By the numbers: Game 37 vs. Vancouver

Scoring Chances

San Jose

Vancouver

Period-by-Period Summary

This game was obviously an improvement by San Jose over their effort against LA, but it still wasn't nearly what we've seen the Sharks be capable of the last few weeks. Considering the fact that the Canucks were defending a two goal lead for most of the game, San Jose should've definitely been able to create more scoring chances than they did in this one, especially considering the fact that, were it not for a monster shift late in the second period by the Thornton line that saw Hertl attempt three shots (all misses, unfortunately) from the scoring area, the scoring chances at evens would've been 6-9.

On the Vancouver side of things, nothing really pops out as super notable here, as basically every Canuck managed an about even differential in scoring chances, though the Sedins certainly did show that they are still offensive forces, even this late in their careers. What stood out to me most were Bieksa’s numbers here. I’m not sure if his stanchion-assisted goal from a few years ago placed a curse on him or something, but I feel like ever since then, I can’t really remember a game where he did spectacularly against the Sharks (especially a couple seasons ago in the playoffs, where he took quite a few unnecessary penalties).

Watching the game, Matt Tennyson really stood out to me as a player who was putting in serious work, and who was on the ice when good tings happened for the team, and the numbers here really back that up. Although the team didn’t manage any scoring chances during his minute and a half of powerplay time, the team managed a +5 scoring chance differential during his just under sixteen minutes of even strength ice time, the best differential on the team by far (excluding his D partner, Irwin). Hard to tell what the cause of his awesome game was, but I’m willing to bet that playing with Irwin rather than Scott Hannan had a little something to do with it. That’s definitely a pair that (while they may not excel in the defensive zone) has offensive talent, and I think it would be a very good idea by the coaching staff to revisit this pairing to see if they can sustain numbers even somewhat similar to these.

Zone Entries

San Jose

Vancouver

Although the team as a whole did quite a good job of generating shots off of many of the Sharks entries (Pavelski, Thornton, Goodrow, and Karlsson stand out), it's very clear that the Sharks were simply outplayed in the neutral zone this game. Although the Sharks likely enjoyed having Nieto and his neutral zone artistry back in the lineup, it just wasn't enough to match awesome games by Bonino, Higgins, the Sedins, and Derek Dorsett. Vancouver obviously didn't manage a large amount of shots on goal last night, but they absolutely wrecked San Jose with their neutral zone play, and certainly made the most out of all their entries, especially their carry-ins.

Entry Targeting

San Jose

Vancouver

First below-average game for Dillon defending zone entries in a while, as he allowed four carry-ins against on seven entry attempts against. It probably doesn't even need to be mentioned, as I think I've taken note of it in every statistical breakdown so far this season, but Brent Burns is really bad at defending against zone entries. He's allowed the opposition to gain the zone with control of the puck the majority of their entry attempts against him all season, but his numbers last night were especially bad, as allowing eight carry-ins against on the eleven entries Vancouver attempted against him is just abysmal.

Overall, a pretty good game by the Canucks' D defending San Jose's entry attempts, with only Ryan Stanton having a carry-in against percentage above 50. I was especially impressed by Yannick Weber's work defending against zone entries in this game. Though his work on zone exits last night was far from great, he did an excellent job defending the blue line for Vancouver, not only allowing just three carry-ins against on eight entry attempts against, but also denying San Jose on three of those entry attempts.

Zone Exits

San Jose

Vancouver

Although quite a few Shark forwards had good games exiting the zone last night (Goodrow, Karlsson, and Nieto, just to name a few), the defense took an unfortunate step back from their seemingly-improving numbers from their last few games. Although Burns managed two successful breakouts, the rest of the Sharks' D only managed one (although Tennyson only having two "touches" likely had some impact on that), a big reason why, once again, San Jose was outplayed by their opposition, when it came to zone exits.

Much like the game against the Kings, I came away from looking at these numbers with a sort of jealousy of other teams' D, and their ability to exit the zone successfully. The Sharks obviously have a system that works for them, so if it means that they're D don't always have the greatest zone exit numbers, so be it. But it really is hard to look at San Jose's exit numbers some nights when you have the opposition's D managing over four times as many successful breakouts as the Sharks' D, and not feel a tinge of jealousy.