The playoff push continues.
San Jose followed up a beatdown of the Montreal Canadiens with a fast start against the Vancouver Canucks. The Sharks came out and chased Jacob Markstrom after three goals on four shots but were out-possessed for much of the game.
San Jose – like in the Detroit game – had a scary-long stretch of time without generating a shot attempt. It took over eight minutes in the third period for the Sharks to get their first shot attempt. That’s not what you want when you’re trying to preserve a lead in the National Hockey League. They managed to come out of the nearly half period stretch unscathed, though.
Calm coaching was a positive factor for the Sharks and I can’t figure out for the life of me why Todd McLellan has flip-flopped from stable to unstable behind the bench throughout the year. He deserves to be on the hot-seat – and he deserves to be fired – but that’s no excuse for throwing random lines and lineups on the ice all season long.
Last night he kept the lines as per the 4-0 win over Montreal and got another positive result. 44 with 61 and Hannan in the booth. That means a lot to the operation of this team but it shouldn’t have taken this long to do. Brent Burns and Matt Irwin – easily the most non-trustworthy pair despite the struggles of the Dillon/Mueller pairing – were sheltered to the tune of 100% offensive zone starts.
If you’ve read along all year you’ll know that I’ve internet-fired Todd McLellan on several occasions. That will likely continue, but he did a solid job coaching last night – except for the whole playing Joe Thornton less than Melker Karlsson and barely more than Ben Smith thing. Moving on before I go into a McLellan rant.
How about that Nieto kid? Matt Nieto has played solid hockey all season long but received zero bounces. It was great to see him find the twine twice, even if the goalie wasn’t there for the second one. Ask, Thornton – they all count. Nieto is a smart player – though perhaps not top-six talent – that never hurts the team.
Niemi: The Sharks goalie did what he had to do – maybe motivated by Stalock getting a donut in the previous game – and the Sharks fended off the Canucks comeback. That’s how the Sharks are going to have to make the playoffs – goalies just doing the basics. It won’t get them far in the playoffs, but it will get them there.
John Scott/Derek Dorsett: If a player is 8… and 68lbs bigger than you it’s probably not a good idea to fight him. Sure, anything can happen in a scrap, but the odds are against you. Derek Dorsett having his head thumped while he tried to cover himself does not spark his team. There’s a reason next to no one will fight John Scott.
Where They Stand
LA, Minnesota and Calgary all won last night as well so this win turned out to be even more important. The Sharks are still tied with the Flames and Kings for the final divisional spot – and still two games in hand for both of the opposition.
The mountain is still a tough climb but at least the Sharks are making it interesting. Sportsclubstats.com now has the Sharks at a 31.3% chance to make the playoffs.
With the teams their chasing still racking up wins it puts more pressure on the Sharks to ensure they get the effort and find a way to get two points themselves. One point games right now aren’t an option. They need the two points because of games in hand for everyone else.
On Wilson v. Thornton/Marleau
Doug Wilson said that Marleau and Thornton were never asked to waive their NTC and that he won’t be asking them. Wilson says the players will have to come to him with the request to be traded.
We’ve known since last summer’s shenanigans that Marleau and Thornton wanted to remain Sharks - and that Doug Wilson had other thoughts. There’s nothing new here from the 19/12 perspective. So, why would Wilson even both saying the players have to come to him?
I’ll tell you why. It’s his last attempt to make them the villain and deflect as much responsibility for his failures as general manager of this team. He could have just stopped at saying he didn’t ask them to waive the NTC – instead he went further when there was no need.
He’s basically saying it’s their fault I can’t trade them and rebuild this team. No, Doug. It’s your fault. You failed to put all the pieces in place on this roster and you gave them new deals that you immediately tried to go back on. This is your mess, not Patrick Marleau’s and not Joe Thornton’s. Those two players didn’t bring in John Scott, Adam Burish or Mike Brown and keep Scott Hannan around. You did.
The focus, whether in house or in the media, needs to get away from Marleau and Thornton holding anyone back. The Sharks have lots of cap space and opportunity to right this ship very quickly in the offseason. There are other players who can be moved. If you finally realize you can’t deal Marleau and Thornton you can focus this offseason on putting the pieces back together to utilize two of the games top notch players final years for a long playoff run.
Thanks for reading.
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