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Wilson gets 5 goal
salute
Sharks tie 65-year-old NHL
record
12/2/08 - By Mike Lee
The
Sharks sure know how to throw a homecoming. They welcomed Ron Wilson with a
4-goal 1st period and manhandled Wilson's Toronto Maple Leaf squad with a
resounding 5-2 win at HP Pavilion on Tuesday night. After his firing last
summer, Wilson said the Sharks would "regret" not bringing back their longtime
coach. So much for that notion. With the win, the Sharks tied a 65-year-old NHL
record for best start in league history with their 43rd point in their first 25
games.
Wilson downplayed the thrashing after the game, even though
everyone in the building knew the Sharks former coach would have savored a win
in his old barn.
"A win in San Jose wouldn't have made my season or
anything like that," Wilson said after the contest. "It's one game and I've
coached, I don't know, 1100-and-whatever games. It's one game on the schedule.
Sure, you'd like to do better than we did tonight, maybe a little more than
losing a game, but what are you going to do?"
The Sharks extended an
olive branch early in the game with a video tribute to Wilson, but the message
went unnoticed. Wilson was too busy trying to figure out how to stop his
defense from hemorrhaging goals.
"No, I didn't see it [the tribute on
the big screen]," Wilson replied after being asked about the tribute. "I was
licking my wounds at that point. I didn't know when they did it or what the
score was, but it wasn't fun being on the bench the first period."
That opening period featured goals by four different Sharks, including Devin
Setoguchi who tallied his team leading 13th of the season just 1:15 into the
contest. Setoguchi seemed to throw a routine backhander on net, but the puck
found its way between former Sharks netminder Vesa Toskala's pads.
San
Jose would make it 2-0 later in the period on one of the odder goals you'll
ever see. Skating on a delayed penalty, Joe Pavelski sent a shot in that sailed
over the back of the Toronto goal, but hit the glass and caromed back toward
Toskala. The puck then hit the crossbar, bounced off Toskala's back and landed
next to his left skate. Joe Thornton two a couple of whacks at it, before
knocking it into the goal.
Things would settle down for the next 10
minutes, but then lightning would strike again.
First Sharks Captain
Patrick Marleau and Boyle would team up for the Sharks 3rd score of the period.
Switching roles, Marleau sat stationed on the right point and sent a pass to
Boyle who was parked in the slot. The defenseman received the feed from
Marleau, pivoted to face the net and sent in a shot that found its way through
traffic to the back of the Maple Leafs net.
A holding penalty to
Toronto defenseman Jeff Finger would lay the foundation for the nightmarish
period for Wilson. Seemingly teasing the Toronto penalty killers, the Sharks
cycled the puck in the offensive zone for 30 seconds before Setoguchi sent a
pass to Thornton who was parked outside the right post. With his momentum
carrying him away from the goal, Thornton sent a blind backhand pass across the
crease to Marc-Edouard Vlasic who was pinching in from the weak side. All
Vlasic had to do was tap the feed into the wide open net.
"First period was tremendous," Sharks head coach Todd
McLellan said. "We had a lot of jump. We executed well and won a lot of puck
battles. We gave up a few too many shots in my opinion. We talked before the
game about playing a complete game and we still haven't gotten there."
Sharks goaltender Evgeni Nabokov had a fairly uneventful evening, facing 31
shots in total, but few that posed any threat. Toronto rookie Nikolai Kulemin
finally solved Nabokov with a shot from 12 feet out on a Niklas Hagman feed
midway through the 2nd period.
Toskala was not as fortunate. Still his
coach didn't lay blame on his netminder.
"No, Toskala had no help
there, point blank," said Wilson. "We were standing around in the first period
and they were minus three and that can't happen. On the road you can't really
control some of your changes. They were matching their top line against ours
and we just got beat."
Making his fist appearance in San Jose as a
Shark, San Jose rookie Riley Armstrong played a strong game with the exception
of a hooking penalty he took early in the 3rd period. San Jose simply used it
as an opportunity to flex their shorthanded skills, when Pavelski raced up the
ice on a 2-on-1 break with Milan Michalek after Toronto defenseman Tomas
Kaberle fell down at the Sharks blueline. Pavelski skated up the right wing,
before cutting across the slot and snapping his 11th goal of the season past
Toskala.
Hagman would add a meaningless goal with 34 seconds remaining
in regulation to round out the scoring. The Maple Leafs forward had been
jostling with Nabokov right before the goal was scored, to Hagman used it as an
opportunity gloat over the Sharks netminder. The reaction was a little too
late.
"They come at you really fast and we kind of expected that - a
quick start - and we just weren't ready for it," said Wilson. "They got a
couple of lucky bounces. You see the way they crash the net; they're going to
cash in. If we somehow could have survived maybe the first ten minutes of the
game, we would have found an equilibrium. That was one where you throw the
white towel in the corner, you know, in a boxing match."
As for the
Sharks historic accomplishment, it was all part of the journey as far as
McLellan is concerned.
"The record is something were proud of and we
are pleased with…But again it's about the full 60 minute effort," added
the Sharks head coach. "We had a pretty good effort for the most part tonight
but not consistent enough to be a team that can win at the end. So we've still
got some work to do."
Game Notes:
The game ended on a sour
note when Marcel Goc took exception to Luke Schenn's check on Tomas Plihal in
the waning moments of the game. Goc wnet after the Maple Leafs rookie and
earned a double minor for roughing. Remember the name Mikhail Grabovski. The
Maple Leafs rookie centered the Maple Leafs top line and was all over the ice.
Blake moved into the 21st spot of all time scorers among defensemen with his
assist on Setoguchi's goal. It was on December 2nd, 2005 that the Sharks
acquired Joe Thornton from Boston in what is arguably the biggest trade in
franchise history.
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Feeder Forums |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| TOR |
0 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
| SJ |
4 |
0 |
1 |
5 |
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| 1st period - 1, SJ,
Setoguchi 13 (Thornton, Blake), 1:15. 2, SJ, Thornton 7 (Pavelski, Marleau),
6:35. 3, SJ, Boyle 9 (Marleau, Thornton), 15:59. 4, SJ, Vlasic 3 (Thornton,
Setoguchi), 17:07, (pp). |
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| 2nd period - 5, TOR,
Kulemin 5 (HAgman, Grabovski), 9:10. |
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| 3rd period - 6, SJ,
Pavelski 11 (Michalek), 4:00, (sh). 7, TOR, Hagman 8 (Antropov, Grabovski),
19:26. |
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| 1st period - Shelley, SJ
(hooking), 11:03; Finger, TOR (holding the stick), 16:25. |
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| 2nd period - Bench, SJ
(too many men), 4:15. |
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| 3rd period - Armstrong,
SJ (hooking), 3:22; Hollweg, TOR (slashing), 11:45; Kubina, TOR (holding),
14:14; Schenn, TOR (roughing), 19:47; Goc, SJ (roughing), 19:47; Goc, SJ
(roughing), 19:47. |
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Shots |
Saves |
| TOR - Toskala |
30 |
25 |
| SJ - Nabokov |
31 |
29 |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| TOR |
10 |
12 |
9 |
31 |
| SJ |
13 |
6 |
11 |
30 |
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| Referees: Lee,
Watson. Linesmen: Brisebois, Cameron. |
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