- Scoring chances were 9-1 Coyotes in the first period. Both on the scoreboard and everywhere else, those first twenty minutes are where the Sharks lost this game.
- He had the advantage of being paired with Marc-Edouard Vlasic for the latter two periods but, regardless, that was a really solid game from Matt Tennyson. Hopefully it’s good enough of a performance to convince the coaching staff to keep him in the lineup over Scott Hannan until Jason Demers returns from injury.
- Hannan was a healthy scratch but Brad Stuart seemed to be doing his best to make it seem like Hannan was on the ice in spirit. He wasn’t playing easy minutes by any means, starting three times as often in the defensive zone as the Coyotes’ end and facing an even smattering of Phoenix’s top two lines, but he was abysmal. Poor decisions on the breakout, misreads in his own end and repeatedly falling over for no explicable reason.
- Scott Gomez was apparently under the weather and had the night off but James Sheppard did a really nice job of filling in for him as the fourth line had their second solid game in as many nights.
- Good performance from the Thornton line who were far and away the Sharks’ best in this game despite drawing Martin Hanzal for the bulk of it. Brent Burns in particular was engaged after a couple of sub-par efforts by the lofty standards he’s set for himself up front. I think he’s going to be a lot of fun to watch in the playoffs./
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