Scoring Chances: Game 11 vs. Montreal

Complete scoring chance summary

On-ice scoring chances for and against

Team scoring chance totals

Head-to-head scoring chances

• The scoring chance totals seem to reflect what transpired on the ice in this game for the most part: Montreal hung in there with San Jose through two periods, and were probably the better team in the second, but the final frame was one of the most dominant twenty-minute stretches the Sharks have had all season.
  
• Logan Couture scored twice but, for my money, the best Shark on the ice was Matt Nieto. Five (five!) of the Sharks' fifteen even-strength chances came off his stick and the team outshot the Habs 16-5 when he was on the ice. Nieto really had his skating legs going and used them to challenge the Habs defensemen at their own blueline and on the forecheck. More games like this one and it's going to be impossible to send the kid back to the AHL even when everyone is healthy.
• I think a key to the Sharks' success in this game was countering P.K. Subban in the neutral zone. Especially with Max Pacioretty injured, he's the engine driving the Habs' offense and the Sharks were able to deny him the time and space to catalyze Montreal's breakout.
• Time for what's unfortunately become a standard feature of these posts: talking about how bad the Irwin/Stuart pairing was last night. In three full games together at even-strength now, they've started 63.6% of their non-neutral shifts in the offensive zone but the Sharks have earned just 44% of the shot attempts and just 25% of the scoring chances with Stuart on the ice, along with 40% of the attempts and 30% of the chances with Irwin on. They've been a trainwreck attempting to move the puck out of their own end and have struggled against second-tier opposing forwards. San Jose desperately needs Dan Boyle back.
• Another reason Boyle is hopefully able to recover soon: the power play. Sharks managed just one scoring chance (and gave one up to the Habs' penalty kill) on four opportunities with the man-advantage. They scored on it, but that just isn't going to be good enough most nights.
• I thought Jason Demers and James Sheppard had quietly excellent games and these numbers seem to support that. It's a good thing, too, because both of them deserve to keep their lineup spots going forward and hopefully this game made a case for that to the coaching staff. Demers should stay in over Stuart, Irwin or Hannan (it doesn't really matter which at this point) when Boyle gets healthy and Sheppard should never have to sit in favor of Mike Brown again.