Comments / New

Quick bites: Sharks snap skid at eight

Posted on by Erika Towne

The San Jose Sharks took on one of the NHL’s better clubs last night and won, snapping its losing skid at eight games. The Sharks beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 2-1 for the team’s first regulation win since Dec. 12.

As you can see from Natural Stat Trick’s game flow chart, the Sharks maintained control of the puck during swaths of the game and made a good effort to prevent the Lightning from maintaining long stretches of puck control. When the Lightning did create offensive attacks, rookie netminder Yaroslav Askarov was there to bail the Sharks out.

Askarov made 24 saves on 25 shots, allowing one goal despite a 2.05 expected goals against average. Postgame, he was all smiles when talking to Drew Remenda.

Perhaps what made the victory even sweeter for the 22-year-old netminder was that it came against his childhood hero, Andrei Vasilevskiy.

“I had a couple favorite goalies, and Vasy was one of that group of guys. That means a lot for me. I was super-excited playing against him,” Askarov told San Jose Hockey Now’s Sheng Peng. “He was standing on the head tonight, too. Like, how many breakaways we have? He was good.”

Vasilevskiy allowed two goals on 25 shots, despite a 1.49 expected goals against average.

College hockey all star line

As noted by Andrew Reynolds of ECAC Hockey, three of the best college hockey players last season created an entire offensive line for the Sharks last night. Macklin Celebrini, Collin Graf and Will Smith were brought together in the Sharks lineup for the first time this season.

Interestingly, of all four of the Sharks’ lines, the trio had the second-fewest 5v5 minutes. They played 8:52 of 5v5 hockey. Only the line of Luke Kunin, Nico Sturm, and Barclay Goodrow had less time on ice.

Whether it’s a matter of getting used to one another or simply deployment has yet to be seen, but the line was only so-so. They didn’t seem to find a rhythm, though they out-chanced opponents 4-3 last night.

Some of that offense, as we’ve already seen this season, was simply generated by Celebrini’s exceptional skill.

Graf held his own in his return to the Sharks lineup, something he has not done since last season. He played a little over half a minute on the penalty kill and totaled 11:54 of ice time.

Highlight

In his first game back in teal this season, Marc-Edouard Vlasic made an immediate impact on the score sheet. The defenseman assisted on the team’s first goal of the game.

While a lot of this was due to the strong stick work of Tyler Toffoli, Vlasic was credited with the primary assist on the play. It was his first game back since April 18.

Scoring summary Tampa Bay Lightning vs. San Jose Sharks Jan. 2, 2025

First Period
13:52 SJS Tyler Toffoli from Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Jan Rutta

Second Period
12:55 SJS Mario Ferraro from Mikael Granlund
17:44 TBL Anthony Cirelli from Erik Cernak and Brandon Hagel

Third Period
No Scoring

fear the fin logoCLICK HERE  – SUBSCRIBE to our Newsletter!
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 GoFundMe or buying merchandise. Proceeds help us pay our writers and fund subscriptions to our favorite analytics sites.

Looking for an easy way to support FearTheFin?
Use our Affiliate Link when shopping hockey merch this holiday season!

LOGIN SIGN UP

Talking Points