is no big mystery. It’s a fact this is a roster that lacks depth. Orlov-Klingberg as top D pair? That would have been good maybe 7 years ago. Not now. Wennberg would make a great 3C, but he has never scored more than 17 goals in a season. Compared to Hertl on the other side who has had multiple 30 goal seasons, you can see the difference between us and a legit contender in terms of depth. But the good news is this roster will get better as more of the prospects mature and Grier should be able to… Read more »
So you think this year’s roster is just worse than last year’s roster? I’m not comparing this team to Vegas it would be pretty pointless to do so. I’m comparing this team to their underlying performance metrics last season and they are down in basically every single stat.
Frankly at this point I don’t care what the analytics say. They are in almost every game similar to last year but they’re coming out on the winning side of close games ways more often. Your complaint is simply ridiculous.
I haven’t compared the numbers and I am not an analytics guru, so I have no answer for you. However, if you are looking at stats then I am wondering about sample size and whether it’s apples to apples comparison.
Agree with this mostly – however it is not going to be like rebuilds in recent times it looks like. We will have to acquire even more legit prospects and picks and will need to make trades to fill out our roster. Grier will need to figure out who to bet on, similar to Florida with Tkachuk. I still like the way our offensive players are developing. Defense, not so much. Think Mukh has taken a step back, Dickinson hasn’t progressed as fast as maybe we have all hoped. You wonder if just throwing them to the wolves for a… Read more »
Almost all recent rebuilds required everything you stated. This rebuild is no different.
i don’t even know what reality you’re in thinking Dickinson should’ve progressed more. He’s a 19 year old rookie. He’s doing just fine. Some of you guys are nuts.
Dickinson has played a grand total of 19 NHL games under a head coach who is intentionally easing him into the NHL. D is a harder position to learn than forward.
I say to my fellow Sharks fans: patience and calm, not instant gratification and overreaction.
As for trades, Grier has shown he will go out of the Sharks’ own prospect system to make a big trade for the right player. Like the Askarov trade. But players like that don’t come up on the market all the time. So it’s still the same mantra: patience and calm.
Whoever downvoted you is an idiot.
I am not one to yell “shoot the puck” but I find myself doing it far too many times. They need to be more direct, same as the PP. Smith shooting the puck tonight was rewarded. However, for me one of the main causes of zone time and corsi/fenwick/shot counter, is face-offs. I think those numbers are better, if they were not constantly getting their lunch money taken in face-offs. Losing those so often, probably costs shots in the ozone and adds shots in the D zone. This applies to zone time too…they are beat soundly in face-offs nightly it… Read more »
I don’t know that the goaltending is papering anything over. Last season, the Sharks simply weren’t anywhere near as bad as their record indicated. If they’d gotten league average goaltending last season (.900), they’d have been a lower middle-of-the-pack team. Now they’re getting goaltending above league average and are an upper middle-of-the-pack team. Their goaltending is probably boosting them slightly, but not nearly as much as it was torpedoing last year’s squad.
perfectly stated.
a $90M playing roster, in a bounce back game, genuinely celebrating a win against a $54M roster. Good forecheck, effort. It was recognizing the standings and what 2 pts do. It’s a good sign. It’s not about the loss anymore, now it’s about the bounce back game against the Capitals.
Good forecheck, effort by the Sharks.
listened to the Denver University game to check in on Eric Pohlkamp. First time listening to them. Denver lost in OT, Pohlkamp got his 11th goal (in just 15 games), had another go off the post that needed review to confirm it didn’t go in.
Also interesting was the comment about Pohlkamp and his d-partner (at least some of the time, maybe full time), Boston Buckberger. The announcer said that Pohlkamp, a right-hander, was on the left side while Buckberger, a left-hander, was playing on the right side. I did not expect that!!
should have noted that Pohlkamp had 10 (!!!) shots on goal and was +3 on the game.
He also had 11 goals all of last season (40+ games), so to get there in 15 is just bonkers.
