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Quick bites: Home cooking, Sharks win again

Posted on by Erika Towne

The San Jose Sharks are 5-1-1 in the team’s last seven games at home. You read that right. San Jose has 0.917 points percentage in its last seven games at home, and last night’s 2-1 victory over the Washington Capitals helped. Fabian Zetterlund scored the first goal of the game, Luke Kunin scored the game-winner and Mackenzie Blackwood made 33 saves. The Sharks are now 5-7-1 in November after going winless for the entire month of October.

Gutsy effort without Tomas Hertl

Was the win the Sharks’ best game of the season? Absolutely not. Any of the interviews postgame will tell you that. The second period was a particularly tough one to watch for Sharks fans because the Capitals took the game over.

When you look at Natural Stat Trick’s gameflow chart, you see that major momentum swing in the second period. San Jose had 14 scoring chances to Washington’s 10 after the first period. When the second period wrapped up, the Capitals had outchanced the Sharks 29-21.

The Sharks were lucky to escape the second period tied at one. When the team returned to the ice in the third period, it did not take the game back over but battled hard.

It was a very good team effort considering that Tomas Hertl, who has been the Sharks’ best all-around player in the month of November, missed the game due to an injury. Losing Hertl was another blow to the Sharks’ depleted forward corps. Logan Couture, Filip Zadina, Oskar Lindblom and Alexander Barabanov are all on the injured reserve list. While Hertl isn’t expected to miss enough games to be placed on IR, he wasn’t well enough to play.

In his absence, Kunin moved up to the first line and the Sharks signed Barracuda forward Justin Bailey to a one-year, two-way contract. Bailey assisted on Kunin’s game-winner so the moves appeared to work.

Let’s get physical

This was a much more physical game than the Sharks have played in the past. An early hit by Tom Wilson on Calen Addison seemed to set the tone.

Addison was shaken on the play and stayed down for about a half minute. After the hit, he wasn’t on the bench, I’m guessing for concussion protocol, but that’s not an informed statement, just a guess. Addison returned to the game that same period.

While the Sharks did not respond to the hit immediately, the team took notice. Shortly thereafter, Mikael Granlund confronted Wilson. While Granlund was the one who ended up on the ice in the pushing match that followed, his effort did not go unnoticed by Head Coach David Quinn.

“I mean, listen, it’s hockey. You gotta have a set of balls out there and if you’re afraid, you’re in the wrong sport. You can’t be afraid because if you are, boy, you’re not gonna last long,” said Quinn after the game. “You got a guy that big, and the guys you just mentioned, with their size, that’s ballsy. That’s ballsy. That’s true toughness.”

Granlund later hit Alex Ovechkin, knocking him to the ground.

By the end of the game, the Sharks were credited with 18 hits. Ty Emberson led the team with five and Kyle Burroughs had three of his own. At least one of Burroughs’ hits was a strong one on Wilson.

Blackwood in top form

Blackwood once again made key saves for the Sharks to prevent the game from getting out of hand early and then later keep San Jose in the lead. Blackwood’s first period save on Tom Wilson was a thing of beauty combined with just a little puck luck.

Then there was this save on Matthew Phillips. Not only did Blackwood make the initial stop, but he made the subsequent stop as well.

As for the single goal that Blackwood let in, it certainly wasn’t for lack of trying.

Prior to the puck flipping just out of Blackwood’s reach, the netminder made some key saves that would have made it 1-1 earlier in the game. After that missed save, Blackwood lay on the ice for a few moments to catch his breath. When asked about it after the game, this is what he had to say: “Just trying to catch my breath again. I kind of got hit in the ribs there and I was just trying to breathe a little bit because kind of knocked the wind out of me after that, but yeah, fluky goal, what can you do?”

Highlight

We have a pair of highlights to choose from, but let’s go with Fabian Zetterlund’s goal that gave the Sharks the lead in the first period.

Zetterlund shoots from a tough angle and somehow, the puck finds its way past Darcey Keumper. Zetterlund is now tied for the team lead in goals with six. Mike Hoffman also has six.

After the game, Quinn had nothing but praise for Zetterlund.

“We’re so happy for him. Really. We touched on last year and the tough year he had and just the work he put in. He’s such a great kid and he’s a great teammate. He’s got a great attitude,” said Quinn. “Through our toughest times, the first 11 games, this guy came to the rink every day with a smile on his face and worked hard and tried to bring other people into the fight. He can shoot the puck. Boy, he’s got the ability to shoot the puck and score goals. Just really happy for him that he’s getting rewarded.”

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