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Quick bites: Blackwood, Sharks shutout St. Louis

Posted on by Erika Towne
Mackenzie Blackwood stopped 35 shots for the shutout. Mikael Granlund, Filip Zadina, Luke Kunin and Jan Rutta scored. The Sharks beat the Blues 4-0.

San Jose Sharks goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood offered up the perfect example of what a team can do when it has solid goaltending. Blackwood stopped all 35 of the shots he faced to claim his second shutout of the season. The netminder was asked to come up with some big saves early in the game when the Sharks gave up several excellent scoring chances. Turns out it was that kind of game for the Sharks.

Looking at Natural Stat Trick’s game flow chart, you can see that even when the Sharks were scoring, they were only controlling the puck in small spurts, with no extended periods of possession.

That said, the Sharks did what they needed to do to win the game. Filip Zadina, Mikael Granlund and Luke Kunin all scored at even strength for the Sharks. Jan Rutta added an empty net goal to seal the 4-0 win.

Granlund hits 50 points

Let’s park a minute on Mikael Granlund, who has consistently been one of the best Sharks on the ice, even when the team itself isn’t doing well. Which is why it’s great to see him be rewarded by achieving 50 points this season.

This was Granlund’s fourth career season with 50-plus points.

Last night and on Thursday, Granlund scored because he refused to give up on the play. On Thursday, his goal was because he took the shot and then stuck around long enough to get his stick on the rebound.

Last night, he charged hard at the net to be the first to jump on the rebound after Fabian Zetterlund’s shot. Granlund ended up on the ice for his efforts, but he also ended up with his twelfth goal of the season.

He now has 21 points in his last 21 games.

Consistent in the lack of consistency

I’ve written up a lot of Quick Bites this season, and one of the more interesting things to look at are game depictions from feeds like Hockey Stat Cards.

What’s so interesting about these cards is seeing who the best player on the ice for the Sharks is and who isn’t. That’s because usually one or two of the guys at the top of the list this game were at the bottom of the list the last game.

Kunin, for example, was among the worst players for the Sharks in Minnesota, but he was among the best players last night. The reverse is true for Thomas Bordeleau, who was among the Sharks best players on Tuesday against the Dallas Stars. Last night, he had very little impact for the Sharks.

Very few of the Sharks players have consistently had positive impacts in a string of consecutive games this season.

Enjoy the goals

Instead of a single highlight of the night, we’re going to finish up by basking in the beauty of a Sharks win. Let’s enjoy all of the goals.

Zadina kicked things off by taking away the puck and creating his own scoring chance and goal.

We’ve already highlighted Granlund’s goal, which helped double the Sharks’ lead. St. Louis Blues Head Coach Drew Bannister wasn’t pleased. He called a timeout and chewed out his team. While the Blues had a couple of scoring opportunities, it was the Sharks who scored the next one. Kunin picked up a juicy rebound to make it 3-0 before the horn.

Up three to nothing, the Sharks handled the push by the Blues. Desperate for points, St. Louis pulled the goaltender and that’s when Jan Rutta teed it up from in front of his net and made it 4-0.

This was a much-needed morale boost for the Sharks, who snapped their losing streak. San Jose returns home to play the Seattle Kraken on Monday.

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