For the team to become a legit contender they’re going to need `1 or 2 lower draft picks to turn into something no scout thought possible in their draft year. Hopefully he along with Graf can do that.
I have been defending Muck, but wow, is his confidence shot at this point or what? Sharks can’t keep going with the musical chairs on the blue line. They gotta choose a lane, and just roll with it for more consistency. Nice comeback, and much appreciated not packing it in tonight, but I wonder if this team can wait until the trading deadline to move the dead weight keeping them from being more consistent than Asky standing on his head every night.
I agree about his confidence. Rotating him has not made him better. His best stretches are games are when he plays consistently and racks up minutes. I still think he’s nursing sum sum.
Yeah I think that’s the case. Bench Leddy and Klingberg and play Muck and Dickinson every single game and they’ll start to build some real confidence. But keep benching them and they’ll remain in fear of NOT playing and it’ll be tough to build any confidence at all. I’d much rather see our future players making mistakes and learning from them than washouts like Klingberg getting his lunch money taken every time he gets the puck. The dude doesn’t look like an NHL level player anymore.
I’ve said this before but their lack of confidence doesn’t come from the coach it comes from them not wanting to let their team down and simply wanting better of themselves. Coaches like this are reassuring young guys and trying to build their confidence. Not telling them they’re a “bad dog” and making them sit in the corner. Veteran players may get that type of treatment but not young player and rookies.
when it comes to the Sharks, I’ve gotten to a place where I’m happy with most outcomes. If they win, good for the team. If they lose, better draft pick. I still think they need 1 more high-end player to fully compete with the Blackhawks and Ducks — their long-term competitors. When I look at both the Ducks and ‘hawks, they have substantially better defensive groups — the Blackhawks project to maybe the best d-group in the league within a few years. All 3 teams have good, young goalies and considerable forward talent. The top 5 in NHL scoring going… Read more »
In another thread, I asked you how you would arrange the Sharks lines with Smith as 2C. Maybe you didn’t see it. Be specific about it please. I’m having difficulty imagining it with the forwards we’ve got and taking Smith away from Celebrini at this point. I’d like to imagine Misa centering his own line but do you really think we are close to that?
sorry I missed it. OK sharks have an abundance of forward talent. As with many teams, they seem to like their duos and finding that 3rd guy who fits. As Sheng wrote in this post “As much as Vegas has struggled this season, Eichel-Barbashev as your first line duo, Marner-Stone second, and Hertl-Dorofeyev third line is still intimidating” The Sharks can have a similar approach. Personally, I think a line roughly needs a get the puck guy, a set-up guy, a finisher. In the case of Smith, Misa and Celebrini, each guy is capable of both roles as scorer and… Read more »
No way is Smith playing 3rd line if Misa is 2C. The moment Misa takes over 2C Smith goes right back to Celly’s wing. Smith might only see time at C if Misa or Celly get injured (knock on wood).
This is really tough for me to get my head around. Breaking up the top line kills our offensive domination. Will the GM accept so many rookies starting? We really lack another goal scorer. There is no one I can think of that we have that fits this description. I like Cherny and Bystedt, also Cardwell. But they will need time to develop an NHL game. Colin White has been around long enough but can he help? We’ll need another injection of talent to be serious. Free agency should be explored thoroughly for both scorers and defensemen. Is Misa really… Read more »
This might help you visualize it
I’ve said it before but no way would I want to see Smith and Eky together on a line like that. Just not enough size. If they split up Celly & Smith gotta put Eky with Celly. Those 2 together is the next best pair after Celly & Smith.
Thanks. It does help the visualization. I think it may be stronger than Zeke’s which relies on too many rookies.
Having an MVP level 1C sho is 19 makes it more likely that the defensive talent is going to have to come thru trades and UFAs. Unless they get lucky, whoever they draft next season isn’t going to be NHL ready for 2-3 seasons. Probably not effective for 4 maybe even 5.