Sharks overwhelmed by Rangers in second period, lose 5-2

But that’s Jumbo for you. I guess now that Heatley is gone opposing fans need someone to hate on the Sharks.

…it seems so basic that I find it hard to believe we are so bad at it.

We do get to interview the coaching staff, but I find it laughable that you would think I would suggest to them that they implement something in their game plan suggested by a reader. All due respect and all but… really?

Thanks for posting Sharkstistics. Great stuff as always.

I’m going to add this up top— Ferriero actually has one more game left before he is not exempt from waivers according to CapGeek.

In other words, he plays another game, he’ll have to pass through waivers in order to go to Worcester.

That could be a reason as to why he was scratched the last two games.

Probably not the best thing to say to the media, but the perfect attitude for the locker room. I’ll take that.

After watching Ferriero play again at this level, I would be fine with the Sharks saying right now that yeah, he’s a regular in the lineup and he’s basically seen the last of Worcester. Unless/until DW makes a trade for some lower-line scoring depth, Ferriero’s our best option to improve that—and it’s only going to continue to be a problem otherwise (or even so), I’m afraid.

I don’t think he was trying to talk smack. I think he was just being honest. We’ve played pretty tough teams on this road trip anyways, so it shouldn’t be that huge of an insult to say that they’re the softest.

Yeah I’d like see White and Braun as our 3rd pairing next game.

if they made him a forward?
Just a question.

…we went from playing with constant pressure on the puck (Bruins game) to an abysmal loss where we were chasing it the whole game.

Pretty sure in retrospect the coaching staff and front office will be looking at that one between now and Wednesday.

As for icing the best team, I’m with you there, too. It’s pretty obvious who is working on the lower lines, and if we’re serious about a cup run this year, it is probably a good thing to take into consideration now. If Benn truely has only one more game before the waiver rule kicks in, I can’t believe we would think, “well we only have one game left in the kid this season,” with 70+ left to go…(not including “second season.”)

… He’s so awesome with puck handling and speed, but it seems like it takes a cosmic event for him to use it.

Every game like this reminds me of $100k not pulling weight…he can do so much more. C’mon, Patty…gas up.

…that Cooch/Pavs goal was pretty damn sweet.

Call it a heart ailment :P

and the Power Play!

He didn’t call them soft, he said they were the softest of the teams we played on this roadtrip, all of which are very tough teams. Obviously we lost to them, so it goes without saying that we played even ‘softer’ than they did and Joe knows that; he’s just making a comment on how poorly we played.

We don’t play the Rangers again. It’ll really only be a thing if another team decides to use it against Joe.

and nice pun there with the Burns pinching part, but mostly I agree!

I’d swear we went 1-5 on this trip, not 5-1.

A 5 game winning streak and we’re still teetering on the edge? Yeesh.

Yeah, losing sucks. Lets make it right by winning the next one.

SOMETHING SOMETHING MARLEAU.

Made me burst out laughing in class hahahaha

Something something something complete.

If I could add something, it seemed like we relied on net front presence like you said mostly on the power play. The vast majority of those plays seemed dedicated to giving Burns, and only Burns, a shot towards the net and setting him up. While that sounds nice on a weaker team, we have wayyyyyyyyyy too many good players to set up only to one person, especially on the PP.

The one line that continues to work the cycle is the second line with Couture and Clowe especially. TMC really should use all his assets and just continue doing what he did before Burns – only with the added bonus of having a Burns.

Glad you mentioned Marleau, Stamkos, Ovechkin stat, always a solid support that Marleau scores goals, whether in bunches or spread out. He doesn’t always score, but he still plays a solid game. Get off his back and get in his fan club.

It’s funny to see how fans lose it after a loss. Heck, I was pissed we lost, but looking at the big picture, this team will right it self and play a strong game on Thursday. Not to mention they went 5-1 on a very tough Eastern trip.

If this team went 81-1, losing the last game of the season, everyone would be up in arms and complaining how the team let their foot off the gas, coasting into the post season. I think we, as Sharks fans, need to realize that this is a sport with winners and losers. Some nights we will win and others we will lose. We need to understand that this team KNOWS how to win and regroup after a loss (even after that stretch in January, they pulled it together and had a monster last couple of months).

