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Moral victory just another
loss San Jose returns home only to drop 4th
straight
Good teams find a way to win. Conversely, bad teams
find a way to lose. The Sharks are simply a bad team right now. Returning home
after a dismal 5- game road trip, San Jose limped backed to SAP Center and
promptly lost a 3-2 decision to the visiting Winnipeg Jets on Friday night. The
Sharks showed signs of life, but they couldn't convert on a flurry of shots,
and allowed three defensive lapses to bite them. Good effort wasn't great
effort, which translated into the 4th consecutive loss and 10th in 14 games
this season.
Winnipeg hasn't been a world beater this season, so this
game was ripe for the picking for San Jose. The Jets entered play with a 6-7-0
record, and 3-3-0 on the road. The Sharks won the moral victory, but their
inability to stop the other team from scoring would lead to their eventual
demise.
The Jets jumped out to a 1-0 lead 13:34 into the game after
Brent Burns turned the puck over in his own zone. Kyle Connor found himself in
possession of the puck along the right wing boards, where he slid a pass to
Gabriel Bourque in the high slot. Bourque gathered Connor's feed, then snapped
a shot from 40 feet out, beating Martin Jones for hi 1st goal of the season.
San Jose killed a weak interference penalty to Logan Couture late in
the period, which carried over into the 2nd frame. The Sharks countered at 3:18
when Barclay Goodrow took a Jonny Brodzinski feed on the left side and snapped
a shot past Connor Hellebuyck for his 4th of the season.
The Sharks
appeared to grab the lead 4 minutes later when Evander Kane lifted a loose puck
past Hellebuyck from the right post. but Jets head coach Paul Maurice
challenged the play, contending goaltender interference. The challenge was
upheld, even though it wasn't clear where the interference occurred.
The NHL later clarified that Kevin Labanc's stick pushed Hellebuyck's pad,
"impeding him from making the save." Given the contact that Martin Jones has
endured without interference ever coming into play, it was simply an odd call.
The only thing that was clear about the situation is that the NHL doesn't
understand what the word consistency means.
Winnipeg responded off the
ensuing faceoff, gaining the Sharks zone and then scoring when Blake Wheeler
slipped past the Sharks defense and deposited a Mark Scheifele feed from the
front of the net. Burns and Marc-Edouard Vlasic were drawn over to the left
side to defend Scheifele, allowing Wheeler to find a seam for his linemate.
Tomas Hertl tied the game at 2-2 just 49 seconds into
the 3rd period. The Sharks forward sat perched outside the right post, and
deflected a shot by Kane from the right dot to earn his 4th tally of the
season.
The Sharks were credited with 28 shots in the 2nd period,
which was a bit generous by the official scorekeeper. That kind of shot count
would mean Hellebuyck was stopping a shot more than once a minute. That simply
wasn't happening.
They would add another 14 shots in the 3rd period,
but that was all moot after Nikolaj Ehlers bagged the go-ahead goal with 84
seconds left in regulation. Tomas Hertl coughed up the puck deep in the Sharks
zone, then Jack Roslovic drew three San Jose defenders to the end boards before
he threw the puck out to the slot where Ehlers pinched and punched home his 7th
goal of the season.
Burns was chasing his tail as he tried to defend
Roslovic on the, and ended up being on the ice for all three Jets goals. The
defenseman continues to flounder defensively, and DeBoer's dependence on Burns
offense continues to burn the Sharks.
Game Notes:
*
Dylan Gambrell was an injury scratch after he was injured in the 2nd period of
the Sharks loss in Boston on Tuesday night.
* The Sharks recorded 28
shots in the 2nd period, falling one shot shy of a franchise record for shots
in a period, which was set in 2014 against the Florida Panthers. 14 skaters had
2 or more shots. Evander Kane led San Jose with 7 shots in the game.
*
San Jose will get a quick turnaround, as the Vancouver Canucks come to town on
Saturday night. Vancouver lost to Anaheim in overtime on Friday night.
* Jonny Brodzinski battled through shoulder issues all night and was limited in
his availability.
* Marc-Edouard Vlasic, Erik Karlsson, Tomas Hertl
and Kevin Labanc are a -11 or worse, which positions them all in the bottom 8
in the NHL. Brent Burns is a -9 and Evander Kane is -8. San Jose has 7 skaters
in the bottom 50 in plus/minus.
* The Sharks sit one point from the
Western Conference basement.
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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 |
WPG |
1 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
SJ |
0 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
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1st period - 1, WPG,
Bourque 1 (Connor), 13:34. |
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2nd period - 2, SJ,
Goodrow 4 (Brodzinski, Vlasic), 3:18. 3, WPG, Wheeler 5 (Scheifele, Connor),
7:53. |
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3rd period - 4, SJ,
Hertl 4 (Kane, Labanc), 0:49. 5, WPG, Ehlers 7 (Roslovic, Little), 18:36. |
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1st period - Couture, SJ
(interference), 19:06. |
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2nd period - Kulikov,
WPG (slashing), 4:24; Kane, SJ (hooking), 9:41; Perreault, WPG (tripping),
17:11. |
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Shots |
Saves |
WPG - Hellebuyck |
53 |
51 |
SJ - Jones |
19 |
16 |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
WPG |
6 |
9 |
4 |
15 |
SJ |
11 |
28 |
14 |
53 |
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Referees:
MacDougal, McCauley. Linesmen: Rody, Driscoll. |
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