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Another winnable
loss
Sharks fall to another cup cake
How do you explain the on-again, off-again season
the Sharks are having? San Jose will beat the best one night, then lose to the
worst the next. They did it again on Saturday night, losing to a depleted
Columbus Blue Jackets team that has gone 1-8-1 in their last 10 games. Columbus
had lost 9 in a row before winning on Friday night, but even after that the
Sharks had no business losing to their hosts.
The Sharks stumbled and
bumbled their way to another bewildering loss to a team they should have
man-handled. Or should they? Who knows. Forget trying to figure out what's
coming next.
San Jose will lean on the excuse that Columbus was
bolstered by the return of goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky. There's always an
excuse. Always something to get in the way of the Sharks actually behaving like
an elite NHL team.
There is no doubt that they are anything but an
elite team right now.
Rather than using the opportunity to build on
their nice 2-1 win over the Tampa Bay Lighting on Thursday, the Sharks took
another step backward.
The telling point was a 4 minute power play
awarded to them with 5 minutes left in regulation, trailing the Blue Jackets
2-1. It was a moment that demanded that they not only tie the game, but perhaps
even take the lead. Yes, scoring goals in the NHL is not an easy thing to do,
but the nameless Blue Jackets figured out how to do it. The Florida Panthers
had no problem figuring out how to score.
The Sharks are missing
talent, motivation or incentive. This was a game they should have waltzed to.
Columbus played a fairly simple game against the Sharks. Nothing
fancy. Just wait for them to make mistakes and then capitalize. Score dirty
goals that a mentally fragile team like San Jose can't overcome. Be patient and
let San Jose do the heavy lifting for you. And that's exactly what they did.
The Blue Jackets patiently waited for their opportunity, which finally
came 14:17 into the game. David Savard used traffic in front of Sharks
goaltender Antti Niemi to his advantage, ripping a shot from above the right
circle to the back of the net. Defenseman Scott Hannan was jostling with
Alexander Wennberg in the shooting lane, blocking his own goaltender for
Savard's 4th goal of the season.
Rookie defenseman Mirco Mueller was
sent off for interference with 4:46 to play in the period, setting up Columbus'
2nd goal of the evening. The Blue Jackets forced the puck down low, out-manning
the Sharks in tight. Jack Johnson pinched from the right point and flipped the
puck through the crease to Cam Atkinson, for the deposit into an exposed left
side of the net.
Joe Pavelski cut the Blue Jackets lead in half by
scoring with 55 seconds left in the period, firing a shot from inside the right
circle, beating Bobrovsky high glove side. The goal made the task of equalizing
the score more manageable for a Sharks team that slept through the first 35
minutes of the game.
Bobrovsky denied Tomas Hertl from the doorstep early
in the 3rd period, then made a nice kick save on a rebound attempt that Tommy
Wingels just missed depositing.
Ryan Johansen missed pushing the Blue
Jackets lead back to a pair of goals7 minutes into the final frame with a
breakaway chance, but Niemi denied the Blue Jackets forward with a pad save.
Johansen seemed to tweak an ankle or knee on the play, banging his left leg on
the right post and had to be helped off the ice. Brent Burns was caught out of
position on the play, allowing Johansen's romp down the ice.
Wennberg
setup the Sharks nicely by opening up defenseman Scott Hannan's face with a
high stick at the 15:00 mark. The Sharks then relied on their top players to
get the job done, but they flat out failed. The Joe Thorntons and Patrick
Marleau's did nothing except eat up valuable clock while fumbling with the puck
trying to setup the beautiful goal that would never come.
McLellan
even pulled Niemi with 1:25 to play to setup a 6-on-4, but the Sharks just
looked even more discombobulated. Bobrovsky and his teammates simply waited the
clock out as San Jose beat themselves.
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What did you
think of this story? Post your comments on the
Feeder Forums |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| SJ |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
| CBJ |
1 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
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| 1st period - 1, CBJ,
Savard 4 (Cracknell, Anisimov), 14:17. |
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| 2nd period - 2, CBJ,
Atkinson 7 (Johnson, Jenner), 16:39, (pp). 3, SJ, Pavelski 8 (Thornton, Hertl),
19:05. |
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| 1st period - Burns, SJ
(tripping), 19:39. |
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| 2nd period - Desjardins,
SJ (goaltender interference), 9:07; Hartnell, CBJ (high sticking), 11:17;
Mueller, SJ (interference), 15:14. |
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| 3rd period - Wennberg,
CBJ (high sticking - double minor), 15:00. |
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Shots |
Saves |
| SJ - Niemi |
28 |
26 |
| CBJ - Bobrovsky |
37 |
36 |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| SJ |
11 |
10 |
16 |
37 |
| CBJ |
10 |
8 |
10 |
28 |
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| Referees: Hebert,
Pollock. Linesmen: Heyer, Galloway. |
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