- Score effects largely took hold in the third period so the shot differential numbers probably flatter the Sharks a bit in this one. For the majority of the night, this game was ugly.
- Perhaps Scott Gomez’s worst game in a Sharks sweater. The Sharks were completely dominated with him on the ice at even-strength; outshot 11-7, outchanced 8-1 and outscored 4-0.
The way the Sharks are currently set up (both in terms of forward depth and the coaching staff’s questionable deployment of defense pairings), quite a bit rests on the shoulders of Gomez and Justin Braun. If they’re both off their game, as they certainly were last night, the Sharks are left with two competent forward lines and one competent defense pairing. They likely didn’t even have that much at their disposal with Clowe’s injury and the subsequent shuffling of line combinations. Jason Demers needs to be swapped into the lineup for Murray and Doug Wilson needs to make a bottom-six move. I like Gomez and Braun a lot but there’s simply too much pressure on them to perform right now.
Speaking of, the Sharks managed to get pretty well throttled in the five minutes Clowe did play in this game. Yikes. - Michal Handzus and Adam Burish have strung together two good games in a row, which is cause for celebration.
- The Murray/Stuart pairing was able to staunch the bleeding somewhat, at least relative to previous outings and to the toughness of minutes they played. Still, it should be dismantled as soon as possible./
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