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Quick bites: Bedard, Blackhawks beat Sharks

In perhaps the most lackluster performance of this young season, the San Jose Sharks fell to the Chicago Blackhawks 4-2 last night. The perfect example of just how little offense the Sharks generated might have been the final 3-4 minutes of the game when the Sharks, with the netminder pulled and a 6-on-5 skater advantage, still failed to sustain any real pressure in the offensive zone. One and done chances never really made the extra skater a true asset and the Sharks never even came close to tying, let alone winning the game.

Slow start indeed

In a game like this between two teams of relatively equal suckage, you want the possession to be about even. You want to see the Sharks, at the very least, hold their own, if not take over the game.

Yet, when you look at Natural Stat Trick’s Corsi differential at even strength for the game, it looks like a lot of the other games that the Sharks play against actual playoff-contending teams.

The Sharks were unable to take control during large swaths of the game, leading to a lopsided 2-0 score after the first period. It got worse in the second period when the Blackhawks added to the lead within the first minute.

It led to Head Coach Ryan Warsofsky saying postgame that the team didn’t do anything well.

“We didn’t do anything well. Got off to a slow start, hasn’t been us, couldn’t defend in our own end, couldn’t close quick enough, couldn’t get the forecheck going. Didn’t do anything well,” said Warsofsky.

He finished it up with, “It’s unacceptable.”

Will Smith watch

The one positive to come out of the game was that it gave Warsofsky an opportunity to give a bit more responsibility to young Will Smith. The 19-year-old had 19:09 of ice time last night, according to Natural Stat Trick. A lot of that time came toward the end of the game, when the Sharks had pulled the goaltender.

Smith finally got an opportunity on the top unit with players like Mikael Granlund, William Eklund and Tyler Toffoli and he didn’t look out of place. While there were plays where he might have made a better choice, that could have been said for almost all of the players on the ice last night.

Smith also seemed to perform better on his new line with Barclay Goodrow and Luke Kunin. While it’s something to test out against a better team like the Winnipeg Jets tonight, Smith’s line ended the night with an 80% Corsi for at 5v5, far better than all of the other Sharks lines. The second best line was the line of Alex Wennberg, Fabian Zetterlund and Ty Dellandrea.

It’s too early to say that Smith is turning it around, but maybe giving him less stressful ice time against less skilled players will allow him to grow into his role with the team.

Too many penalty kills

The Sharks took seven penalties in the game, two of them resulting in five-on-threes. And these weren’t tiny 30 second five-on-threes, these were long ones! That compared to the Blackhawks three penalties already left the Sharks at a distinct disadvantage.

Yes, goaltender Vitek Vanecek only made 23 saves on 27 shots for a .852 save percentage, but when you allow a team that many power plays, including the two five-on-three’s, then there’s bound to be some goals.

The last few games, careless penalties have helped sink the Sharks. The team needs to return to the more disciplined play that it showed in the first two games or things could spiral out of control quickly.

Scoring summary Sharks at Blackhawks, Oct. 17, 2024

First Period
4:20 CHI Taylor Hall from TJ Brodie
19:11 CHI Tyler Bertuzzi from Teuvo Teravainen and Connor Bedard

Second Period
0:43 CHI Nick Foligno from Teuvo Teravainen and Connor Bedard
18:17 SJS Tyler Toffoli from William Eklund and Mikael Granlund

Third Period
2:19 CHI Jason Dickinson from Joey Anderson
2:52 SJS Fabian Zetterlund from Mikael Granlund and William Eklund

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