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Quick bites: 13 forwards, 5 D, 1 loss

The Sharks lost to the Penguins 6-3 on Thursday. Marc-Edouard Vlasic had a goal and an assist. Mikael Granlund had two assists. Magnus Chrona stopped 25 of 30.

For two periods, it looked like the San Jose Sharks were just fine going toe to toe with the Pittsburgh Penguins. In fact, the first five minutes or so and the Sharks were all over Pittsburgh. However, playing a full 60 minutes has been a problem for the team this season, and it was no different on Thursday night. The Sharks allowed two goals in a two-minute span early in the third period, and suddenly, a tie game at three goals apiece got out of hand. San Jose was unable to muster enough to battle back, and the Sharks fell to the Penguins 6-3.

One of the big stories of the game is the possible long-term impact on Mikael Granlund. With just over seven minutes left in the second period, play stopped as Granlund needed to be helped off the ice. He got tangled up with Brandon Rust along the board and as the two big men went down to the ice, Rust landed on Granlund with Granlund’s knee bent. Granlund could not put weight on his right leg as he was helped off the ice. While he returned later in the game, one has to wonder about the lasting impact of that on his knee.

13 forwards, 5 defensemen

The Sharks are already dealing with injury issues. The team went with the lesser-used 13 forwards and 5 defensemen set up due to illness. Jacob MacDonald was a last-minute scratch because he was not well enough to play. Both Mike Hoffman and Jan Rutta are on the trip but injured. The Sharks used everyone available to them and ended up with the 13-5 configuration.

In a situation like this, it’s interesting to see how each player performed so that they can be evaluated for the future. This is what the Hockey Stat Cards breakdown looks like.

Granlund was one of the better forwards for the Sharks. He had a pair of assists. Fabian Zetterlund was the second-best forward on the ice. He had a goal. Neither of those is surprising. What is surprising is that Klim Kostin was the third-best forward. Kostin seems to be finding his way in the Sharks system and he’s been given every opportunity to take a larger role. He’s receiving time on the power play and top-six minutes, something he hasn’t had before.

Looking at William Eklund and Thomas Bordeleau’s middling impact on the team is a little concerning given the level of competition. The other standout is Kevin Labanc, who after spending a few games watching from the rafters, once again didn’t bring anything close to an A-game. Labanc is playing for a new contract, albeit with another team, so you would imagine that he would want to try hard in this final string of games.

The best defenseman on the ice last night was Marc-Edouard Vlasic, partly because of luck. Vlasic had a goal and an assist in the game, but the goal was due to a lucky bounce. Vlasic threw it at the goal from behind the net and it ping-ponged past Tristan Jarry. But hey, at least he shot the puck, which has been an issue for some Sharks this season.

Seeing Mario Ferraro at the bottom of the list is also worrisome. Given the lineup of five defensemen, Ferraro was leaned on heavily. He played nearly half of the game, 27:04 of ice time, according to Natural Stat Trick. When top-line defensemen play that many minutes, they also have a massive impact on the game. Given that Ferarro was the second-worst player on the ice last night, it’s clear that his play does not rise to the level of a top defenseman. That’s the issue the Sharks need to rectify, either through trade or drafting ASAP, because right now, the defense isn’t great.

What’s a Chrona to do?

Yet again, Magnus Chrona was forced to make the best of a bad situation. The Sharks were playing poorly, given that there were five defensemen. While Chrona did an admirable job of stopping the shots where his teammates covered their assignments, there were issues when the defense broke down.

The first goal was a very good redirection that fooled Chrona. It was clear there was nothing he could do to stop it.

He also couldn’t do anything about the third goal. Justin Bailey had a broken stick and could not cover his man properly. Drew Remenda called out the Sharks as a whole for not being the first players to the puck. That’s a hustle issue and certainly not fair to Chrona. What’s more, Bailey specifically was called out for looking “lost” without a stick. Remenda also said the coaching staff needed to be clearer about expectations in a broken stick situation.

The fourth and fifth goals weren’t easy ones to stop, but maybe if the Sharks had battled harder in front of the net to clear out the Penguins, those goals wouldn’t have happened.

Chrona stopped 25 of 30 shots and had a .833 save percentage.

Based on last night’s performance, it’s clear that any Sharks’ netminder will need to be perfect in positioning. It’s the only way they’ll be lucky enough to stop deflected shots caused by poor positioning and work by the defense and offense in front of them.

Highlight of the game Sharks at Penguins March 14, 2024

We’re giving it to Klim Kostin, who scored his first goal as a Shark. Granlund had the assist after returning from an injury earlier in the period. Vlasic had the second assist.

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