Where would the San Jose Sharks be without Brent Burns or Martin Jones? That's tough to quantify, but the one thing I can say for sure is that they would be at least one win lighter following an impressive display in Anaheim on Tuesday night.
The Sharks defeated the Anaheim Ducks 3-2 in overtime at the Honda Center. Burns secured the bonus point with the OT winner and Jones made 34 stops to yank two sure points from the beak of Wild Wing himself.
San Jose is now 4-1 in overtime this season, including two straight games.
Joe Pavelski and Burns were magical in the extra period. Pavelski threaded a brilliant pass to the bearded bullet through the legs of a stunned Cam Fowler. Burns did the rest - using a slick backhand to beat Ducks' goalie John Gibson.
The victory improves the Sharks record to 22-12-1 and increased the lead in the Pacific to three point over the Edmonton Oilers.
Melker Karlsson and Paul Martin each had a goal for the Sharks in the win.
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- Let's be honest here - San Jose stole this one. No, Martin Jones stole this one. Jones was especially sharp when San Jose needed it the most. Anaheim dominated much of the puck possession time and finished the game with a healthy 36 to 25 shot advantage. It wasn't pretty but a win is a win.
Give the Sharks credit, For a weary time lacking in practice time, they still make good things happen. The leadership in that locker room is truly in a class of its own.
- San Jose ended the night 0 for 4 on the power play, continuing a terrifying trend of not scoring with the man advantage. Head coach Pete Deboer tried to light a fire under the PP by moving bodies around, including shifting rookie Kevin Labanc to the first unit. Didn't work. The Sharks power(less) play ranks a sedentary 20th in the NHL at 16.4%. For now the special team are anything but.
- The Sharks have won seven of the last eight games. In all seven wins they've managed to pot at least three goals. In fact, the boys in teal and black are 16-1 when they do score at least three goals.
Furthermore, in San Jose's dozen losses (one in OT), they hit the three goal mark just once ( 7-4 L to NYR). What's the lesson here? The more goals the merrier!
- Brent Burns leads all NHL defenseman with 14 goals. That's five more than second place Cam Fowler. Burns is tied with Joe Pavelski for the team lead in GWG with three. BTW, that's good enough to put him in the Top 10 in the entire league for GWG's.
San Jose's next game is Friday at home against a pretty good Philadelphia Flyer' teams.
Thanks for reading, Steve