On January 21st. the Sharks will play host to The Los Angeles
Kings and you pal Ian is going to be Breaking It Down! This is your semi regular officially
unofficial game preview post that gives you some quick numbers and my opinions
on not only our Sharks but their opponent of the night.
*Please note the stats below were accurate the afternoon
of January 20th.*
Know Your Team - The San Jose Sharks
Current Record (W-L-OTL): 24-17-6, 54 Points and 3rd in
the Pacific Division
Last 10 Games: 5-4-1
Power Play: 20.5% (9th.)
Penalty Kill: 81.5% (13th.)
Current Streak: 2 game losing streak. (OT vs. The Flames
and regulation vs. the devils.)
Notes: Sharks lead the flames by a point and are 2 points
ahead of the kings for the final divisional playoff spot in the Pacific
Division
Know Your Enemy - Los Angeles Kings
Current Record: (W-L-OTL): 20-14-12, 52 Points and 5th in
the Pacific Division
Last 10 Games: 2-3-5
Power Play: 19.2% (13th.)
Penalty Kill: 78.7% (25th.)
Current Streak: 2 back to back losses in OT.
Notes: Although they have not been great this year, I
still expect them to not only make the playoffs but contend because counting
the LA Kings out of anything just feels stupid at this point.
***Warning Adult Conversation about the Kings alert... if
you are waiting for to tell you why the kings are terrible because they are big
ca-ca heads just stop reading now***
Ian Breaks Down The Kings: I have to say that I'm really looking forward
to the Road to the Stadium Series show because honestly guys the Kings have
been just as much as a what the hell happened as the Sharks this year. Now of course the difference between the two
teams is that the Kings seem to be able to put it together when it matters
making them a very dangerous team on the upcoming stretch drive. There are some
players having some serious down years though.
For example I don't think anyone saw Kopitar's production falling off so
badly this year. (Because the LA Kings
have to fuck me in every way possible including fantasy). No one knows what has happened to Mike
Richards, I bet Lombardi is kicking himself for not buying him out when he had
the chance. Their biggest problem in my
mind though is the absence of Slava Voynov.
Now I get that allegedly (due process and all that) he is the worst
person to walk the face of the earth but he's kind of good at this hockey
thing. I attribute a great deal to his
absence on the blue line and cap crunch that followed for the Kings predicament
right now. It will be interesting to see
how this trial goes and if / when he returns to the Kings. I appreciate the moral outrage over this
issue but I'm not sold that if he can return the Kings would not allow him back
because at the end of the day it's a business and frankly other cities have
statues in front of their arena of guys who have done the exact same thing. Different times? Sure. With Martin Jones on the IR I'd expect
Jonathan Quick to make the start. Quick's
career numbers vs. the Sharks are (12-5-5, 2.49 GAA and 9.11 SV%). The Kings are coming off back to back
overtime losses.
Ian Breaks Down The Sharks: The Sharks are frankly a mess, they are coming
off a humbling 5-2 loss to the lowly Devils in a game where they lost defenceman
Justin Brawn and winger Tommy Wingels for "awhile". This devastates an already thin D-corps. I
know some people are sour on Braun and even I made a point of talking about him
solely in the last GBU but the fact remains he is still probably the 2nd best
defenceman on the team when it comes to actually playing defence. Maybe that's just another way of saying our D
is shit but still he eats 20 minutes a night that will now have to be eaten by
someone else. I'm expecting the going
forward defence pairs to be Vlasic - Burns, Dillon - Tennyson, Hannan - Irwin...
yep it's about to get ugly. I guess the
big question now is what does DW do... to me they stand pat see who they can
get a look at and hope they finish in the top 8, I don't think this team has
shown us anything this year that makes it seem like a good idea to give away
some futures so the crappy uninspired team we have now can make damn sure we
lose in the first round, 2nd if lucky.
If you look at goal differential in the standings to spot the pretender
I'd like you to show me the other playoff team with a -3 and tell me they are
for real. Spoiler alert you can't
because all the other playoff teams have at worse a +4. For comparison sake the Wild Card Flames and
Jets have an identical +14. I know I'm
going to get flack for being so negative because this is an anomaly, but really
this year aren't the stretches of good play an anomaly? It feels like time and time again I'm beating
a dead horse about 60 minute games and just showing up. After Stalock's dreadful outing one can only
assume that Antti Niemi will return to the net for the Sharks which is fine by
me as his career numbers against the kings are (13-7-3, 2.37 GAA and a .924
SV%).
My Prediction: Sharks lose, only because I have predicted
wins the last two games and I'd like to continue to be wrong. Honestly though the Sharks are in tough here
missing key pieces my confidence is about as low as its gets.
Remember if you have a question you would like me to
answer in the Breaking It Down blog please e-mail me at
ian.blogs.sharks@gmail.com and if you want to read previous blogs please check
out http://ianblogssharks.blogspot.ca
What are your thoughts on this game?
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