San Jose came up shorter than a fruit fly's entire
lifespan and your pal Ian is going to tell you how he saw it. It's the post game, The Good, The Bad and The
Ugly!
The Good: The
Sharks really came out after the Penguins in the second period after being kind
of sleepy in the first, yes they did outshoot their opponent in that period but
the play was mostly pushed by the Penguins who had quality scoring chances and
goals while the Sharks were forced to shoot low percentage shots from the perimeter.
The Sharks were sparked to life by their 4th line who got them on the board and
really got the momentum in full gear for the team. Logan Couture has a little streak going right
now adding the game tying goal for the Sharks.
The Bad: The
Sharks penalty kill was victimized by a what I must admit was a nice feed by
Crosby that Stalock had little chance on as the defense was out of place. I thought Fedun looked alright but the
penalty that lead to that second penguins goal was ill timed and the only real
thing that I thought was problematic with his game. Stalock was good but not great, probably
should have had the first goal and the shootout was not his greatest moment
although facing those shooters is a job that I don't envy. I'm genuinely curious to see if this is the
last time we see him this season or if he and Niemi split time down the
stretch.
The Ugly: Sharks
power play went 1/5 and while that one goal did tie the game and make the
overtime possible not capitalizing on a 4 on 3 for 4 minutes probably gave them
the fate they deserved. Ben smith only
won 33% of his draws and Chris Tierney only won 44% of his as well.
Final Thoughts: The cards were pretty stacked against the
Sharks coming into this game in all aspects while the idea of the Sharks
running the table and pushing into the playoffs is a nice one the odds of them
doing so and getting in where slim and the odds of them running the table at
all even slimmer. The Sharks are still not sure of the status of Marc Edouard Vlasic
and Mirco Mueller unknown until they return to San Jose to have them
re-evaluated the sharks put out a thin blue line that didn't really embarrass
themselves. I thought Fedun was ok,
nothing special but filled in nicely on a pairing with Irwin. So where does this leave the Sharks? Well they
finished the road trip with a 3-3-1 record. In my opinion the bell tolled on
the season long ago while not mathematically out the odds of them making the
playoffs are less than 2%. Even running
the table with what seems possible with a soft schedule of non-playoff teams
not counting the season finale against the Kings would leave them with 95
points and that most likely leave us with a 25% chance of it being good enough
to get in. So while I'm glad the Sharks
didn't completely roll over most of their recent games have been too little to
late.
Remember if you have a question you would like me to
answer in a future article please e-mail me at ian.blogs.sharks@gmail.com,
unless you ask I will not post who asked the question so don't worry about how
stupid you think the question may be because to me there is no such thing.
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