Respect your opponent.
That’s clearly a phrase that Todd McLellan doesn't abide by; otherwise the ice time distribution wouldn't have looked like this through the first half of last night’s game:
Scott Hannan had more TOI than Vlasic and Burns, Barclay Goodrow had only four seconds less than Joe Thornton, John Scott had more than Tyler Kennedy and Matt Tennyson led all players.
That is not a recipe for success. McLellan thought he could get away with poor decisions and the Oilers burned him for a 3-1 lead.
Guess what he did after the 3-1 tally? He went back to putting his best players on the ice – what he should have done all game.
Jordan Eberle’s first goal of the night was an absolute beauty that will be on highlight reels all season but he was aided on the finish by both Burns and Niemi playing the pass. Niemi had no idea what was going on. Burns played the pass, Niemi should have cut the angle and played the shot – not flop around in the crease while Eberle put the puck in the empty cage in front of him.
On Eberle’s second of the night it was a juicy rebound and a fifty-foot slide by the net courtesy of Niemi that allowed the Oilers to go up early in the second period.
Niemi followed up a fantastic performance against Chicago with a stinker against Edmonton. It would be hard to find another goalie in the league that tracks the puck as poorly as Antti Niemi.
The Joe-Joe-Melker line was dominant all game. The Oilers had no answer for that line at all.
The Couture line, well…was underwhelming. The Oilers fourth goal late in the game was a pretty lazy effort by Couture waving his composite weapon around that resulted in the puck being deflected by Niemi. This line has to be better for San Jose. If you get owned by the Oilers offense it doesn’t really set you up for success against legitimate teams come playoff time.
Perhaps McLellan needs to toy with the idea of making Thornton’s line the official shutdown line because Couture’s line just isn’t getting the job done.
Let’s talk about the James Sheppard goalie interference call that wiped out the Tomas Hertl goal.
It was weak, that’s for certain. The problem for Sheppard and the Sharks is that all of the “no goal, no penalty… goalie interference calls are weak.
He bumped – albeit slightly – Fasth and the Sharks immediately scored. Did it really impede Fasth’s ability to save that particular goal? I’d say no, but that’s the way the rule goals. If you touch a goalie – without being pushed in by a defender – and a goal happens immediately after, it’s going to be no goal, no penalty.
Fasth was noticeably in a tantrum after the Tennyson goal, looking for his second free call of the night, but to no avail. The Oilers goalie did his best Oscar performance on the flop from the phantom Scott Stevens-like body check in the crease – that is how it would be described if you were sold by his performance.
Regardless, the Sheppard/Hertl situation did not cost the Sharks a win. It was a legitimate no goal, no penalty call, even if it was extremely weak.
What did cost the Sharks the win was Todd McLellan and is insane spread of TOI, the team allowing 40 shots to one of the worst shots-for teams in the NHL and Antti Niemi not making saves he should make.
Instead of taking two points away they were left with one measly point. They squandered the extra one, no two ways about it.
The Calgary Flames did what they needed to do last night and are now only two points back from San Jose. The two teams will meet on Wednesday now with much more at stake.
Thanks for reading.
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