Scoring Chances: Game 1 @ St. Louis

With this being the playoffs and all, I’m guessing we might have a few new readers so here‘s a refresher on what constitutes a scoring chance and there’s some stuff about scoring chance types in here for anyone interested.

Despite being dominated territorially, particularly in the first overtime period (the team as a whole posted a -13 Corsi rating in this game, with Douglas Murray a hilarious -21), the Sharks were reasonably effective at limiting the Blues‘ quality opportunities. San Jose was still outchanced but it was by a relatively narrow margin, 14-11 at even strength and 19-17 overall. Calling this a huge win seems like an understatement but, realistically, the Sharks shouldn’t expect to win three more games in this series if they continue to be outchanced – especially since they probably shouldn’t count on a 0.952 SV% from Antti Niemi for much longer. If San Jose can do a better job at penetrating the neutral zone in order to spend more time in the Blues’ end of the ice, they’ll be on the fast track to an upset here since they’ve already banked a victory they probably didn’t deserve.

Best EV Forward: Torrey Mitchell (+3)

Worst EV Forward: Joe Pavelski (-4)

Best EV Defenseman: Dan Boyle (+2)

Worst EV Defenseman: Douglas Murray (-5)

Period	Totals		EV		PP		5v3 PP		SH		5v3 SH
1	4	3	4	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
2	5	7	0	3	5	0	0	0	0	4	0	0
3	5	3	4	2	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
4	2	6	2	6	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
5	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Totals	17	19	11	14	6	0	0	0	0	5	0	0

Team	Period	Time	Note	SJS						Opponent
SJS	1	19:14	Havlat P	9	22	29	31	39	44	5	10	20	21	22	41	5v5
SJS	1	16:42	Couture T	9	29	31	39	60	61	5	10	20	21	22	41	5v5
STL	1	12:09	Perron P	8	12	19	22	31	44	6	27	41	42	57	74	5v5
STL	1	7:44	Russell P	18	31	37	57	60	61	4	12	15	41	46	75	5v5
SJS	1	7:12	Desjardins T	22	31	34	44	57	69	5	17	22	25	41	44	5v5
SJS	1	5:22	Moore T	17	18	31	37	60	61	4	17	25	41	44	46	5v5
STL	1	3:01	Perron S	8	12	19	22	31	88	6	27	41	42	57	74	5v5
STL	2	16:46	Reaves F	3	9	29	31	39	88	5	12	15	22	41	75	5v5
STL	2	16:01	Oshie T	3	9	29	31	39	88	6	27	41	42	57	74	5v5
SJS	2	15:14	Marleau PP	8	12	19	22	31	39	5	17	20	27	41		5v4
SJS	2	14:31	Marleau PP	8	12	19	22	31	39	12	17	22	41	46		5v4
SJS	2	13:58	Goal – Havlat PP	9	19	22	29	31	88	5	27	41	42	74		5v4
STL	2	5:52	Reaves T	3	31	34	57	69	88	6	12	15	27	41	75	5v5
SJS	2	4:43	Pavelski PP	8	12	19	22	31	39	5	12	17	27	41		5v4
SJS	2	4:42	Pavelski PP	8	12	19	22	31	39	5	12	17	27	41		5v4
STL	2	2:51	Pietrangelo PP	3	8	12	31	44		22	27	41	42	57	74	4v5
STL	2	2:17	Shattenkirk PP	18	31	34	61	88		22	27	41	42	57	74	4v5
STL	2	2:13	Perron PP	18	31	34	61	88		22	27	41	42	57	74	4v5
STL	2	1:50	Berglund PP	17	22	31	39	44		4	10	21	27	41	44	4v5
STL	3	19:06	Goal – Berglund P	9	22	29	31	39	44	5	10	20	21	22	41	5v5
SJS	3	15:38	Mitchell P	17	18	31	37	60	61	5	10	20	21	22	41	5v5
STL	3	12:32	Goal – Berglund PP	8	18	22	31	44		4	10	20	21	41	44	4v5
SJS	3	11:42	Mitchell P	17	19	22	31	37	60	6	12	15	27	41	75	5v5
SJS	3	9:57	Clowe PP	9	19	22	29	31	60	12	20	22	41	46		5v4
SJS	3	8:04	Galiardi S	17	18	22	31	37	88	5	12	15	22	41	75	5v5
SJS	3	5:16	Goal – Desjardins T	12	22	31	57	69	88	22	41	42	46	57	74	5v5
STL	3	2:17	Steen T	31	34	57	60	61	69	6	10	20	21	27	41	5v5
SJS	4	18:14	Burns T	8	18	31	37	61	88	4	10	20	21	41	46	5v5
STL	4	15:51	Shattenkirk T	3	8	12	19	31	88	5	10	20	21	22	41	5v5
STL	4	6:52	Steen T	17	18	22	31	37	44	4	12	15	20	41	46	5v5
STL	4	6:04	Perron P	8	18	31	37	60	61	6	27	41	42	57	74	5v5
STL	4	2:48	Backes P	9	29	31	39	60	61	5	22	41	42	57	74	5v5
SJS	4	1:13	Mitchell P	17	18	22	31	37	44	5	10	20	21	22	41	5v5
STL	4	1:01	Berglund S	17	18	22	31	37	44	5	10	20	21	22	41	5v5
STL	4	2:17	Perron T	3	8	12	19	31	88	6	27	41	42	57	74	5v5
SJS	5	16:26	Goal – Havlat P	9	22	29	31	39	44	5	18	22	25	41	44	5v5

