- Sloppy would be the best way to describe the Sharks’ effort in this game. Despite having the edge territorially in the first period, they yielded a slew of odd-man and transition chances to the Ducks and allowed the floodgates to be absolutely blown open in the second period, when they were outchanced 8-2 at even-strength. Score effects took hold in the 3rd and San Jose sufficiently padded their numbers on the shot clock. It wasn’t meaningful, but perhaps a slightly encouraging sign for a team that’s been one of the worst in the league when trailing all season.
- From the Glass Half-Full Department of half-full glasses: Scott Gomez was incredible. With Gomez on the ice 5v5, the Sharks outshot (including blocks and misses) the Ducks 20-5, outchanced them 5-2 and outscored them 1-0. When he was on the bench, the Sharks outshot the Ducks 38-30 but were outchanced 12-4 and outscored 3-2. The kicker: he started two shifts in the offensive zone and five in his own end and played more minutes against each of Bobby Ryan, Daniel Winnik and Andrew Cogliano (likely Anaheim’s 3 best possession forwards with Perry out) than any other San Jose forward.
His line with Galiardi and Wingels is the one the Sharks should have gone with as their third unit the second Gomez was signed to a contract. It’s unbelievable that it’s taken nearly two months for them to play their first full game together. Better late than never, I suppose. - The top six just had an awful game with Joe Thornton in particular forcing passes and looking very un-Jumbo-like all night. Nothing seems to click simultaneously for this team. They’re finally getting contributions from their third line but the top forwards, with the exception of the one that’s actually a defenseman, have decided to take a break.
There is no rational reason for playing Douglas Murray over Jason Demers every night. Obviously the shot differential numbers in this one were polluted by score effects but the Murray/Stuart pairing managed to finish in the red during a game in which the Sharks directed 23 more shots at the opposition net than had directed at their own. - Vlasic/Boyle, Stuart/Demers, Irwin/Braun. It should not be this difficult for a Hall of Fame, Cup-winning coach to construct competent defense pairings. Which isn’t to suggest Todd McLellan is blameless here; he needs to assert his authority as head coach because Robinson’s management of the defense corps has severely hurt the team’s breakouts and transition game all season./
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