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Sharks road trip ends with gut
punch
San Jose limps home after 1-3-1
roadie
The road trip of pain officially came to an end on
Tuesday night in Boston, with the Sharks dropping a third straight game. After
playing in what was arguably their worst game of the season in Ottawa on
Sunday, the Sharks followed that loss up with a 5-1 blowout at the hands of the
Bruins who never trailed. San Jose was out-shot 41-17 in the contest, never
really challenging Bruins goaltender Tuuka Rask.
The loss magnifies
the woes of a team struggling to establish any positive consistency. The Sharks
have surrendered 4 or more goals in 9 of their 13 games this season, and
seemingly don't have any help on the horizon. Trading draft collateral is the
wrong answer this early in the season, especially given the reality that the
Sharks could be drafting in the top ten this coming summer.
Their
defensive struggles were equaled by an offense that could not generate many
shots on goal much less legitimate scoring chances. What was the Sharks lone
bright spot this season, the penalty kill, was peppered early.
Boston
scored a pair of power play goals in the opening period and never looked back.
Taking penalties anywhere is a detriment to the cause, but doing in on the road
against the top power play in the league is suicidal.
Barclay
Goodrow's tripping penalty 6:15 into the contest resulted in a David Pastrnak
goal 94 seconds later. Brendan Dillon's inability to clear a loose puck, ended
up on Patrice Bergeron's stick near the inside of the right circle. Bergeron
had a clear look at the net, but he whipped the puck through the slot to
Pastrnak on the weak side for a one time chance that snapped past Martin Jones.
Sharks head coach then made a reckless decision to challenge the goal
on an offside, but replays clearly showed that Boston had entered the zone
cleanly. Under new NHL rules, the Sharks went back on the penalty kill for
delay of game. Boston would not score, but it forced the Sharks to burn penalty
killers and never position themselves to answer.
A high sticking
penalty to Tomas Hertl with 3:35 left in the period, setup another Brunins
power play goal. Krejci one-timed a shot from the left dot in almost the same
spot as Pastrnak, beating Jones to the near side. Boston out-shot San Jose 16-6
in the period, and the tone was set.
San Jose cut the Bruins lead in
half 1:31 into the 2nd period after Krejci was sent off for hooking. The Sharks
won a faceoff in the Bruins zone, then Erik Karlsson dished the puck to his
left from the point where Burns stepped into a shot that hit Rak in the right
leg pad, but it deflected under the netminder's arm.
That was as close
as San Jose would get.
The Bruins scored three unanswered goals in the
period to put the game out of reach. Former Sharks draft pick Charlie Coyle
redirected a Krejci feed from the right post after slipping behind defenseman
Marc-Edouard Vlasic. Vlasic missed stopping the pass from the left dot,
allowing Coyle to easily tap it home for his 2nd goal of the season.
Tim Heed's limited ice time this season is likely to
get cut even more after his play on the Bruins next goal. The Sharks defenseman
limp-wristed a pass or shot from the right point that fluttered to David Backes
in the slot. Heed then allowed Chris Wagner to slip past him as Backes sent a
lead pass up the gut. Wagner beat Heed up the ice before slipping the puck
between Jones' pads for the 4-1 lead.
Wagner missed on another
breakaway chance right before the end of the period.
That came after
Brandon Carlo made it a 5-1 game with his 2nd goal of the season at 16:50 of
the period. Carlo reached for the puck, sending a looping shot that fooled
Jones from the right side. It looked as if Jones failed to see the shot until
it was sailing over his left shoulder.
Frustrations showed in the 3rd
period, when the Sharks racked up 47 of their 57 penalty minutes. One penalty
resulted in zero penalty minutes, but it sent DeBoer packing after he was
assessed a game misconduct at 12:10 of the period.
The Sharks showed
more life in trying to maim the opposition, than they showed on any scoring
chance. The Bruins responded by pushing back anytime the Sharks decided to get
chippy. It was the reaction that you would expect from a team that's
contending.
Game Notes:
* Dylan Gambrell was injured in
the 2nd period and did not return to start the 3rd period.
* Barclay
Goodrow, Logan Couture and Evander Kane were all tossed in the 3rd period with
separate misconduct penalties. Goodrow was assessed 17 minutes in penalties.
San Jose only had 5 players on the bench when the final horn sounded.
* Timo Meier led the Sharks with 4 shots on goal. Tomas Hertl and Brent Burns
had 3 shots each.
* San Jose out-hit the Bruins 28-16. Most of those
came in the 3rd period as San Jose was trying to settle scores.
* San
Jose also had more blocked shots than Boston by a 12-8 margin. The low Bruins
count was largely attributed to the fact that San Jose wasn't generating many
shots to begin with.
* San Jose earned 3 of a possible 10 points on
the road trip.
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| SJ |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
| BOS |
2 |
3 |
0 |
5 |
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| 1st period - 1, BOS,
Pastrnak 12 (Bergeron), 7:49, (pp). 2, BOS, Krejci 1 (Krug, Marchand), 17:51,
(pp). |
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| 2nd period - 3, SJ,
Burns 3 (E. Karlsson, Hertl), 1:31. 4, BOS, Coyle 2 (Krejci, Heinen), 5:21. 5,
BOS, Wagner 1 (Backes), 8:31. 6, BOS, Carlo 2 (Wagner, Chara), 16:50. |
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| 1st period - Goodrow, SJ
(tripping), 6:15; Bench, SJ (delay of game), 7:49; Grzelcyk, BOS (holding),
9:20; Hertl, SJ (high sticking), 16:25. |
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| 2nd period - Krejci, BOS
(hooking), 0:52; Hertl. SJ (tripping), 3:09; Radil, SJ (tripping), 9:36. |
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| 3rd period - Kane, SJ
(high sticking), 1:08; Dillon, SJ (roughing), 1:08; Chara, BOS (roughing),
1:08; Radil. SJ (high sticking), 5:44; DeBrusk, BOS (tripping), 6:02; DeBoer,
SJ (game misconduct), 12:10; Goodrow, SJ (fighting major), 12:39; Goodrow, SJ
(10 min miscoduct), 12:39; Ritchie, BOS (fighting major), 12:39; Ritchie, BOS
(10 min misconduct), 12:39; Couture, SJ (roughing), 13:12; Couture, SJ (10 min
misconudct), 13:12; Marchand, BOS (roughing), 13:12; Marchand, BOS (10 min
misconduct), 13:12; Radil, SJ (roughing), 15:42; Kane, SJ (10 min misconduct),
15:42; Backes, BOS (10 min misconduct), 15:42; Meier, SJ (interference), 19:43;
Grzelcyk, BOD (roughing), 19:43. |
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Shots |
Saves |
| SJ - Jones |
41 |
36 |
| BOS - Rask |
17 |
16 |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| SJ |
6 |
6 |
5 |
17 |
| BOS |
16 |
18 |
7 |
41 |
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| Referees: Rooney,
L'Ecuyer. Linesmen: Daisy, Barton. |
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