Quick bites: Sharks fall to desperate Wild

With ten games left in the season, the San Jose Sharks are understandably just riding things out until the final horn. On the other side of things, the Minnesota Wild are desperately scraping for all the points the team can get with the hopes of heading into the postseason. So, it’s no surprise that despite the best efforts of the Sharks, the Wild were able to hold off a last minute push by San Jose and skate away with a 3-1 win.

Blackwood holds down the fort

A good deal of that score has to do with the guy in net for the Sharks. San Jose was drastically outshot in the first period. Mackenzie Blackwood faced 15 shots, while the Sharks only managed one shot on Filip Gustavsson. That said, Blackwood did not falter in his defense of the net.

The netminder put in his best performance since returning from injury on March 21. He stood strong against an onslaught of shots from the Wild, many of which came in spurts. When you look at the Natural Stat Trick heat map from the game, you can see that Minnesota had plenty of opportunities in the crease.

Blackwood finished the night with a .935 save percentage and stopped 29 of the 31 shots he faced. To give you an idea of how integral Blackwood was to the Sharks in this game, according to Natural Stat Trick, Blackwood’s expected goals against was 3.08. He only let in two.

Thrun’s defensive partner

Henry Thrun has struggled at times on defense this season. In some games, he’s one of the best defensemen on the ice. In other games, he’s the worst. It’s a story of the defense as a whole, but some of the struggle also has to do with the defensive pairings that the Sharks choose to deploy.

During the games against the Dallas Stars and Chicago Blackhawks, Thrun spent the majority of his ice time paired with Jan Rutta. It did not go well. In fact, recently, when Thrun and Rutta have been paired together, they have been the worst defensive pairing for the Sharks.

In this game, Thrun started out paired with Rutta in the first period. As we’ve noted above, that did not go well. While that was not entirely the fault of Thrun or Rutta, when your team is getting outshot 15-1, something needs to change.

In the second period and through the rest of the game, Head Coach David Quinn changed up the pairings and teamed Thrun with Calen Addison. That seemed to do wonders for both players’ games.

#NHL GameScore Impact Card for San Jose Sharks on 2024-03-28:#SJSharks pic.twitter.com/UCrvSVrUWp

— HockeyStatCards (@hockeystatcards) March 29, 2024

Together, Thrun and Addison were two of the best players on the ice for the Sharks. While they did not generate a ton of offense together, they did what they were supposed to do. They held down the fort defensively. As a result, the Sharks, as a team, let in fewer pucks than it has in a long time. In fact, the last time the Sharks held a team to just three goals or fewer was more than two weeks ago, on March 12.

Highlight of the night Sharks at Wild March 28, 2024

Our highlight of the night is the lone goal by the Sharks. Mikael Granlund was rewarded for going hard to the net instead of trying one of those fancy passes the Sharks seem to try and never make. That’s especially notable because, if you notice, William Eklund was right there just in case Granlund needed someone to pass the puck to.

Granlund buries it on the break 🚨 pic.twitter.com/QZ46x9dB7C

— Sharks on NBCS (@NBCSSharks) March 29, 2024

Joel Eriksson Ek, Matt Boldy and Ryan Hartman all scored for the Wild. Gustavsson finished the night with a .963 save percentage. He stopped 26 of the 27 shots he faced.

The Sharks play in St. Louis tomorrow.