By the numbers: Game 39 vs. St. Louis

Scoring Chances

San Jose

5v5 Scoring Chance Save Percentage: 62.5%

St. Louis

5v5 Scoring Chance Save Percentage: 83.3%

Period-by-Period Summary

If there's a positive to be drawn from these numbers, it's that despite being largely outshot all game, San Jose managed to not be destroyed on scoring chances. In the first period, they were only outchanced 4-5, despite being outshot 16-8, similar to what happened in the Sharks' December 6th game against the Flames. It's also worth noting that the Sharks' shutdown unit did relatively well last night, with Couture and Marleau being on the ice for zero scoring chances against, and Vlasic and Braun both ending the night with even or better scoring chance differentials.

Last time the Sharks faced the Blues, they managed to keep Tarasenko and his line under control, for the most part. With Jaden Schwartz rejoining that line though, the Sharks were not able to replicate that work last night, as members of that line created three of St. Louis' nine even strength scoring chances. As a whole, the Blues did quite well on scoring chances, though I think it's somewhat amusing that Pietrangelo-Bouwmeester was the only D pair of theirs that ended the night in the red.

Zone Entries

San Jose

St. Louis

I think there's an argument to be made that Couture was San Jose's best player last night, and the numbers here definitely back that up. Not only did Couture create a third of San Jose's scoring chances, he was also the only Shark other than Wingels to really have notable entry numbers. The Sharks as a whole did well below average on generating shots in this game, ending the night with only 20 shots on goal, and their work on controlled zone entries had a large impact on that. As can be seen by St. Louis' numbers, teams generally tend to generate well over 0.5 shot attempts per controlled entry, but San Jose managed only 0.4, less than St. Louis managed on their entries, controlled or not. It's easy to pin this loss on not having Thornton, or on iffy goaltending, but the Sharks' team-wide poor effort on entries certainly played a big role that can't be ignored.

Whereas San Jose only had two players with notable zone entry numbers, St. Louis had at least five. Oshie, Backes, Jaskin, and Berglund all did a good job carrying the puck into the zone, and the Blues did a great job of generating shot attempts off of those players entries, especially Berglund's and Backes', as the Blues averaged over a shot per each of those players' entries. Pietrangleo's entry numbers were also quite impressive, as he carried the puck in three times on five entry attempts (very good for a defenseman), and his team managed a decent amount of shot attempts off of his entries.

Entry Targeting

San Jose

St. Louis

Any night that none of your defensemen have sub-50% carry-in against percentages, you're not going to have a good game. Although the obvious numbers that pop out the most for the Sharks are Burns' and Hannan's 82% and 71% carry-in against percentages, the whole D corps really did a terrible job defending against zone entries. Dillon and Vlasic have been two of the Sharks' best defensemen this season at defending against zone entries, but even they faltered big time last night, as they combined to allow ten carry-ins against on sixteen entry attempts against.

On the other hand, St. Louis did a relatively good job defending against zone entries, though two of their top defensemen, Shattenkirk and Pietrangelo, certainly weren't the ones who contributed the most to St. Louis' good effort there. What really helped was the Blues' forward support, as once St. Louis built their lead, their forwards were able to retreat into the neutral zone and really pressure the Sharks into dumping the puck in on the majority of their entries whenever San Jose managed to put together a functional rush.

Zone Exits

San Jose

St. Louis

Although quite a few Sharks managed to have respectable zone exit numbers last night, they were, as a whole, dragged down by a few bad performances, and one very bad performance, that being Vlasic's. This entire season, Vlasic has not excelled at exiting the zone effectively, but last night was really bad, even by his standards, as he turned the puck over on two-thirds of his D zone puck touches. There is a positive to be found here, as Brenden Dillon actually did relatively well at breaking the puck out of the zone, but his performance was no where near enough to make up for some of his teammates' poor numbers.

It's certainly not the first thing that pops out of the numbers, but I think it's definitely worth noting that, whereas the Sharks had three players who had turnover percentages over 50, St. Louis had zero. This played a huge part in the Blues' zone exit success, as they managed a successful zone exit on one out of every two of their defensive zone puck touches that didn't result in in-zone passes. Pietrangelo certainly played a role in St. Louis' success here, as he did very well for a defensemen, managing a successful breakout on over one out of every five of his touches. Final note for the Blues (no pun intended), I know Berglund hasn't put up fantastic offensive boxcar numbers this season, but he's really getting it done in other areas of the ice, as he's done pretty well on both zone exits and zone entries in both games the Blues have had against the Sharks this year.

Notes:

-Sharks' shutdown unit only unit to experience any sort of success on scoring chances

-Blues top D pairing finished in the red on scoring chances

-Couture did very well with zone entries, carrying the puck in on 100% of his entries

-The Blues had quite a few players with impressive zone entry numbers, highlighted by Pietrangelo doing just about the best a defenseman can do

-Every Shark defensemen had at least a 50% carry-in against percentage

-Pietrangelo allowed quite a few carry-ins against, but the Blues forwards did a great job in the neutral zone, pressuring the Sharks into dumping the puck in

-Vlasic turned the puck over on two-thirds of his D zone puck touches, as the Sharks' top pairing really struggled to exit the zone

-The Blues did quite a good job on zone exits, with Berglund carrying the puck out on over half of his touches

-Although it's easy to say the palpable lack of Joe Thorntons in the lineup caused this loss, it's more accurate to point to the lineup as a whole. No one player could've made all of San Jose's numbers here respectable, meaning that even if they do get Jumbo back against the Jets, every member of this team needs to step their game up if the Sharks want to have any success against the best of the best in the NHL.