On March 3rd the Sharks will visit The Vancouver Canucks 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): 31-24-8, 70 Points and 5th in
the Pacific Division
Last 10 Games: 3-6-1
Power Play: 21.0% (8th.)
Penalty Kill: 81.9% (14th.)
Current Streak: Won 1
Notes: http://www.sportsclubstats.com/NHL.html has the
Sharks odds of making the playoffs at 24.5% up 7.1% from before their victory
over the Montreal Canadiens.
Know Your Enemy - The Vancouver Canucks
Current Record: (W-L-OTL): 36-23-3, 75 Points and 2nd in
the Pacific Division
Last 10 Games: 7-3-0
Power Play: 13.3% (28th.)
Penalty Kill: 79.7% (23rd.)
Current Streak: Lost 1
Notes: Vancouver is almost certain to be in sporting a
96.1% chance of seeing post season action.
Ian Breaks Down The Canucks: It's the battle of the western conference
playoff pretenders as I feel like these teams are not built to go very far if
they both in fact get in. The Canucks
had a pretty quiet trade deadline picking up flames prospect Sven Baertschi for
a 2nd round pick showing that they are still commited to a rebuild although
they might be slightly ahead of schedule.
Fortunately for the Sharks although the Canucks may not be caught in the
standings when it's all said and done they are pretty injury rattled missing
starting goaltender Ryan Miller, Alex Burrows and Kevin Bieksa among other
regular roster players. The Canucks are
going with once highly touted prospect Jacob Marksrtom tonight who will be
seeing his first bit of NHL action. His
career NHL numbers are 12-27-5 record with a 3.19 GAA and a .896 SV% most of
which was on a bad Florida Team who tried to rush his development a few times. Still despite that I think Markstrom is incredibly
overrated as he has done well in the AHL but can't seem to convert that to an
NHL game. Although at 25 may be too soon
to call his career dead.
Ian Breaks Down The Sharks: The sharks are playing their
second game in two nights and coming off a big win over the Montreal Canadiens,
was this a statement win or just another win in a sea of losses? That's what we all hope to get the answer to
tonight hoping that last night was the start of a push. Currently the Sharks are tied for 2nd in the
pacific with the Calgary Flames (65.4%) and the Los Angeles Kings (55.9%) both
of whom are also in action tonight. So
that I'm sure begs the question if we are tied why are the Kings and Flames
sitting with better percentages to make the playoffs? The answer to that is twofold first the
Sharks have played two more games than the Flames and Kings so if all 3 teams
went the rest of the year without losing a game the Sharks run out of road
first and the Kings and Flames would finish 4 points ahead. The other reason is that despite playing
fewer games the Flames are already beating is in the ROW (Regulation and
Overtime Win) Column which is the first tie breaker and the Kings although
having one fewer ROW have the games in hand.
Ben Smith had an outstanding debut for the Sharks which made everyone
forget that DW probably got less than most expected for the assets he parted
with but it looks like at least in one game that this is one deal he might have
hit out of the park. Sharks are going to
have to come out strong playing their second games in back to backs and Antti
Niemi needs to be sharp. The Sharks need
to try to get to Jacob Markstrom who is playing in his first NHL contest this
year early and often.
My Prediction: I hate when the sharks play un-established
goaltenders, but they win this game because they have too.
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
Follow me on Twitter: @IanBlogsSharks
What are your thoughts on this upcoming game?
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