San Jose Sharks Bookend New Year vs. Vancouver Canucks

The San Jose Sharks have not played well against the Vancouver Canucks in 2011.

After taking three of four against their coastal rivals in the 2009-10 season, the Sharks lost the first matchup of last season the day after Thanksgiving. Then they proceeded to lose two of the next three (one in overtime) during the regular season before dropping four of five in the playoffs.

This season has started just as the last. A loss on the day after Thanksgiving was followed by another Wednesday night in overtime. What is the Sharks' problem against the Canucks?

They lack the Canucks physicality, speed and skill, and they do not make up for it with a superior, Nashville Predator-type effort.

Slow starts continue to haunt the Sharks. The Canucks out-shot the Sharks 15-10 through the first 45 percent of the game while staking a 2-0 lead.

San Jose bounced back nicely, out-shooting the visitors 2:1 over the remainder of regulation and scoring the only two goals over that period to send the game into overtime. But despite starting overtime on a power play, the Sharks were out-shot 3-1 in the extra session and lost on a Kevin Bieksa shot—just like the final game of last season, except that this one was tipped by Andrew Ebbett.

When will this team learn they cannot play at a lower energy level than the other great teams in this league? When will they see that such efforts are not the work of championship teams?

Momentum belonged to San Jose for more than half of this game. They won almost twice as many faceoffs (37-19) and put more shots on goal (35-30), yet were even in giveaway/takeaway differential and had more blocked shots (21-16) and (uncharacteristically) hits (30-24).

The Sharks came into the game struggling of late on the power play and all season on the penalty kill. Vancouver is the best team in the league with the man-advantage and seventh short-handed. Yet San Jose kept pace with them, with both teams scoring once in five power plays.

And the Sharks still lost. They must find a way to play well for the entire game or they will lose their third straight in the rematch Monday in Vancouver. They have not beaten a team that projects to go to the playoffs since Dallas on December 8, and that is their only win over such a team since before Thanksgiving.

With six of the next eight games over a two-week period of January on the road, the Sharks will do well to hang on the third spot in the Western Conference. Only three games are against teams that do not project to make the playoffs, so getting a win Monday would make that goal much more likely.