The Sharks had 9 days to mull over their 6-3
loss to the Buffalo Sabres back on March 9th. As they established a game plan
to address the Sabres, allowing the opposition to score on 4 consecutive shots
probably wasn't something the coaches felt they needed to cover. They should
have as Buffalo exploited every defensive gap the Sharks had in a 4-0 win over
San Jose at SAP Center.
Ryan Warsofsky threatened his entire roster
after the team's loss in Edmonton that every player will need to earn their ice
time. After Thursday night's debacle to Buffalo, how does he follow through
with that threat given the gaffs that everyone in teal was responsible for.
It was simply a ridiculous response to a team that is starting to see
the fruits of their own rebuild. That's almost an oxymoron, given that Buffalo
has been rebuilding for the last two decades. San Jose wants to be where the
Sabres are today, but they have so many lessons to learn, it will be a while
before anyone can take this roster seriously.
San Jose has the young
pieces, but youth means inexperience, and the Sharks have too much of that.
Throw in filler that can't compete at an upper level and all the promise the
Sharks showed early in the season is now being exposed during crunch time.
The Sharks were motivated to play the style of play that the Sabres
threw at them 9 days earlier in Western New York, clogging up the neutral zone
and making it difficult for their opponent to enter the offensive zone.
In their last match up the Sabres scored 2 goals in each of the 3
periods in that contest. The Sharks were paying attention, limiting the Sabres
to chances in front of goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic. San Jose out-shot Buffalo
7-5 in the opening frame, even with both teams enjoying a power play chance.
That approach lasted for a period, then the wheels fell off.
Buffalo caught San Jose with a left hook that lasted
103 seconds. In that span, the Sabres blitzed the sharks for 3 goals to decide
the game.
Noah Ostlund opened the scoring by flipping a fortuitous
bounce off the end boards into a wide open net after Josh Doan fired a shot
wide of the left post. The puck kicked out to the right side where Ostlund beat
Sam Dickinson for the put back chance.
Sam Carrick then used a Shakir
Mukhamadullin screen to beat Alex Nedeljkovic with a shot from the top of the
right circle. Mukhamadullin neither made an attempt to block the shot or get
out of his goaltender's line of sight, which turned into a 2-0 Buffalo lead 36
seconds after Ostlund's goal.
Rasmus Dahlin put his 14th of the season
past Nedeljkovic at 10:48 to finish off the Sharks.
San Jose tried to
show they weren't ready to quit to start the 3rd period, by pushing the issue
in the Buffalo zone. Problem is, they followed that with one of their patented
turnovers and the Sabres steamed up ice and put their first shot of the period
past Nedeljkovic.
This time it was Tage Thompson who simply fired a
shot at Nedeljkovic's 5-hole. The netminder was late to squeeze the pads and
the Sabres had goals on 4 consecutive shots.
Sam Carrick was credited
with a 5th goal when a Logan Stanley shot hit him, then kicked off Dmitry
Orlov's skate at 16:54 just to make the score a little more indicative of the
shellacking handed to San Jose.
Game Notes: * Tyler
Toffoli suffered an undisclosed injury in the 1st period and did not return to
the game.
* The game was the Sharks 10th straight sellout, which is
the longest regular season sellout streak for the team since December 20, 2014
thru January 31, 2015.
* Alex Lyon won his 10th consecutive road game,
pulling him to within 1-win of Evgeni Nabokov's NHL record of 11 road wins.
* With a playoff spot on the line, the Sharks lose their 3rd
consecutive game in regulation. Not the response the sharks needed to keep pace
for the final wild card spot.
* Nashville moves past the Sharks in the
NHL standings with their win on Thursday. San Jose now has to pass 3 teams to
qualify for the playoffs.
