The San Jose Sharks have split the first two games of a four-game road trip, losing to the St. Louis Blues 5-3 on Thursday (Nov. 10) before defeating the Dallas Stars 5-4 on Friday (Nov. 11). In both games, the forecheck and offensive-zone turnovers proved essential factors. In the matchup with the Blues, the Sharks committed numerous pivotal turnovers that led to goals. The next night, they reversed the trend by forcing key giveaways to prevail over the Stars. Here’s a look at the goals from each game that were created by forechecking and how they impacted the results.
Sharks Turnovers Allow Blues to Dominate Puck
The Blues snapped an eight-game losing streak at the hands of the Sharks thanks to five goals, and each of the last three of those goals can be explained to some extent by San Jose either turning the puck over or being unable to clear it past the St. Louis forecheck.
In the first one, the Sharks won a battle for the puck and Logan Couture wound up with possession. But he made the always-risky decision of sending it to the middle of his defensive zone, where it slipped off the stick of Kevin Labanc. From there the Blues retook control and made a couple of nice passes against a Sharks unit scrambling to get back on defense. It wasn’t long before Brandon Saad got a point-blank shot, which he drove home.
The errors leading to the second and third goals were not quite as egregious, but they still proved problematic in an area in which the Sharks struggled all game. The second goal followed a sequence in which they had multiple opportunities to clear the puck out of the St. Louis offensive zone but failed to do so, while the third goal came after a Tomas Hertl giveaway which led to a free run to an empty-net finish.
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The problem wasn’t just that these mistakes led to goals. Committing a total of 10 giveaways, the Sharks spent much of their time trying to get out of the defensive zone, but the Blues held the puck in and created turnovers time and time again. As a result, the Sharks were forced to play far less aggressively than they probably would have liked. Even though they were only outshot by three, the edge in shots could have easily swung in San Jose’s favor if they had just a few more successful clearances.
After the game, it was clear that something needed to change in this facet of the game for the Sharks to have a chance in their next contest against a favored Stars team. Thankfully for San Jose, that’s exactly what happened.
Sharks Force Turnovers to Capitalize in Win Over Stars
In a game in which the Sharks scored as many goals as they allowed in the previous game, perhaps it’s appropriate that they did to their opponents what their opponents did to them the night prior. They repeatedly took advantage of sloppy play by the Stars to get many of their best scoring opportunities, including three of their five goals.
A first-period goal from Evgeny Svechnikov served as the best demonstration of this trend. After a lazy Stars pass led to a loose puck, Steven Lorentz won the race to it and dumped it into the Sharks’ offensive zone. Oskar Lindblom and Svechnikov both sensed a chance and showed tremendous hustle, allowing Lindblom to set up Svechnikov for an easy tap-in.
Each of the other two goals came about as a result of Dallas turnovers as well, and while the Stars did an incredibly poor job of puck management, the Sharks deserve credit as well. On both plays, they could have easily chosen to drop back and play a more conservative defensive approach. Instead, they chose to be aggressive and rattled the Stars enough to force the turnovers. Furthermore, on both occasions, once they regained possession of the puck, they made smart decisions, as crisp passes allowed for great looks for goal-scorers Couture and Timo Meier.
These sequences were indicative of how the Sharks created much of their offense in the game. While they didn’t get a ton of goal-scoring opportunities, the ones they did have were efficient and high-percentage. Almost every time they forced a turnover, they used it to generate a great chance at a goal, which explains how they managed to score five goals despite recording just 18 shots on net. And it certainly didn’t hurt that, following a 10-giveaway game in St. Louis, they had just two giveaways against the Stars.
The Sharks’ ability to completely shift an aspect of the game in just 24 hours is a positive step for a team that has struggled as of late. Now, they’ll have to keep it up in order to maintain the momentum that they’ve generated.
