A night after an uninspiring performance in Winnipeg, the San Jose Sharks arrived at the Saddledome in Calgary looking for an offensive outburst — they certainly got one. Maybe it just took a few periods of hockey to get back into their swing after an extended All-Star break, but the Sharks went on to fire six goals past the young and talented Flames netminder Dustin Wolf and win 6-3. Filip Zadina, the man who bet on himself this summer, broke through with two goals and two assists, while newly-minted alternate captain Luke Kunin added two goals of his own. It was all smiles in the Sharks’ locker room post-game; they are now 5-2-2 in their past nine games.
It was expected the Flames would come out hungry for a win, being in the thick of a playoff race against the St. Louis Blues and Los Angeles Kings. Their sloppy play, combined with opportunistic scoring and clutch goaltending for the Sharks, cost them another important two points in the Western Conference standings. There is still time, but surely a loss to the bottom-dwelling Sharks will sting for the Flames.
Coach David Quinn rolled the same lineup as in the prior game, only making a change in goal after Kaapo Kähkönen did the heavy lifting on Wednesday.
Zadina has himself a night
It’s been a season of “almosts” for Zadina, showing flashes of potential for an offensive outburst but without the finishing touch. Last night, he put all of that aside and capitalized.
It started with a beautiful setup in the second period for Mikael Granlund, then another for Justin Bailey just three minutes later. By the third, his confidence sprung him into better shooting positions and helped him put another two past Wolf himself. With his four-point contribution, Zadina helped his own cause for staying in the NHL as a regular, and helped shore up the lack of depth scoring on this Sharks roster.
The Sharks have had a large proportion of their goals set up from the likes of Tomas Hertl, who is injured, and William Eklund. The forwards General Manager Mike Grier brought in over the past two years to fill the middle and bottom six, like Kunin and Zadina, haven’t always scored enough to help out the team’s stars.
Hopefully, this performance for Zadina, who is still only 24 years old, can set him on a better track to start finishing more. The Sharks will need all the depth scoring they can get without Hertl and Logan Couture for another extended period of time.
Blackwood and the PK shine
The Sharks nearly got themselves into trouble through the first half of this game. They found themselves on the wrong end of four penalties in a row, giving a Calgary power play with firepower plenty of opportunity to take the lead. Without long-time penalty-killing expert Logan Couture, the Sharks penalty kill put together a team effort and pretty efficiently quelled any chance the Flames had at building momentum. The Sharks ended up perfect on the penalty kill by the end of the night, and won the special teams battle overall with a power play goal by Kunin.
Mackenzie Blackwood bailed out his team several times with ten-bell saves, including an excellent sliding split push to deny a Calgary 2-on-1. A couple of those go in early on, and maybe the Flames have the inspiration to keep pushing and put the Sharks away before Zadina gets hot.
A game of turnovers
Aside from taking too many penalties, this game could have gone awry because of the Sharks’ many blueline turnovers. Luckily for them, the Flames had some glaring turnovers of their own. With both teams mismanaging the puck, the battle was over who would score most off those turnovers.
Nazem Kadri got the opening goal to set Calgary on the right start, a goal that came from an Eklund turnover at the offensive blueline. Then, it was Zadina’s hard forecheck that helped create both the Sharks’ first two goals. There were several other opportunities for Calgary in the second and third periods after turnovers from several Sharks at the blueline, but thankfully Blackwood was always ready.
The Sharks will have to clean up this part of their game, and surely, the coaching staff will discuss this same issue during video review sometime this week before their five-game homestand. A team like Vegas, whom the Sharks face on Presidents’ Day, would not be as forgiving as the Flames.
Highlight
Let’s go with the one that started it all for San Jose: Granlund’s goal from Zadina. This one was all patience from both the passer and the shooter.
After stealing the puck from Calgary’s Noah Hanifin, Zadina circles, protecting the puck and waiting for the right opportunity. While most players would have opted to take a quick shot on goal closer to the slot, Zadina smartly waited for reinforcements and fed Granlund.
From there, it was all slick mitts. Granlund scored one of the prettier Sharks goals of the season, his sixth of the year. Of course, Zadina would go on to score another two goals and an assist.
Also, check out this great shot of the team awaiting the decision on Luke Kunin’s first goal:
Next up, the Sharks return home to face off against the Columbus Blue Jackets, debuting their new Cali Fin jerseys. The game is on Saturday, Feb. 17 at 7:30 p.m.
As many of you know, Fear the Fin is an independent site run by Sharks fans for Sharks fans. Help keep Fear the Fin independent by contributing to our