The Sharks came out and attempted to roll four lines against the LA Kings and, for the most part, it worked. Once the Sharks went up 4-0 they went into shutdown mode and that’s when the possession shifted into the hands of the Kings. It’s not shocking, though, to see a team lose possession time defending a lead because most of the focus is on wasting time dumping the puck and defending a nothing-to-lose approach from the opposing team. The result of less possession usually means more shots for the opposing team.
When the Kings Corsi line crosses the Sharks for good around the 38 minute mark it coincidentally enough coincides with when the Sharks flipped the switch off on the push for more goals. The end result suggests that LA played a game that should have been closer, and maybe it would have had the Sharks four goal lead been established significantly earlier in the game. The problem is that had the Sharks not taken their foot off the gas the game may have been blown open even more, erasing any shot differential gain by LA.
With shots and possession being directly related you can attribute everything about the statistics from that game to San Jose protecting a lead, something often done in the NHL. I don’t necessarily agree with reverting to a defensive approach for the simple fact it can let the other team back in the game, like it did on the stat sheet but not on the scoreboard in this one. On the other hand it did allow the Sharks to get a larger look at the performance of their bottom six group in a defensive role under siege.
The Sharks taunted the advanced stats gods in the third period and won.
The point is that advanced statistics aren’t a useful tool after the first game of the season, nor will they become relevant until enough games have been played to justify its worth by means of a distinct pattern becoming apparent. The game wasn’t closer than it seemed; the Sharks, while having a worse Corsi than LA, were the better team and the resulting advanced stats come via a small, irrelevant sample size that essentially means nothing sixty minutes into the season.
Thanks for reading.
Follow me on Twitter @chiassontb