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The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Golden Knights 5 - Sharks 1

October 5, 2019, 1:35 PM ET [2 Comments]
Jeff Paul
Vegas Golden Knights Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT


Evander Kane can’t take the blame for this one getting out of hand. Kane was serving the second game of his Abuse of an Official suspension as his San Jose Sharks were molly-whopped by the Vegas Golden Knights, putting a damper on their 2019-20 home-opener. The Golden Knights got out to an early lead and never looked back, eventually taking a 5-1 victory and improving to 2-0-0 on the season. As the third-straight (one preseason) game between these two teams, there was no shortage of rough stuff, even without Kane in the lineup.


The high point of the night for the Sharks (USA Today Sports)


Fourth-liner William Carrier opened the scoring for the Golden Knights, playing the role of sniper and wiring a wrist shot past Martin Jones. Tomas Nosek made a nice one-touch pass to free up a streaking Carrier and the later didn’t miss his one-on-one chance. The assist was the first of three points for Nosek, the first time he has done that in his career. Jonathan Marchessault’s redirection of a Shea Theodore point shot, with 5:51 left in the first, gave the Golden Knights a two-goal lead to take into the first intermission.


Carrier shows flashes of skill when he remembers there's a puck. (USA Today Sports)


Brayden McNabb and Nosek would go on to add goals in the second period. McNabb’s goal came on the penalty kill when the stay-at-home defenseman snuck into the offensive zone, behind the defense, and lifted a short-side wrist shot over Jones. It was an impressive play for a guy who scores single-digit goals each season. The Golden Knights led by four heading into the third, signaling the familiar Aaron Dell mop-up period. Dell held the Golden Knights to one Nosek goal in the third, which Barclay Goodrow negated 4:55 later. Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 34 of 35 Sharks shots in the win, while Jones was chased allowing four goals on 23 shots, in two periods.

What stood out in the game? Here’s the good, the bad, and the ugly:

The Good:


Two words, Mark Stone. Stone impresses in each game he plays. He picked up two assists in this one, to add to his goal from Wednesday night. Stone stands out in all three zones and he is hard to play against. The human GIF machine was a great trade deadline acquisition by former-GM and current President of Hockey Ops, George McPhee.

Cody Glass continues to impress in Cody Eakin’s absence, allowing the Golden Knights to take their time with the third-line center. Glass has thrived between Max Pacioretty and Stone, with the two vets acting as mentors to the former first-round draft pick. Although Glass didn’t find the score sheet, he had a slew of impressive plays, including a 2-on-1 chance that the elite Stone couldn’t bury.

All four forward lines had it going against the Sharks and the defense, featuring Nic Hague making his NHL debut, held their own. The Sharks had very little to offer the Golden Knights and the road team coasted to another victory. The Power Kill, as I like to call the Golden Knights’ penalty kill, scored two goals, bringing their total to three SHGs on the season. McNabb and Nosek got the shorthanded tallies and while you never want to be in the box, Vegas certainly knows how to negate the disadvantage.

The Bad:


Martin Jones, Peter DeBoer, the Sharks’ ability to “show up”. Everyone in the San Jose locker room should be ashamed of the games they played against the Golden Knights to open the season. These lackluster efforts have me feeling very good about my preseason Power Rankings, where I have the Sharks finishing fourth in the division behind the Golden Knights, Flames, and Coyotes.

Jones is far too much of a question mark in goal, for the Sharks’ management to keep trotting him out there as the bona fide number one in net. At the same time, someone needs to tell DeBoer that he can start Aaron Dell, instead of suffering through Jones’ clunkers against Vegas. For every good performance against the Golden Knights, Jones has two dumper-fire starts. He has been chased from the game by their biggest rivals, numerous times, yet DeBoer shows an unwavering confidence in the netminder. After coming up short in the playoffs once again, the Sharks decided to stay the course, with two sub-.900 SV% goaltenders. Until a change is made, they will keep struggling to take that next step.


Dell is the king of mop-up duty (USA Today Sports)


How DeBoer keeps his job is beyond me. If his teams get out to an early deficit, they don’t fight their way back in. The starting goaltender can be had if he gives up an early goal because it usually compounds into more goals in short order. Jones struggled mightily against the Golden Knights on Wednesday, but still got the Friday start. Why not change up the look? DeBoer’s teams have been regular season stars – 98, 99, 100, 101 points respectively since his hiring – but they have failed to win a cup and their furthest run came in his first season (2015-16).

While the loss of former-captain Joe Pavelski has clearly hurt the team, they still have talent and a group of veterans the team respects. There shouldn’t be a motivation or accountability issue in that locker room. Logan Couture (C), Joe Thornton, Erik Karlsson, and Brent Burns should have a better hold on that room. Right now, it’s looking bad for the Sharks, bordering on ugly.

The Ugly:



76 penalty minutes: It’s clear these team do not like one another, despite Gerard Gallant’s message that the media essentially drives the rivalry angle. They can’t help but get into scrums after nearly every whistle and there have been near-line brawls in two of the three contests. Wednesday night’s season-opener was relatively clean, but the preseason finale and game two were a mess. The biggest brawl of the UNNECESSARY three-game series came after the Goodrow goal, when a frustrated Marcus Sorensen shoved Hague out of his way during the celebration. Hague, who stands 6-foot-6, stood his ground and chaos ensued. William Karlsson was tackling players, Thornton was pulling Karlsson’s hair, Fleury was giving Sharks’ sticks away to the photographers behind the glass. It was ridiculous to watch.


So much love between Wild Bill and Jumbo Joe (USA Today Sports)


The game was decided by that time, a 5-1 Golden Knights lead, with 5:55 left in the game. Sorensen had a right to be frustrated, but not with the Golden Knights. For the second-straight game, he was the only that seemed to show up to play. If third liners are the bright spot of the team on a nightly basis, it’s not going well. Right now, it’s not going well for the Sharks. The return of Kane in Game Four will be big for the Sharks, but he won’t fix all their problems and their need for more consistent goaltending. San Jose’s problems seem to be deeper than the heart, skill, and passion Kane will bring.

With the win, the Golden Knights improved to 2-0-0 on the season while the Sharks drop to 0-2-0. Following the game, Couture told Sheng Peng of Fear the Fin, “I thought maybe, if anything, we were a little bit worse (than Wednesday’s 4-1 loss)”. It’s not a great start, but the Sharks will find a way to win games, they always do. As Erik Karlsson reminded everyone following the loss, “There’s no need to panic, we’re two games in.” With the way the Sharks look right now, panic just moved in next door.

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