Wanna blog? Start your own hockey blog with My HockeyBuzz. Register for free today!
 

Sharks effort falls short against surging Senators

January 20, 2012, 2:29 AM ET [25 Comments]
Cam Gore
San Jose Sharks Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
The Sharks came out and started the game they wanted to against the Ottawa Senators, but after they opened the scoring the Sens controlled the momentum and netted four unanswered goals.

In a nutshell the Sharks special teams were subpar, and Craig Anderson out dueled Antti Niemi.

The Sharks had some great scoring opportunities but couldn’t solve Ottawa’s goaltending. The Couture, Ferriero, and Marleau looked strong off the start and created the best chances to bulge the twine but were careless on the defensive side of the game. Combined they were a minus -6.

The coach summed it up well after the game “I was disappointed in critical moments in the game. You can see why they’re a good team, they don’t need many opportunities to score. We gave then just enough to get ahead and their goaltender and their checking game did enough to get through it.”

The Sharks had some line-up changes for tonight’s game. Andrew Desjardins is back from his head hit against Columbus, Colin White also found his way back into the line-up after a lower body injury, and Frazer McLaren was a coach’s decision in place of Andrew Murray. The Senators are a tough team and have two heavy weights on their roster in Chris Neil and Zenon Konopka which explains the McLaren decision.

The Senators came into the Shark Tank after a come from behind victory in Toronto on Tuesday night and weren’t fazed one bit when they went down a goal against the high powered San Jose Sharks. They scored four unanswered goals after San Jose went up 1-0. Although the Senators only had 15 fifteen shots on net after two periods they proved to be rather opportunistic netting three of them.

“It may sound strange but offensively we created enough opportunities to win the game, but defensively we gave up enough to lose it.” Is the way that Coach Todd McLellan described the game.

That is a fairly accurate and honest description of how things went for the Sharks. They weren’t flat until the Ottawa’s fourth goal was scored in the third period. Had they of gotten a big save or two and had a brilliant save by Anderson gotten by him, we would most likely be singing a different tune right now.

Another difference in tonight’s game was Ottawa’s special teams, they were successful on both ends by scoring a power play goal and holding the slumping Sharks power play scoreless.

There are a couple of Ottawa connections with the Sharks that were not all that relevant for tonight’s game but are worth mentioning. First off coaches Todd Mclellan and Paul MacLean both worked under Red Wings coach Mike Babcock. These teams do play somewhat similar styles and the Red Wing influence is the reason why.

Milan Michalek was the key player who went to Ottawa in exchange for Dany Heatley. Michalek is having a career year with 23 goals and 32 points, instead of Heatley the Sharks have Martin Havlat. So far this year that trade goes in favor of the Sens.

The final connection is not on the NHL level, but both Jamie McGinn and Logan Couture played their minor hockey for the Ottawa 67’s.

Scoring details
1st Period
SJ – 3:10 –EV – 10 B.Winchester(6) – assists – 69 A.Desjardins(6), 22 D. Boyle(23)

Ott – 10:09 –EV – 7 K.Turris (4) – assists – 55 S.Gonchar(23), 11 D.Alfredsson(21)
2nd Period
Ott – 4:30 –EV – 65 E.Karlsson(7) – assists – 7 K.Turris(9), 71 N.Foligno(17)

Ott – 14:50 –PP – 14 C.Greening(10) – assists – 17 F.Kuba(12), 19 J.Spezza(29)

3rd Period
Ott – 9:34 –EV – 14 C.Greening(11) – assists – 19 J.Spezza(30), 2 J.Cowen(10)

The turning point in this game was the drop of the puck. Even though the Sharks scored the first goal, they faced a goalie that has enjoyed great success in this building when he played for the Colorado Avalanche two years ago during the first round of the playoffs. Niemi looked off his game right from the start when he almost cleared the puck out of the rink. The Sens made it look easy against an uninspired Sharks team.

Contenders & Pretenders

Contenders

Craig Anderson – was the game’s first contender for stoning the Sharks. He made big saves that sucked the momentum out of the team and once again played well in this building. Anderson is familiar with the Shark Tank from his time in Colorado and has enjoyed success here in the past.
“Patty Roy told me once he loved coming here because he always won. Obviously I don’t have the same record against San Jose. I’ve won some games and lost some games here but it seems like it’s always a fun building to play in.” said Anderson after the game.

Kyle Turris – is the game’s second contender for scoring a goal and setting up Erik Karlsson on his one-timer. Turris has some sweet hands and he showed it tonight and has turned things around from his time in Phoenix.

Colin Greening – scored two goals tonight and squashed any hope of a come-back for San Jose.

Pretenders

Antti Niemi – was the first contender tonight. We have seen this from him before, he didn’t look mentally into the game right from the start and his poor handling of the puck was a sure sign.

Benn Ferriero – is the game’s second contender. Here is a player who showed a desire to stay with the big club when he first came back up to the NHL by producing, however his play of late has dropped and he missed some great scoring opportunities in the first two periods tonight which may have changed the momentum of the game.

Sharks special teams – were a disappointment tonight. They had some chances and the timing of the power plays was ideal, had they of capitalized. The bright side is the number of quality scoring chances they had with the man advantage. The Sharks did create well but lacked finish.

On to Vancouver for a Saturday afternoon showdown against the Canucks and then on to Edmonton and Calgary before the All-Star game is the schedule for the Sharks.

Keep your sticks on the ice,
Cam Gore
Join the Discussion: » 25 Comments » Post New Comment
More from Cam Gore
» Sharks review
» Sharks forge ahead without Boyle
» Battle of Unbeatens: Sharks Go Head-to-Head with Blues
» Sharks take perfect record on the road
» Player Evaluations: Marc-Edouard Vlasic & Raffi Torres