For San Jose it was a routine win, get up two goals early, add some padding later and keep the puck out of your own net to finish. In this case it was the Winnipeg Jets who could not get anything going against the faster and more talented Sharks last night in San Jose.
Enough with the standard observations it's time to get into the nitty gritty of this game. As I tweeted last night:
Lots of things get exposed when you play top teams don't they?
— Peter Tessier (@Teddier) October 12, 2014It's true.
Last night the difference between games one and two were the opposition and the goaltending. Stalock did not pull a Mike Smith and simply have a brutal game with 2 or 3 softies. More importantly the San Jose defense did not allow the Jets to capitalize on scoring chances...right?
That's the funny thing, the eye-test says that (at least to me) but when you look at the running Corsi below it says the same thing, well sort of.
Why this is interesting is the Jets had 14 shots in the third period despite the Sharks having 6 power plays. Needless to say they could never really close the gap. But if you consider scoring chance, or better said opportunities the Jets could never really get the puck from opportunity knocking to a chance for it to go in.
Mark Stuart and Jacob Trouba got hammered last night. Just obliterated on possession as a duo. In the second period Maurice tried to shelter the duo but was matched either by last change for the Sharks or better execution. As soon as the Trouba and Stu were on the Sharks rolled out Couture, Marleau and Wingels, Jets woudl change, back to Bogo and Enstrom and the Sharks would counter with Pavelski, Thornton and Hertl. And so on, and so on, and so on. The Sharks could simply roll out another forward group on the long change for the Jets and hem them in with ease.
Mark Stuart also took a ridiculous and selfish penalty in the third period against Nieto. Maybe it was because of frustration, maybe he was pissed off at the player or maybe it was because he just didn't have a better option than drilling Nieto from behind into the goal and knocking it off? That's a statement about Stuart and character just as much as his shot blocking is right? If it isn't it should be.
What about Byfuglien? The big forward was o vocal monster last night eventually getting himself tossed from the game. If you didn't see the video from beneath the stands big Buff took his anger out on a poor stick. The guy was hot. Can he be blamed? One could argue that the refs were a tad colour blind but the counter to that point is the Jets also brought the wrath on themselves with plays like Stuart's. The Jets were out-skated and out-played by a wide margin and frustration may have set in- never a good combination when you start taking penalties.
So with a period to play and up 3-0 did anyone expect San Jose to sit back and relax? Well they did but didn't in some respects. They allowed 14 shots despite having 6 PP's but take into account score effects along with recent history. This is a team that has to learn to play in all situations of a game. It's protecting leads that this group has to master and what better chance than against an inferior group like Winnipeg?
Anyone else surprised or not about Thorburn being bumped to the second line after Buff was lost? Why not Lowry or Halishcuck, two players with somewhat better hands and offensive upside? Thorburn gets a lot of leeway for mediocre play as does Stuart and perhaps that's where the accountability on both sides of the bench needs to begin.
LA tonight against a Kings team who lost to Arizona last night. It is more of the same or a different type of effort from the Jets?