#	Player	EV			PP			SH
3	D. MURRAY	22:57	0	5	0:02	0	0	1:48	0	1
8	J. PAVELSKI	22:20	1	5	3:37	4	0	1:52	0	2
9	M. HAVLAT	19:36	3	4	1:54	2	0	0:00	0	0
12	P. MARLEAU	18:53	1	4	3:37	4	0	1:47	0	1
17	T. MITCHELL	17:41	5	2	0:19	0	0	0:50	0	1
18	D. MOORE	17:16	5	4	0:00	0	0	2:20	0	3
19	J. THORNTON	21:10	1	4	4:28	6	0	0:12	0	0
22	D. BOYLE	29:07	7	5	3:48	6	0	2:15	0	2
29	R. CLOWE	21:39	3	4	2:09	2	0	0:00	0	0
31	A. NIEMI	77:58	11	14	5:39	6	0	4:57	0	5
34	D. WINNIK	14:25	1	2	0:08	0	0	1:29	0	2
37	T. GALIARDI	18:01	5	4	0:00	0	0	0:00	0	0
39	L. COUTURE	19:26	3	4	3:30	4	0	1:24	0	1
44	M. VLASIC	27:31	4	4	0:00	0	0	2:31	0	3
57	T. WINGELS	12:56	2	3	0:52	0	0	0:00	0	0
60	J. DEMERS	18:43	4	4	1:22	1	0	0:00	0	0
61	J. BRAUN	21:29	4	4	0:08	0	0	0:54	0	2
69	A. DESJARDINS	13:24	2	2	0:00	0	0	0:00	0	0
88	B. BURNS	26:16	3	6	2:21	1	0	2:26	0	2

Chance Types

Team	Transition	Odd-man	Rebound	Forecheck	Possession	Steal	PP	SH
San Jose	5	0	0	0	5	1	6	0
St. Louis	6	0	0	1	5	2	5	0

Head-to-head scoring chances:

The most important matchup in this series is the Joe Thornton line versus the David Backes line and the early returns are not good at all for the Sharks. Thornton, Patrick Marleau and Joe Pavelski put together one of their weakest performances in recent memory for Game 1 and were clobbered in EV chances by Backes, Perron and Oshie. This is a matchup both coaches expressed interest in maintaining during the regular season but if the Thornton line fares similarly Saturday night, one wonders if McLellan will try to get them out against the Patrik Berglund line instead once the series shifts to San Jose.

Everyone on the Blues had a field day going up against the Murray and Burns pairing who seemed to have a lot of difficulties against the St. Louis forecheck. As awesome as Burns has been in teal, he still has issues with neutral zone turnovers when attempting to move the puck north and those problems are exacerbated against St. Louis’ system. If I were McLellan, I’d probably put Demers, who can make those outlet passes fairly consistently, back with Burns and give Murray a more limited role on the third pairing. In his defense, Murray did have a brutal zone start rate, starting 10 of his 12 non-neutral zone EV shifts in his own end. He also turned in a solid night on the PK where he played nearly two minutes and yielded just a single chance against. I only mention those so he doesn’t eat me.

More stats from the game: Corsi/Fenwick, Shift Charts, H2H Ice Time, Zonestarts, Play-By-Play, Box Score

Talking Points