Also, we have Joe Pavelski, your argument is invalid.

that all the calls for net-front presence come from two sources.
1.) Watching Holmstrom (the best in the league at it) tear us up with it.
2.) Its one of Drew Remenda’s key phrases.

I’m on the side that the Sharks work better with the cycle, but I see where the net-front presence sentiment comes from. The fact is, we don’t know a sixteenth of what McClellan does. I trust the system he implements.

If I could rec this more than once, I world.

The Sharks have players that are crazy good at puck possession. Their game is keeping the puck away from the other team, passing it around and creating confusion so when they shoot it the defense is out of position. They try to go for rebounds, either shooting them or picking them up to start the cycle again. Placing a guy in front of the net would not allow him to use his shot or strength on the puck.

I understand that everyone wants a Holmstrom, especially since he’s been so damn good whenever we play him. But he’s a player with a specific skill set – he can plant his ass in front of the goalie and tip in pucks better than anyone, but he can’t skate and his shot kind of sucks. Thus, the Red Wings have to create a gameplan around his skill set, which does include a guy screening the goalie as that’s what he does. The Sharks don’t have a Holmstrom – they have guys who play better with the puck on their sticks, so that’s the style of play McLellan has instituted. Forcing the Sharks to go away from their puck possession game would likely work just as well as having Holmstrom skate around and use his shot without going to the front of the net.

And holy crap, this isn’t Game 6 of the 2009 playoffs. This isn’t Game 4 of the WCF in 2010, or Game 5 of the WCF in 2011. This is Game 10 of the REGULAR SEASON. There are 72 more games left. What the hell are you freaking out about?

And I know that disclaimer won’t help, but I’ll wade in anyways…

I think Sharks fans have been pretty absurdly spoiled by the team during its history. While there have been unquestionable playoff disappointments, it’s been almost a decade now since the last time we went home with most of the rest of the league. Beyond that, the Sharks have made the playoffs 12 of the last 13 years and 15 times in their 20 year history. We’ve seen an Art Ross, a Hart, a Rocket Richard, a President’s Trophy, Calder-level performances, a Vezina-level year or two, and a Masterson. We’ve seen an amazing run. And for those of us in the Bay Area, it’s one none of the other local teams have matched (since the Sharks were founded the Niners have made the playoffs 9 times, the A’s 6, the Giants 5, Raiders 4, and Warriors 2). Sure the Sharks have had some horrific seasons, too (hi, 92-93, 94-95 and 95-96!), but mostly things have been rosy.

I think people need to be reminded of the fact that we’ve been blessed with good ownership, good management, good players, and a fair amount of luck in having had a great first 20 years when we could have been awful for a long time.

For me, it’s all about perspective. I can’t speak for anyone else, but I don’t let losses get me down because when I weigh one game against the last twenty years, there’s been so much more good than bad. And while others may not agree with me, I see the foundations being laid to keep the good going well into the future. I want this team to get the Cup. I want to see them put it all together. But I see it as a long-term process. Problems arise and we have to work on them, but they don’t get fixed in one game, one roadie, or occasionally even one season. As long as the general trend is good, though, we’ll get there.

And this so didn’t end up being relevant to anything Matt said. Hooray for rambling.

If you’re getting shots from the blue line. It would seem the whole point of getting your D involved is to allow your forwards better opportunities to cover the offensive zone, get to rebounds, and have more open ice as the defenders have to respect the shot.

The Sharks might be racking up all sorts of statistics, but the fan base is pretty much always looking to the post-season, which has traditionally been a time when the team struggles to find scoring, and seems to lose to the same type of team: teams that can afford to collapse to the front of their net and allow their goaltender to see the puck. When it only takes four losses to end your season, I think we can be forgiven for seeing consistent patterns in losses, and wondering why change isn’t forthcoming. It’d be great if we could be the high-flying team we saw against Phoenix for the whole post-season, but our quality of competition will be much higher. We’re going to see the work-ethic of teams like the Islanders and the Rangers far more frequently, and we’ll need to score dirtier goals.

The regular season is a time to build good habits, and while 6-4 is good, I can’t say I see enough good habits yet. So while it might be too early for doom and gloom, I feel it’s perfectly valid to be disappointed with the team.

