San Jose Sharks: A "Tail" of Two Teams

The 2009-10 San Jose Sharks are 2-2. Often in hockey, one team outplays another but loses, perhaps because of the opposing goaltender, perhaps because of lucky or unlucky bounces.

That has not been the case in this season. The Sharks have played two good games and two bad games, and the better team has won all four. A lot of the problem for the Sharks has come on the back end—both goalies have a save percentage under .900, and they have give up 13 goals in just four games.

The tail is not the only problem—there have been numerous mental lapses leading to the losses, as well. Worse are the problems with effort, or heart—long a weakness of this team exposed in the playoffs.

In the season opener, the Sharks were (so I am told, being unable to watch the game on Versus because of their dispute with their parent company’s chief competitor, DirecTV) outworked, outhustled, and outskated en route to a 5-2 victory to the rebuilding Colorado Avalanche.
 
True, they did outshoot their opponents, and Evgeni Nabokov was outplayed. Nabby gave up five goals on just 20 shots, while Craig Anderson gave up only two on 40. The Avalanche had two more penalties, too—seems like a game we played well enough outside of net to win.

But Colorado was equal to or greater than the Sharks in all the hustle categories: takeaways, hits, faceoffs, and blocked shots. They also had two fewer giveaways. The team, announcers, and fans I talked to who saw the game all talked about being outworked.

The Sharks were up for their second game, as was their netminder. The Sharks won in every major statistical category except hits (a 26-21 edge to Anaheim) and penalty minutes (46 to only 34): shots, save percentage, blocked shots, giveaways, takeaways, and faceoffs.

Maybe this is because it was a chance at revenge against their rivals who knocked them out in the first round with relative ease. However, if the team needs motivation to play, that is not a good sign.

That may be why the seesaw season continued. The Sharks came out flat against the Los Angeles Kings and dug themselves in a 4-0 hole before waking up late in the second period.

To their credit, they battled back to tie the game, but then backup goalie Thomas Greiss gave up a horrible goal from near the boards along the goalline. It was not even meant to go in, just to create a rebound opportunity in front of the crease.

That goal marred an otherwise solid performance that included some impressive saves among the other eight shots faced. Greiss came into the game to relieve Nabby, who for the second time in three games could not stop more than 80 percent of the shots he faced.

But in the end, the Sharks gave up a lot of prime chances in that game early and were not skating hard on every shift on either end of the ice. San Jose led in blocked shots, hits, and faceoffs; LA lead in shots, giveaways, and takeaways.

In the team’s home opener, things looked much different. Joe Thornton came up huge, feeding his teammates four assists and threading a beautiful headman pass to Dany Heatley that led to his penalty shot resulting in his hat trick goal. Heater was plus-six with an assist, and Joe was plus-four.

The Sharks had other stars come up big, too: Dan Boyle had a goal and two assists and Devin Setoguchi a goal and an assist. Marc-Edouard Vlasic also scored a goal, and Douglas Murray added an assist.

However, the carelessness with the puck has been evident in three of the four games they played, including against Columbus. In that performance, the only statistics the Sharks were on the losing end of were blocked shots, giveaways, and takeaways.

Nabby gave up three goals on just 27 shots, and has just an .859 save percentage and a miserable 3.68 goals against average. Those are not the number of a goalie who can win in the playoffs.

If coach Todd McLellan does not address the head, heart, and tail of the Sharks, this could be a roller-coaster season with another disappointing ending.