San Jose will be heading into round two versus the LA Kings a little undermanned. Here’s the lines as per the Sharks twitter account for tonight’s game.
Nieto-Thornton-Pavelski Marleau-Hertl-Ward Goodrow-Tierney-Wingels Haley-Lerg-Brown
Vlasic-Braun Dillon-Burns Mueller-Tennyson
Noticeably absent again, Paul Martin. It is nice, however, to see Mirco Mueller draw in. It will be interesting to see what an off-season + some time in the minors has done for his game. The fourth forward line absolutely terrifies me, though. I can’t see a scenario where that line goes over the boards much in this one.
All games are important, but this one even more so given the divisional race that will be on all season long in the Pacific. Not having a dependable fourth line – or even resembling a dependable one – is never a good thing. That’s something the Sharks suffered from last year and they’re again faced with that fate due to injuries to Couture and Donskoi.
Thoughts For Tonight:
1. The Sharks have to find some secondary scoring. They can’t go about their business expecting the top line to do everything, especially with Matt Nieto as the winger. I like Nieto – but I like him in the bottom six. The guy has hands of stone and terrible luck. Hertl needs to get that second line going, likewise for Tierney on the third, or this could be a long game.
2. Martin Jones needs to be in top form. No bad decisions, no soft goals, just clean and simple netminding. The absence of Martin isn’t good, but Mueller over DeMelo eases a little bit of the pain, especially if he’s even remotely steady back there.
3. Special teams: The PP needs to get going and be effective. The PK needs to find a groove. When you’re missing star players it’s even more important to be successful with your special teams play, because that could be the difference if you can hang in games.
The Sharks have to get out of this mini-slide before the ghosts of last year’s disaster start to haunt their minds and trick them into thinking they aren’t as good as they are. Couture and Martin being out isn’t an excuse for losing, it’s an opportunity to overcome adversity and prove that the rest of the roster is still good enough to be a top team in the Western Conference.
If the Sharks can score early and gain some momentum they should be alright, otherwise it might be a long night. The fourth line is ugly and the entire bottom six in general doesn’t make me feel too comfortable.
Here’s hoping for another great Sharks-Kings tilt. Thanks for reading.