The San Jose Sharks are on the brink of another early playoff exit at the hands of the now despised Vegas Golden Knights.

Since a promising game one victory in this first-round best-of-7, the Sharks have been outscored 16-6 in three consecutive losses. San Jose hasn't been terrible as a whole...... but....., truth be told, most of their dysfunction has been between the pipes and between the ears.

Martin Jones was not a good goalie during the regular season and he's been even worse in this series. Jones was pulled in two of the last three games and is sporting a .838 save percentage and 5.33 goals against average. That's horrendous.

San Jose's defense isn't doing Jones or Aaron Dell any favors either. They've been almost as horrendous.

Additionally, it might behoove the Sharks to keep the Knights off the board in the opening seconds of a game. Vegas has outscored them 7-4 in the last three first periods, with opening minute goals in all of them. The Sharks have basically been playing from behind for the entirety of these games.

The leaky goaltending appears to be getting into the entire teams head. San Jose has been uncharacteristically undisciplined and it's killing them. Even Joe Thornton himself sat a game due to sus[ension. Every time the Sharks generate any momentum, it's undone by a bad penalty or two or three. I'm looking at you Evander Kane and your 39 PIMS in the last game.

Vegas is 6 for 22 with the man advantage in this series, including 2 for 9 in game four. AND in game two when the Sharks had eight power-play opportunities, the Knights outscored them 2-1 on said man advantages. Ugly.

This entire series smells of an early exit.

If the Sharks have any shot of clawing back into this series, they must clamp down on defense (think Columbus Blue Jackets.) The Jackets played a flawless 1-2-2 and it stymied Tampa's firepower. And right now that line of Stone, Pacioretty, and Stastny is as hot and as dangerous as any I've ever seen and the Sharks have no answer for them. Well, I do... play some freaking defense, stay out of the box and hope either Jones or Dell comes up with a stop, or two, or three.

BTW, has Erik Karlsson always been this bad on D or is that groin making him look like Dan Boyle?

One last thing, please start Aaron Dell.

Thanks for reading,
Steve

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