The Sharks may have lost 5-2 last night but they didn’t play a terrible game. The certainly didn’t get any friendly bounces go their way.
Special teams did their job, going 1/3 on the PP and killing off the Lightning’s only PP. Can’t ask for a better result from the special units.
The first Lightning goal nicked Tommy Wingels stick and went to a place I highly doubt anyone – Stamkos included – expected it to go. The second goal was an excellent tip by Kilorn off of the initial play by Callahan. The third Lightning goal was another unlucky bounce for the Sharks off of their own defender’s stick. Can’t really fault Niemi on any of the first three goals that got by him.
The fourth Lightning goal, though, was a save Niemi needed to make. I love watching Cedric Paquette, and he’s been quite the surprise for the Bolts this year, but that was a clear path to the net and he isn’t Stamkos. That’s a save Niemi has to make – especially to keep his team in the game. That goal was the nail in the coffin for the Sharks.
The Sharks hung in with one of the league’s best possession teams and took the shot attempt battle when all was said and done. Credit to Ben Bishop for playing a solid game in the cage for the Lightning. Had the Sharks not received some unfortunate bounces there may have been a different – or at least closer – outcome.
Either way, it was a fun game to watch. There were a lot of great players on the ice last night.
Where They Stand:
With 24 games left, the Sharks are still in 2nd in the Pacific. Vancouver (3 games in hand), Calgary (2 games in hand), LA (3 games in hand) and Minnesota (3 games in hand) can all pass the Sharks when the games even up. That would push the Sharks out of the playoff picture.
It’s certainly not an ideal situation – but the probability of all four teams winning each of their games in hand to pass the Sharks isn’t high. The problem becomes, though, that San Jose will be in more of a dogfight for a playoff spot since those teams are certain to win a few which will close the gap.
If we use 96 points as the benchmark for grabbing the last Wildcard seed the Sharks will need to go 14-8-2 over their last 24 games to get that marker. Given the up and down performances of Vancouver and Calgary all season that 96 points may be good enough to get a divisional seed of 2nd or 3rd in the Pacific. Sitting with more games played than their competition, the Sharks are forced to watch and wait; hoping for the failures of others to decide their fate.
With the moves that Nashville made acquiring Franson and Santorelli they’ve become, in my opinion, the least desirable draw in the entire league for the playoffs – and they might have been such already. Expectations are going to be extremely low for any team that draws the Predators in the first round so the Sharks need to finish no worse than the first wildcard seed to have a legitimate hope to advance should Nashville finish first in the West.
The problem with that, is that the Winnipeg Jets – currently ahead of the Sharks in the conference standings – are in the first wildcard seed. So, realistically the Sharks are looking at either 2-3 in the Pacific or the 2nd Wildcard seed – unless the Jets fall off the face of the earth of course.
The road to the playoffs is not going to be easy for San Jose but we can’t blame their inability to beat lesser teams like Edmonton or Buffalo earlier in the season because they are still in a playoff spot right now. It’s up to them to find a way to get the points in the remaining games and fend off the push by outside teams.
San Jose has games against Ottawa (2), Toronto, Philadelphia, Arizona (2), Edmonton and Colorado left. That accounts for eight of the 14 wins they need to get to the playoffs. I’m not saying they will win all eight of those games, but they are the superior team and if they want to make the playoffs they need to win all eight of those games because the rest of their schedule isn’t as pretty.
They have two games each left against the Stars, Canucks and Kings – who are all chasing playoff spots – that will have huge implications on the Sharks playoff desires.
The other 10 games are against Nashville (2), Detroit (2), Pittsburgh (2), Chicago, Montreal (2) and Winnipeg.
The Jets, Flames, Canucks, Wild and Kings are all in action tonight and you can bet the Sharks are going to be score-checking.
Thanks for reading.
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