Sharks Leave St. Louis Singing the Blues

One win in six games. Two in eight. After a 3-1 loss Thursday night, the San Jose Sharks now trail Detroit and Boston by one point, albeit with two and three games in hand, respectively.

(Once more, I feel compelled to scream, “WHAT THE *&^%$#@! IS WRONG WITH THE NHL THAT THERE ARE TEAMS THAT HAVE TO PLAY OVER 20 PERCENT MORE GAMES IN THE FINAL MONTH OF THE SEASON?! Rarely does any other league has teams with more than one “game in hand” so late.)

They also received bad news once again on the injury front. On the very day that centre Marcel Goc returned, Tomas Plihal “tweaked something” for a “lower body injury.”

(Which brings me to another question about the NHL: how can you allow this kind of secrecy about injuries when you have had a gambling scandal that connected a current coach—the very fact that he has been allowed to remain in the game is questionable, as well— organized crime? Do you not realize that other leagues require full disclosure so they can avoid “inside” information being passed to gamblers that give them a firmer foothold in the game? The reason for that, Gary, is the stronger their connection, the more likely they are to eventually tamper with the integrity of the game.)

A good sign on the injury front, however, was received today. Doug Wilson sent Derek Joslin and Thomas Greiss back down to Worcester, and the only way that happens is if he is expecting defencemen Rob Blake and Brad Lukowich as well as goalie Evgeni Nabokov to return for Saturday’s match-up against Los Angeles, another team desperately trying to remain alive for the playoffs.

The Sharks did not fare well against this one. Over a month ago, I first questioned this team’s resolve. In subsequent articles, I continued to put forth the idea that the team needed attitude changes and even roster changes. Even one week ago, I continued to hear in comments responding to my pleas that I was overreacting and we were still the team to beat.

But already by that point, the players and coaches were admitting publicly for the first time that they were not playing with the intensity and focus of their opponents. Even in victory Tuesday, they were not happy with their play.

In theis one, the effort was better even if the result was the same. On the Sharks first power play, they were sloppy with the puck and spent most of the time defending in their own end. The second power play was much better.

About a minute into it, Dan Boyle had the puck along the blueline in the centre of the ice and passed it to Christian Ehrhoff along the halfboards. Ehrhoff found Marleau in the slot for the one-timer, his 35th goal of the year.

But even though they had played one more game in the past six days, St. Louis seemed to have more jump. They also seemed to get the breaks.

Ehrhoff’s pass to Goc in the neutral zone was weak and intercepted. Joslin’s attempt to poke it past David Perron failed, who rushed on the attack as teammate Andy McDonald joined him. Ehrhoff backed up to take him because two teammates were alongside McDonald, but they were not able to keep pace with him. Perron found him for the one-on-one with goalie Brian Boucher, and he scored easily on a backhand.

The second period got more intense. Jody Shelley won a fight with Cam Janssen, and St. Louis killed off a penalty. The Brad Staubitz and Barret Jackman got mathcing roughing penalties 12:34 in. This looked like a great trade for San Jose, but it did not work out that way.

Brad Boyes came up with the puck in the defensive zone and passed it ahead to McDonald, then took a big hit from Travis Moen. As he got up, Moen got went down over the linesman, creating a three-on-two rush. McDonald got the puck back to Boyes, who let go a wicked wrister from between the top of the faceoff circles that beat Boucher through the five hole.

The period ended on two penalties 13 seconds apart. Despite the fact that every time they showed the statistic, the two teams were even in shots, San Jose actually led 7-6 after one and 21-17 after two.

Then things got ugly for the Sharks. Jamie McGinn took a holding penalty at 3:28, and Douglas Murray took a kneeing penalty 20 seconds later. He complained and was probably right that it was not kneeing, but could easily have been called for roughing or elbowing as his arm was extended to ensure the hit, or even interference as Perron—who may deserve an Oscar for his tumble and writhing on the ice considering his prompt return—had already chipped the puck ahead.

Then Keith Tkachuk (a non-factor in this one: one hit, no points, even, .313 in the faceoff circle) took a whack at the puck as Boucher was gathering it in, catching Boosh full-on in the mid-section. Marc-Edouard Vlasic took exception and swung his stick like an oar to pull Tkachuk back from his goaltender. The stick hit Tkachuk in the neck and, as my video game hockey buddies used to say, “Rub-a-dub-dub, three men in the tub!”

Miraculously, the Sharks allowed only four shots on over three minutes of five-on-three, and Boucher saved tham all. They also killed off the other 1:40 of the Blues’ one-man advantage, and it seemed the momentum was turning.

But once again the Sharks could not get pucks in the net, letting another goalie nearly blank them. Thanks to all of the penalty killing, they were out-shot in the third period 9-4, but ended the game even (25 each). They had three more power plays than the Blues, including one in the last 1:20.

However, the Blues won more faceoffs 34-29, outhit the Sharks 24-16, and had twice the number of takeaways (8-4); both teams had just six blocked shots. And they shot the puck better: Jackman hit an empty-net goal with 26 seconds left from the other goalline.

My three stars:

1. Andy McDonald scored the Blues first goal and assisted on the game-winner, was +2 and won both his faceoffs.
2. Chris Mason saved 24 of 25 shots (.960).
3. Jay McKee had three hits and two blocked shots, as well as the assist on the empty-netter.

Posted by The Hockey Writers on Mar 13 2009. Filed under Central, Pacific, San Jose Sharks, St. Louis Blues, Western Conference. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.