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Roast turkey comes
early
Sharks serve up Flames win on a
platter
With the Sharks falling on their faces on
Thanksgiving eve, it would be too easy to make comparisons to the birds that
will be adorning many of your dining room tables on Thursday. So let's step
things up and be a little more graphic. The Sharks played more like turkey
droppings on Wednesday night, falling 2-0 to the Calgary Flames at SAP Center.
Coming off of four-days rest and plenty of practice, the Sharks looked
flat and tired. Having played in Anaheim 24 hours earlier, the Flames should
have been the fatigued team. Instead, Calgary simply sat back and let San
Jose's disjointed attack do nothing more than run clock.
In typical
fashion, the Sharks fired lots of harmless long range pucks on Flames
goaltender Karri Ramo, generating few true scoring chances. They had another 30
shots blocked, which is customary for attempts that are coming from the safety
of the perimeter. Ramo faced no real challenges from inside the dots.
"Obviously it's tough to win in this league, especially when you don't get
clutch performances from your goalies on the road," said Flames head coach Bob
Heartly. "Look how many blocked shots we had. I thought we had good zone time
offensively, then we scored a big goal four on four. So hey, played back to
back like Anaheim last night and those guys tonight, they are not easy teams to
play against, but we responded real well once again."
Sharks players
are either unwilling to make sacrifices from uncomfortable places, or they're
being coached to invoke an antiquated approach that isn't working. NHL
goaltender's aren't giving up rebounds off long shots. Not Ramo or any of the
other goaltenders who have handcuffed the Sharks this season.
Todd
McLellan's plan isn't working. The opposition is ready for McLellan's tired old
game plan. The sharks coach chose to focus on what his team did right following
the game.
"We're a result based league and not happy with the
results," said McLellan. "The effort was there. We had some opportunities to
score, obviously. For whatever reason, they're not going in. Defensively we
didn't give up much. I thought the weakest shift we had was the very first one
when they got two or three scoring chances. After that we played pretty well
defensively. Didn't give up much."
Didn't do much either.
With little threat of any challenges by the Sharks offense, the Flames needed
little to take control of the game. They received all the offense they would
need from Jiri Hudler late in the 2nd period.
The Flames played a
textbook road game. Don't let the opposition generate any offense (not that the
Sharks made that difficult), then pounce on your own offensive chances. Hudler
did that with 2:44 left before the 2nd intermission, by snapping a shot past
Antti Niemi from the slot after TJ Brodie hit him with a pass from the right
corner.
Playing in his first game since being recalled from Worcester,
defenseman Matt Tennyson was late to create any opposition to Hudler, and Logan
Couture simply let the Flames forward skate past him in the danger zone.
Even when San Jose had chances to get a puck past
Ramo, simple mistakes prevented any chance for scoring. Patrick Marleau had
Ramo dead to rights early in the 3rd period, but a cross ice pass that found
Marleau parked on the left post, stuck on his stick. The puck hit Marleau right
on the tape, but the Sharks forward couldn't control it enough to push it into
the wide open net.
Special teams failures also prevented any chance
for a win. The Sharks had a pair of power play chances, but both proved
fruitless.
With time winding down in the 3rd period, Justin Braun put
a nail in his own team's coffin by taking an inexcusable tripping penalty. The
Sharks were left with 1:44 to try and score the tying goal, while down a man.
The Sharks pulled Niemi as soon as the puck crossed into the Flames
zone, but a quick turnover ended up on Hudler's stick as he walked the puck
into the empty net for his 10th goal of the season.
When Heartley was
asked about his team's success, he summed it up simply.
"Character--it
starts with our captain. We have lots of great players that understand our
situation. We want to make the playoffs. It's a real tough conference and every
time we get two points it gives us more confidence."
San Jose has no
captain, and from the looks of it, not much character right now.
Game Notes:
Ryan Lowe was signed to a professional tryout
agreement prior to the start of game and served as the backup goalie for
Wednesday's game. Lowe's signing was necessitated by an injury to Troy
Grosenick, which was sustained in practice on Tuesday.
Joe Thornton
won 16 of 25 faceoffs, then mysteriously vanished into thin air once the puck
was put into play.
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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 |
| CGY |
0 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
| SJ |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
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| 2nd period - 1, CGY,
Hudler 9 (Brodie), 17:16. |
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| 3rd period - 2, CGY,
Hudler 10 (Monahan), 19:10, (pp), (en). |
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| 1st period - Bollig, CGY
(roughing), 17:41; Burns, SJ (interference), 18:43. |
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| 2nd period - Brodie, CGY
(roughing), 5:59; Wingels, SJ (roughing), 5:59; Giordano, CGY (tripping),
11:30; Glencross, CGY (roughing), 16:05; Pavelski, SJ (roughing), 16:05. |
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| 3rd period - Braun, SJ
(tripping), 18:16. |
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Shots |
Saves |
| CGY - Ramo |
32 |
32 |
| SJ - Niemi |
18 |
17 |
| SJ - empty net |
1 |
0 |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| CGY |
9 |
6 |
4 |
19 |
| SJ |
11 |
11 |
10 |
32 |
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| Referees: Kimmerly,
Kozari. Linesmen: Cvik, Henderson. |
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