The Sharks woes continue on the road as the opportunistic Anaheim Ducks dealt San Jose another blow on their Southern California leg of this five game road trip.

The mantra for San Jose Monday night was to compete and bring more juice. And their effort was certainly better than what we saw Saturday in LA; however that was easy to do after the way they played against the Kings.

“The effort was better, the results are the same” commented Coach Todd McLellan after the game.
“If we were banking on effort, it was there. Tomorrow when we wake up it’s still going to be a loss and we are going to be two points behind everybody else.
“I thought we took a tight checking game and turned it into a track meet and that doesn’t favor us.”

The last quote by the Coach is a great way to describe the game. This team no longer has the speed they once did and they are an older group than the one he acquired when he began his coaching career in San Jose. Trying to match teams with speed is not a recipe for success for the Sharks and tonight they let the Ducks open things up.

Anaheim moved the puck well and they had too many long passes extending the rink, which in some cases they capitalized on.

The Sharks started and finished well but the second period of this hockey game was their downfall. The Sharks made some mistakes that led to three Ducks goals in the second including a shorthanded goal by Anaheim’s captain Ryan Getzlaf.

Details like bad changes that assisted the Ducks on two goals hurt the Sharks chances Monday night. They also had too many turnovers many coming at the opposition’s blue line which turned into scoring chances.

The Sharks did get some offense from the back end with goals from Matt Irwin and Jason Demers along with Patrick Marleau who scored a highlight reel goal showing his offensive ability.

San Jose went without Ryane Clowe Monday night. Clowe was put on the injured reserve list after only playing five minutes in LA on Saturday night. The speculation is a shoulder injury, but nothing is official from the Shark’s camp.

Scoring details

1st period

ANA – 14:06 –EV – 23 F.Beauchemin(3) – assists – 20 D.Steckel(2), 51 K.Palmieri(4)

SJ – 19:02 –EV – 5 J.Demers(1) – assists – 21 T.Galiardi(3), 23 S.Gomez(7)

2nd period

ANA – 11:09 –EV – 74 P.Holland(2) – assists – 7 A.Cogliano(8), 9 B.Ryan(14)

ANA – 11:43 –EV – 65 E.Etem(1) – assists – 34 D.Winnik(9), 55 B.Allen(4)

ANA – 13:55 –SH – 15 R.Getzlaf(11) – assist – 65 E.Etem(6)

SJ – 19:31 –EV – 12 P.Marleau(15) – assists – 9 M.Havlat(4). 3 D.Murray(3)

3rd period

SJ – 6:48 –EV – 52 M.Irwin(5) – assist – 88 B.Burns(4)

ANA – 19:14 –EV-EN – 23 F.Beauchemin(4) – assists – 15 R.Getzlaf(22), 34 D.Winnik(10)

Turning point

The turning point in this game ended up being the game winner by Ryan Getzlaf. Getzlaf scored a shorthanded goal and few things in a hockey game are more degrading than that.

Contenders & Pretenders

Contenders

Emerson Etem – scored his first ever NHL goal and added a helper for the Ducks. The first round pick home grown California native had his legs going right from the get go.

Ryan Getzlaf - scored the game winner while short-handed and displayed good puck control throughout the game. He was all over the ice and was easily the most visible player out there.

Pretenders

Joe Thornton – had a rough go against the Ducks. He let Emerson Etem go to the net on his goal even when Irwin directed him to the rushing forward. He tried passing when he should have shot in the offensive zone and he had heavy legs. Joe wasn’t moving as well as he can and the condensed schedule may be catching up to him.

Dan Boyle – was minus -2 at the end of the night and had an awful pinch that led to a Ducks goal.

Matt Irwin - was also a minus -2 even with a goal and the veterans on the Ducks team took advantage of rookie errors. On the shorthanded goal Irwin let the pass through and that should never happen.

With tonight’s loss the Sharks fall out of a playoff spot looking up at the Coyotes from the ninth position. They have the same amount of points, but less wins. They move north to Edmonton to face the Oilers on Wednesday night in another important road game.

Keep your sticks on the ice,
Cam Gore

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