The Anaheim Ducks were a little over three minutes away from sending Scott Gomez's new team to their first loss of the young season; that is until a routine shot off the stick of Logan Couture found its way through goalie Jonas Hiller.
The "seeing eye" shot tied the game at two goals apiece and was the catalyst of San Jose's 3-2 shootout win; keeping them perfect and seding the Ducks home one point lighter in the standings.
Watching the play unfold - it happened as most of these thing do. A few fanciful moves from Ducks forward Corey Perry behind the San Jose net resulted in him flopping a soft back hand pass attempt off of one of the officials and onto the waiting stick blade of the eventual goal-scorer Couture. A pass from him to another Sharks forward and crisp cross-ice pass and nifty drop pass later...Couture's weak, almost tired looking shot found its way through Hiller.
A scoreless overtime and Michael Handzus shootout goal later it was all over for Anaheim.
I want to blame Hiller.....but......I......just......can't.
I have been critical of Hiller up to this point, but these things happen. It's a long season - sort of. I have a bigger issue with the Ducks defense of the play. The way Anaheim defended the play was lazy. All three Anaheim players that dropped back to slow the Sharks attack carelessly floated back towards their own goal and never really challenged the puck carrier or the shooter. The net result - Sharks goal and a tie game.
It was a shame because the Ducks really did play a good game and at one point were even out shooting the Sharks by nearly three to one. Hey, they even managed to kill off the two penalties called against them.
About the only thing that the Ducks lacked in the game was a power play that still looks a tad disheveled and one save by a goalie that has to be doing some kind of soul searching by now.
No worries though...today is another day and things are still looking up in Orange County.
The Ducks are 3-1-1 through five games and are second in the Pacific Division with seven points. The 6-0-0 Sharks lead them by five points in the standings.
Anaheim returns home to face the new look Minnesota Wild on Friday at Honda Center. I have a bit of dislike for Zach Parise so I hope Anaheim can really take it to his new team and get back on the winning side of the standings.
San Jose Sharks Blogger • 
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