As for Marleau, yeah, we’ve been over this many times. You’re perfectly correct in calling him an elite goal-scorer. His point totals are ridiculous. And he’s always been streaky. These are part of the package. 40 goal scorers don’t grow on trees.

However, there’s a reason he attracts more derision that his linemate, Joe Pavelski, who’s a fan favorite in spite of also being notoriously streaky. Patty quite simply takes games off. And there’s a very close relationship between Patty’s level of effort and the team’s performance. It’s most evident in the playoffs, because when Patty scores, we’re tough to beat. But when he goes away, the offense tends to go with him.

In a lot of ways, Patty is becoming Todd Bertuzzi. When he’s on his game, look out, he can’t be stopped. But when he’s not on, you find yourself questioning if he’s worth what he brings.

Marleau is one of the best pure skaters in the league. And yet, last night, he spent most of the game NOT skating. And worse, when he needed to take strides, he was gliding, and looking slow. He’s a big man, and yet he seems to lose a lot of physical battles. That’s one thing in the offensive zone. It’s unforgivable in the defensive zone.

Still, he’s managed to find points the past few seasons. So he gets paid the big bucks and gets to play the big minutes.

I don’t mind that Patty’s scoring is streaky. I mind that when Patty isn’t scoring, he’s not contributing. He’s not opening up ice for his linemates, he’s not playing defense, and he’s weighing down what should be the team’s best line.

Especially comes playoff time, the team goes as Marleau goes. I dislike that our bellweather is a streaky player, who will either be a force, or a dead weight, and it’s just as likely that he’ll be one or the other.

I don’t post much anymore, but thank you Matt for that post. It all needed to be said.

Jersey was down 3-0 to Philly in their playoff series, and, completely out of the blue, they start having Parise and other forwards screening the net. They looked foolish. The commentators made a note about how Jersey had not done this all season, and it was a desperation move. Sure looked like one.

Long story short, Sharks will look stupid if that up and try something new.

Goals dry up when the Sharks don’t get the screens, deflections, and rebounds against good defensively dedicated teams. Your argument that Todd McLellan’s system has been so successful in the past doesn’t change my opinion that they need to be able to get someone in front of the net. In fact, Todd McLellan’s system has been, in the past, that we need to get someone to the net, but no one did it with consistency or effectively.

A high shot differential isn’t as impressive when the shots are all coming from long-range, unobscured directions.

This loss doesn’t bother me. That the Sharks’ have failed to effectively screen the goalie, even when that was emphasized by the coaching staff, does bother me. I see a lot of rebounds that end up cleared to the neutral zone.

P.S. scoring goals and being streaky and soft are not mutually exclusive. Some of the toughest, most consistent players are the ones who end up with more fighting majors than points in a season. Did you watch the Sedins these last playoffs? Would you hesitate to call them streaky and soft?

Because it’s all Drew talks about during broadcasts? That’s why.

Most people just regurgitate what they hear.

(forgive me if someone already addressed this)

Thank you!!! :)

Candidates for funniest show, IMHO, are:

• Todd and the Book of Pure Evil
• Kids in the Hall
• Pre-Will Farrel SNL
• The first few seasons of The Simpsons

Neither Arrested Development nor Curb Your Enthusiasm are funny at all.

I can’t speak for Curb, but IMO Arrested Development isn’t funny unless you watch it from start to finish. It’s like Lost, if you watch it in the middle with no context, it’s the dumbest sh*t ever.

I will second the early Simpsons though. It’s not the same anymore, but for a cartoon to be going 20+ seasons, hell that’s older than some of the FTFer’s here, so that’s pretty awesome.

height=5000

Knows what’s up.

I think we’re seeing what the Minny crowd was trying to tell us about BB. He seems to take a lot of chances by pinching and then getting burned. I think he needs to lay back a bit more unless he’s on the PP, where he’s a monster. They’ll figure it out and learn in time to play with more trust and p/u on each others moves. I say give it until January before getting too worried about the D and PK. If it’s not better by then, then we have some real issues to discuss.

“Wild ending!”
“Setoguchi clips Wings in OT”
“Devin-ly chorus”
“Shocking Dev-elopment”
“Setoguchi makes sushi out of Howard”

He’s from western Canada, yo.

Your welcome, Minny.

Not sure if THIS was the one you are looking for.