Breaking It Down! - Mar 2nd. 2015

On March 2nd the Sharks will host The Montreal Canadiens and your pal Ian is going to be Breaking It Down!  This is your official game preview blog of IanBlogsSharks.blogspot.ca as well as the officially unofficial game preview post for anywhere else it finds itself posted. Its purpose is to give you some quick numbers and my opinions on not only our Sharks but their opponent of the night.

Know Your Team - The San Jose Sharks

Current Record (W-L-OTL): 30-25-8, 68 Points and 5th in the Pacific Division

Last 10 Games: 2-7-1

Power Play: 20.9% (7th.)

Penalty Kill: 79.5% (25th.)

Current Streak: Lost 3

Notes: According to sportsclubstats.com the Sharks currently have a 17.7% chance of making it into the playoffs, a win tonight would definitely increase those odds.

Know Your Enemy - The Montreal Canadiens

Current Record: (W-L-OTL): 41-16-5, 87 Points and 1st. in the Atlantic Division

Last 10 Games: 7-1-2

Power Play: 16.5% (25th.)

Penalty Kill: 88.2% (2nd.)

Current Streak: Won 4

Notes: Carey Price has not allowed more than 2 goals since basically the stone age at this point.

Ian Breaks Down The Canadiens:  Montreal is on their way to another promising playoff push. The east is as wide open as ever this year and I wouldn't be surprised to see the Canadians representing the east when the finals finally hit.  If they can hold off the Lightning to remain fist in the Atlantic their path gets even easier.  The Sharks are in super tough here, the Habs have done pretty much nothing but win and Carey Price has been nothing short of outstanding with a 1.18 GAA and 9.56 SV% going 9-0-1 in his last 10 starts.  However his record at SAP center is not good with a record of 0-2-1 and 3.95 GAA so if you're looking for a silver lining that's it.  The Habs made some moves of their own picking up Jeff Petry from the Oilers to add to a defence corps that already features the great PK Subban.  Other aquisitions included former Shark Torrey Mitchell.

Ian Breaks Down The Sharks:  What shape are the Sharks in?  I guess that depends on how full or empty your cup is.  On one side of the coin the Sharks are a mere 2 points out of the last divisional playoff seed and a matchup with Vancouver who is in my opinion a playoff pretender their competition is an on again off again Los Angeles Kings team who have cooled off a bit after an 8 game surge that included the victory over the Sharks at Levis, the Flames who lost captain and stud defenceman Mark Girodano which is a huge blow to them as they have gone on a 3 game slide. Sneaking into the 3rd seed though may be the Sharks only option to make it as the wild card seeds are quickly becoming out of reach.  To make the playoffs the estimate is the Sharks would have to go 13-6 over their next 19 games.  Here is where the cup gets half empty, the Sharks need to actually win games and that has been a tough thing for the Sharks to find over the last month. The out of town score board has put the Sharks back within striking distance the question now is can the Sharks help themselves.  As expected (at least by me anyway), the Sharks did a lot of subtracting today without much addition I will break down today in another blog as I wait for the game to start but half glass empty shows the Sharks are not interested in a playoff push and are committed to the re-*today's buzzword*ing.  In the net tonight is Alex Stalock leaving Niemi to face the Canucks on the second half of a back to back tomorrow night.  This will probably be one of the last starts Stalock will probably see until he makes his last appearance at the end of the month.  Stalock is 5-7-1 with a 2.85 GAA and a .900 SV% a tough year for him for sure.

Mail Bag:

Q: Ian can you please explain a conditional draft pick?

A: Sure, a conditional draft pick is a draft pick that has a condition or trigger, for example Tyler Kennedy was traded for a conditional 3rd round pick, from what I read and I have not had the time to confirm but the condition is that the Islanders have to make the finals and TK must have played 50% of the games. Otherwise it becomes a 7th round pick. Also sometimes a conditional pick could be the team picking the year that the other team gets to use it (usually in a 2-3 year window).  I hope this explains conditional draft picks.

My Prediction: Sharks win and the Doug Wilson acolytes sacrifice me to the hockey gods in my sleep.

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, 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.

If you want to read previous blogs please check out http://ianblogssharks.blogspot.ca

What are your thoughts on this upcoming game?