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25 Sharks' Moments To Remember - #23 Road Warrriors Are Born |
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By the time mid November rolled around the San Jose Sharks were in a very, very dark place. Since starting the season 4-0, the Sharks had dropped 8 of the next 11 and found themselves on the wrong side of the NHL .500 mark at 7-8-0.
The Sharks appeared to be teetering in the edge of disaster, especially with a very tough six-game road trip on the horizon. It was only mid November, it felt like time was already starting to run out on a team that had yet to find it's identity under new head coach Pete Deboer.
On November 13th the Sharks arrived at Joe Louis Arena to face the Detroit Red Wings. Detroit was as good a place to start as any if San Jose was going to turn their misfortunes around. The Sharks were 8-1-1 at the "Joe" 2009.
Tomas Tartar put the Wings up 1-0 early in the first period and it could been curtains for a fragile Sharks' Psyche.
It wasn't and the Sharks responded by getting goals from Melker Karlsson, Matt Nieto and Joe Pavelski en route to a 3-2 triumph.
Martin Jones, who had been pulled in his previous start (4-2 L to NYI) made 26 saves for the W.
San Jose pulled its record back even at 8-8-0.
The game wasn't pretty, San Jose managed just 14 shots on the Detroit net, but their scoring depth and Pavelski's GWG and ninth of the season were the difference.
San Jose was a very pedestrian 4-3-0 on the road before this game and at the time it was just another stop on a long schedule. But it quickly become the first step in an epic six-game road sweep and the start of what would be a historic season for the Sharks on the road. More on that later in the countdown...
After the game coach Deboer said, "We needed a win tonight. I thought we played a good road game..."
What he didn't know was that it would not be their last.
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Puck Drops on the 2016-17 season in....
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Thanks for reading,
Steve
San Jose Sharks Blogger • 
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