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Sharks get the shaft from the men in stripes

February 6, 2013, 2:47 AM ET [38 Comments]
Cam Gore
San Jose Sharks Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Sharks get the shaft from the men in stripes

There were plenty of things in tonight’s game that were exciting, but the talk around the league will be the brutal call by the linesman on Andrew Desjardins which changed the momentum of this game.

“The way the linesman saw it on the ice; he was convinced it was a major penalty. Unfortunately, he was wrong. It’s been overruled, taken care of the by league and Brendan Shanahan and the safety committee, and there are no more issues right now” was the explanation given to Kevin Kurz from Comcast sportsnet by Mick McGeough after the game.
“Jonny Murray made the call. Unfortunately, he wasn’t overruled by the referee. It is what it is.”

If you look up text book hockey hit in the video dictionary you would see the hit Andrew Desjardins put on Jamal Mayers in tonight’s game. The problem was that neither ref saw it and they relied on the linesman who called a major penalty… for delivering the kind of body check all players dream about.

After Desjardins defended himself from Duncan Keith in a scrap the Sharks should have been on a power play for four minutes; two for instigator and for two instigating with a visor.

“It was a terrible call” said Todd McLellan after the game “I don’t know if we were going to be able to come back or not, but at that point we were still in the game and had every opportunity to win, and probably should have been on a four minute power play. That was a good hockey play. I think that’s what we all want to see. Jamal Mayers is a great human being, he spent a year here and nobody wants to see him get hurt but that was a real good hockey hit.
I think that we right now are going to error as a league in calling those penalties automatically when we shouldn’t.”

It was tweeted twenty minutes after the game ended that the league has already rescinded the match penalty on Desjardins.

It was good to see some emotion from GM Wilson after the game outside the Sharks dressing room suggesting we, the press should be outside the official’s room waiting for post-game comments. Oddly enough we had just finished discussing.

The first period of tonight’s battle had more action than the last two games as the lamp was lit six times, three for each team. Both timeouts were used to settle teams down and it must have worked because the last goal was scored with over eight minutes remaining in the opening frame and only one more after that if you don’t include the empty netter.

None of the goals came with the man advantage, which is surprising considering these teams have great skill and power plays. The Sharks had three chances with the man advantage and Chicago had the same.

The momentum changed constantly and neither team had it for an extended period of time, which made for the most exciting period of hockey this year.

The good news for the Sharks is that the third line got on the board this year with goals from Tommy Wingels and Michal Handzus. In fact they were the team’s best line tonight creating scoring chances and potting two.

Handzus is skating so well compared to last year and Wingels looked much more comfortable on the wing than he has all year.

The Sharks coaching staff tried to get a number of players going offensively by switching up the lines. Ryane Clowe started the game and spent much of it on the top unit with Thornton and Pavelski. Marleau played pretty well on the second unit with Couture but wasn’t able to pull the trigger on a couple of good scoring chances.

Scoring details

1st period

SJ – 2:53 –EV – 8 J.Pavelski(5) – assists – 29 R.Clowe(5), 44 M.Vlasic(3)

SJ – 5:18 –EV – 57 T.Wingels(1) – assists – 26 M.Handzus(1), J.Sheppard(1)

CHI – 10:08 –EV – 20 B.Saad(1) – assists – 7 B.Seabrook(3), 19 J.Toews(4)

SJ – 10:47 –EV – 26 M.Handzus(1) – assists – 57 T.Wingels(3), 22 D.Boyle(5)

CHI – 10:55 –EV – 65 A.Shaw(2) – assists - 29 B.Bickell(4), 25 V.Stalberg(2)

CHI – 11:37 –EV – 16 M.Kruger(1) – unassisted

2nd period

CHI – 11:52 –EV – 88 P.Kane(5) – assist – 19 J.Toews(5)

3rd period

CHI - 18:48 –EN – 88 P.Kane(6) – assists – 16 M.Kruger, 7 B.Seabrook(4)


The turning point in this game was the fourth goal scored by Kane but the missed call is what led to that opportunity.

Contenders & Pretenders

Contenders

The third line – is on the list for getting on the score board for the first time this year. They in fact got two goals tonight by Tommy Wingels and Michal Handzus. Depth scoring has been a problem for the Sharks over the past two seasons and particularly this year so hopefully for San Jose fans they can keep this up.

Patrick Kane – has rebounded from a disappointing season last year and tonight his skill was on display scoring the game winner and an empty net goal.

Jonathan Toews – was a plus -2 tonight with two assists including the game breaking play when he picked Douglas Murray’s pocket and set up Kane for the game winner.

Pretenders

The officials – found their way on the list for back to back appearances. They totally blew the call after Desjardins cleanly checked Jamal Mayers in open ice. Desjardins was given two majors and instead of the Sharks getting a power play from Chicago’s instigator minor they played four on four which led to the Blackhawk’s fourth goal. It was scored by Patrick Kane and assisted by Jon Toews and the zebra stripes.

I understand that the head hits are hard to see but these guys are supposed to be the best refs in the world, and on top of that they get paid a lot of money to make the right calls.

Douglas Murray – is on the list for his minus -3 stats after two periods. When you aren’t that fast you have to move the puck quicker and that absent minded play in the second led to the only goal of the period.

Antti Niemi – is on the list for taking a minor penalty in the third period which negated a power play. The infraction was for playing the puck outside the trapezoid. This is a black and white rule and there is no excuse.

Sharks coaching staff – for putting Douglas Murray out during four on four play. Murray was a minus – 2 after the first period and had a tough time all night keeping up with the speed of Chicago.

Jamal Mayers – is a late addition after his post-game comments. You got rocked Jamal, take the hit the way Landeskog did last week. I was very surprised by his reaction considering he is usually on the giving end of those hits. Judging by his comments it appears that Mayers didn’t look at the replay before he spoke to the press afterwards.

“It was hit to the head” said Mayers. “I’m not sure if it was an elbow or forearm or whatever it was but we’re trying to get that out of the game.”

The Sharks now have three days off until there next game on Saturday when the Coyotes come to town for a 1pm game at the Tank.

Keep your sticks on the ice,
Cam Gore
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