After an amazingly strong start to the season, the Sharks have lost two in a row. The Rangers game isn’t nearly as concerning as the score might sound. Why?
Well, Paul Martin wasn’t playing again and that was the biggest concern that I had looking over the roster. The Sharks had a rough night against the Islanders when Paul Martin wasn’t in the lineup and I’d love to blame the game against the Rangers solely on that factor, but I can’t.
The Sharks played the Rangers in a pretty tight possession game and it can’t be said that they were severely outplayed all night.
Against the Islanders the Sharks had 33 scoring chances against and nine high danger scoring chances against. That’s putrid, plain and simple. Against the Rangers they dropped those numbers to 15 and six, respectively, so the switch back to normal-ish numbers for their season steers the blame away from no Martin – although his presence was surely missed.
Let’s look at the goals for some answers.
Goal: Marc Staal
This one has Dylan DeMelo wandering his man up high in the zone, which leaves Matt Tennyson all by himself to guard the danger area. Tomas Hertl comes across just in time to create an added screen – assisting Jesper Fast’s efforts who was already standing un-attended to in front of Jones – so the Sharks goaltender likely didn’t see the puck at all.
Hertl has to do something other than get in the way there. Either hustle and make it out of the shot line at the minimum, or try and engage Fast to make some space for Jones to get at least a little peek at the puck.
Fault: Poor D-zone play
Goal: Mats Zuccarello
Zuccarello comes out of the corner and recognizes a freebie when he sees it. Rick Nash, all 6’4…, 220lbs, of him is standing all alone in front of Jones. Good luck, Martin. Braun had a decision to make on the play, pick up Keith Yandle coming down from the point, or try and give Nash some trouble. He chose Yandle, just as the Rangers likely drew it up, and well, there’s the result.
Jones probably could have covered a little more net, but how can you hate on him when he’s got a giant wall of a human in front of him? I don’t fault Braun much because he made a call. Had he left Yandle unwatched on his way down then Zuccarello likely finds him for a one-timer to the empty side of the net. Not enough time to get back to grab Nash.
Fault: PP goal, effective design by New York. That’s how it goes sometimes.
Goal: Jesper Fast
Fast catches up to a nice lead that catches all of the Sharks watching their deficit rise.
This one’s on Jones. I don’t care who blew what, how Fast got the puck, or anything in between. Those breakouts happen from time to time. If you’re going to flop around and send out a poke check you damn sure better make it count. Jones didn’t and it was 3-0. If he doesn’t go down and fail at his poke check, he probably makes a save there.
Fault: Martin Jones
Goal: Viktor Stalberg
This one comes with Jones only needing to worry about Stalberg. Vlasic had gotten back, Tierney was also around and Braun had the man covered. Unfortunately for the Sharks goaltender it looks like the puck hits Braun’s skate on the way to the net, changing its direction and giving the Rangers the 4-0 lead they would finish with.
Fault: Bad luck
There’s no real answer, not that I can find directly anyway, as to why the Sharks lost. There’s no real blame to go around. The results on the Sharks end weren’t nearly as bad as the score suggests, but it’s still not a satisfying night. The Thornton line didn’t do well with possession which, when that happens, isn’t going to give much hope for a win. Your best players have to be your best players. That didn’t happen, so I guess if you want to point the finger it can go to the top forward line and the top defensive pairing. The rest of the team did pick up the slack but it just wasn’t enough, obviously.
Not having Logan Couture’s offensive presence hurts and not having Paul Martin on the blueline hurts, but that’s adversity that good teams – in short bursts – need to overcome if they want to be great teams. Tough loss after losing to the Islanders shortly before, but life goes on and this is still a quality hockey team.
Thanks for reading.