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The Morning After: Sharks fail to convert on numerous scoring chances

The Sharks created no shortage of scoring chances against New Jersey on Thursday night, but a combination of poor finishing and great saves by Keith Kinkaid kept San Jose off the board. The subhead on this post is a little obvious, of course, getting shut out is a pretty firm guarantee you had a bad shooting night.

But hear me out! San Jose was shut out for the fifth time this season and last night featured the Sharks highest number of scoring chances (as defined by War-On-Ice) in a game they were shut out in. San Jose’s 32 scoring chances (28.1 adjusted for score) created is the 15th-most posted in a game this season.

I embedded the table with the 10 games with the worst conversion percentages this season — the first five are the shutouts, naturally, but there have been some one-goal performances that won’t exactly be remembered for their finishing. For reference, the Sharks have converted on 10.3 percent of their scoring chances this season.

Team Date Opponent PDO GF SCF Conversion Rate
S.J 3/10/2016 N.J 81.2 0 32 0
S.J 12/12/2015 MIN 93.3 0 27 0
S.J 12/4/2015 ANA 96.2 0 25 0
S.J 11/7/2015 ANA 94.1 0 23 0
S.J 10/19/2015 NYR 85.7 0 20 0
S.J 12/1/2015 PIT 85.7 1 38 0.02631578947
S.J 10/22/2015 L.A 88.7 1 32 0.03125
S.J 2/26/2016 BUF 90.4 1 29 0.03448275862
S.J 10/28/2015 NSH 96.4 1 29 0.03448275862
S.J 1/14/2016 EDM 98.7 1 28 0.03571428571

Head coach Peter DeBoer already addressed the bad ice last night, and you can argue that the poor playing surface hurts the Sharks more than the Devils, but there’s probably more to it than that. Let’s start with Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

And neither of those videos show Brent Burns missing a wide open net late in the third period. I haven’t been able to find a video of that miss, but…well it was pretty indicative of how the entire night went. Below is a map of where the Sharks’ shots came on the ice.

San Jose’s scoring chances are on the left and all five of the ones on the right belong to New Jersey. The Devils were opportunistic and the Sharks were the literal opposite of that and that’s why New Jersey skated away with two points and San Jose with zero.

Thursday’s game was a frustrating one, but the Sharks created chances at a nice clip which is a nice change from the road trip in Alberta. Wins come first, but losses where San Jose out-possesses its opponents are easier to swallow.

For those curious…here are the top 10 conversion rates for the Sharks this season.

Team Date Opponent PDO GF SCF Conversion Rate
S.J 1/11/2016 CGY 116.3 5 19 0.2631578947
S.J 11/22/2015 CBJ 107.6 5 22 0.2272727273
S.J 10/24/2015 CAR 117.9 5 23 0.2173913043
S.J 1/26/2016 COL 120.5 6 28 0.2142857143
S.J 1/9/2016 TOR 122.6 7 33 0.2121212121
S.J 10/7/2015 L.A 110.6 5 24 0.2083333333
S.J 2/22/2016 STL 107.5 6 29 0.2068965517
S.J 12/22/2015 L.A 113.4 5 25 0.2
S.J 2/29/2016 MTL 108 6 33 0.1818181818
S.J 11/1/2015 COL 101 4 22 0.1818181818

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