Everything that could have went wrong in the standings last night for the Sharks did.
They lost, first and foremost, and conceded second place in the division to the Flames. Outside teams, LA and Minnesota, won their games bringing them closer to the Sharks. One of those teams, Minnesota, beat the Canucks – which hinders San Jose’s need for Vancouver to leapfrog Calgary.
The Sharks aren’t out of the woods yet. Sportsclubstats.com has San Jose with a 63.8% chance to make the playoffs, a drop of over 12% thanks to last night’s games. Only five points separates San Jose from a playoff spot and the 13th overall selection in the NHL Draft.
Slow starts and Niemi’s inability to make routine saves are going to kill this team. Absolutely kill them – and it might take their playoff hopes down too if it continues.
San Jose has a tough stretch of games coming up. Washington, Tampa, Nashville and Detroit are mixed in with LA, Dallas and Phoenix to make up the Sharks next seven games. If they can’t put together a sixty minute effort when they step on the ice against those teams then the Sharks could be on the outside of playoff picture looking in by the end of that stretch. It would take a disaster, but the threat is real.
Is there a surprise option available for replacing Niemi?
Glenn Healy, a contributing factor to the NHL’s decline in ratings, and Sportsnet, the major factor behind the NHL’s decline in ratings, teamed up for a troll article on the Toronto Maple Leafs. The headline of the article is Will Maple Leafs Trade Bernier At The Deadline?
First, I want to point out that the Maple Leafs would be dumb, ten times over, to trade Jonathan Bernier but if you want to throw away a larger sample size of games in exchange for a 10 game patch of tough times then, by all means, trade him to San Jose.
Let’s pretend for today the Leafs are that stupid and are going to trade Jonathan Bernier. San Jose should be ringing Dave Nonis’ phone off the hook.
Here’s Bernier’s 5v5 save percentage, from 2012-10-01 to 2015-01-01, compared to the goalies around him in the category(min 4000 OI) – and by around him I mean the four below and two above, because Bernier is 3rd in the NHL in that time frame.
I also included Niemi for effect purposes only.
Not bad company.
Bernier is not only an upgrade over Niemi; he’s a long-term solution that allows the Sharks to focus on the other deficiencies in the lineup. I’m not worried about a 10 game skid for a goalie playing on the worst team in the NHL since the clock struck 2015.
I’m more inclined to believe the 96 game sample that I used in the image – most of which (82/96 games) – came while he was still behind the players wearing blue and white.
Even if you factor in the last ten games, Bernier's 5v5 Sv% only dips to 92.95% - adding the same dates Niemi's drops to 92.17%.
If he's actually available - and I highly doubt he really is - the Sharks should be all over him.
Evgeni Nabokov
Yesterday the Sharks picked up Nabokov for future considerations – presumably Wilson buys Yzerman lunch next time they’re in the same city – so the veteran goaltender could retire with the team that drafted him and where he spent parts of 10 seasons.
Nabokov had three 40+ win seasons with the Sharks while totalling 293 W’s overall in teal.
It’s a classy move by the organization to bring Nabokov back home to San Jose for his retirement party and it also gets him off of Tampa’s books heading into the trade deadline.
Well done by the Sharks, now hopefully the focus can shift towards making other deals to help this team with the current on-ice product.
Thanks for reading.
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