Quick Bite: The Sharks drop six on the Canadiens

First Period:

The puck has been dropped and uh, well, my stream went out. Great. Now what am I supposed to do? Finally when I get it back on, what do I see? Joe Thornton. An absolute vision of a human being, What is he doing? Scoring a goal. Justin Braun double clutched on his shot and Joe Pavelski redirected it. Who is waiting on the door step? Joe Thornton. It had to be one of the easiest goals of Jumbo Joe’s career.

Take a look:

It wouldn’t be very long before the Canadiens responded and did so in the luckiest way possible. After playing pinball with the puck in the Sharks zone, Brendan Gallagher finally got a handle on it as he threw it on net without much hope. Somehow he ended up scoring on the play. It is a goal that Jones surely wanted back but it got erased from his memory ASAP.

The random as hell Gallagher goal:

The action after the goal was more or less a back and forth affair. The Sharks took it to the Canadiens early and often nearly doubling them up in shots through the first period. All of that pressure wouldn’t go to waste as Joe Pavelski wanted to get in on the action. It was a classic Pavelski goal, he picked a corner and didn’t miss. This goal would be Pavelski’s 28th of the season, another highlight reel goal to add to his ever increasing collection.

Pavelski goal:

Somehow with mere seconds remaining in the third, Paul Martin picked up a penalty. How he did it I will never know but the Canadiens started the second period on a power play.

Second Period:

The Sharks killed off the Martin penalty with gusto and shortly after the kill ended, they came roaring back with a response. Naturally, it comes from the Burns and Thornton combo. Burns goes bar down and shows why he is one of the best offensive defensemen in the game.

The laser from Burns:

Only five minutes into the second and Thornton had 3+ points on the night. What a stinking player. I wish I could give you some objective analysis but all I can do is constantly fawn over his strong play.

Joe Thornton now has 62 3+ point games as a member of the San Jose Sharks.

— Fear The Fin (@fearthefin) March 1, 2016

We are not worthy.

After the third goal was scored, the Canadiens began to fight back with continued pressure on Martin Jones. Although the pressure was getting more fierce, it didn’t seem like the Canadiens would break through. Alas, that would not be the case as Torrey Mitchell made a play more fit for spring training. The hand eye coordination this took was impressive, no matter the sport.

Mitchell doing his best Buster Posey impression:

Next thing we known, during the broadcast, CSN is panning over to Aaron O’Dell and the poor guy is yawning. C’mon man. This is an exciting game. You don’t see goals like this everyday.

A few minutes later in the second Melker Karlsson runs into his own teammate and falls to the ice in a very awkward fashion. He immediately left the ice and wasn’t seen for the rest of the period.

As the second period came to a close. Martin Jones was putting his stamp on this game with a game saving stop after game saving stop. Other than his blunder on the early Gallagher goal, Jones had himself a solid night.

At the end of the second, shots were 22-17 in San Jose’s favor.

Third Period:

As I am waiting for the period to start, I am watching CSN’s highlights and I am pretty sure the background music they use is the Kroll Show theme. I am probably the only person that has ever noticed this but I at least get to share this moment with you, the readers. Thanks for your patience, everyone.

Starting the third period off, we see that Melker Karlsson has in fact returned. He wasn’t going to be content just sitting around though. He decided to one up Torrey Mitchell and tell him: “Anything you can do, I can do better”.

Karlsson being the hero we deserve:

Nick Spaling, the new acquisition from the Leafs added his second of his young Sharks career tonight shortly after Karlsson scored. Naturally, like many others tonight, he swatted the puck into the net. A very common theme. It looks like he will fit in quite nicely if he continues to keep up this play. Poor Mike Condon though, he looks so thoroughly defeated after this goal. Kind of just want to give the guy a hug.

Spaling doing his thing:

As the time started to evaporate, the Canadiens started to show their frustration. It seemed after each stoppage of play that a little scrum had started. This is all well and good but what exactly are they trying to prove? This seems like a team that is drained and needs the offseason just as badly as anyone else.

The Canadiens at this point of the game were resigned to the fact that they had to play in their own zone. The Sharks (who were on the back end of a back-to-back) were skating circles around them and it became only a matter of time before the Sharks would score again. Pavelski added his 29th goal on a sliding shot. Another beautiful goal from the captain.

Other then some meaningless power play time for the Canadiens, the last few minutes were largely uneventful. The Sharks defeated the Canadiens for the ninth time in ten tries in the SAP Center.

Au revoir!