Sharks back in playoff chase.
SAN JOSE >> Bob Boughner and the Sharks needed a new mindset.
Too much energy was being spent by the Sharks looking at the big picture, Boughner felt. They looked too often at the division standings, worried too much about how many games in hand they had on the teams they were trying to chase down, calculated scenarios about how things might look three or four days down the line.
When they concentrated on the end result, they sometimes forgot about the process, and what they needed to do at any given moment to be successful as a team.
“We got caught up in it a couple of weeks ago,” Boughner said. “Constantly talking about, you know, we’ve got two games in hand and we’re this far behind, and we need
to win this one and then you just start thinking about the big picture too much.
“We all know there’s a lot of work ahead and it’s an uphill climb, but it’s almost mentally draining if you think like that.”
“You look at the standings every day, you’re just going to get frustrated,” Sharks captain Logan Couture said. “You can’t make up eight points overnight. It’s just not possible. So, look at the task at hand that day, try and get points.”
All that said, the Sharks, given their schedule over the next couple of weeks, are in a position to make a legitimate run at fourth place and the final playoff spot in the West Division.
After their impressive two-game sweep of the Minnesota Wild, which included a 4-2 win Wednesday, the Sharks are four points back of the fourth-place St. Louis Blues with 21 games left to play. The Sharks and Los Angeles Kings are tied for sixth place with 34 points, with the Arizona Coyotes in fifth with 37.
The Sharks (15-16-4) play Kings (14-14-6) at Staples Center tonight and Saturday. After that series, the Sharks return home for a five-game homestand, with three against the eighth-place Anaheim Ducks (April 6, 12 and 14) and two more with Los Angeles (April 9 and 10).
That’s seven straight games against the Southern California teams, which the Sharks have a combined record of 7-1-1 against this season.
Still, it would be best for the Sharks not to think too far ahead. It may have gotten them into trouble before.
“We have started to adjust our focus just to weekby-week and game-by-game,” Boughner said. “There’s not a lot of talk around the room about how far behind we are, what do we need to catch up. It’s just concentrating on, ‘We’re playing Minnesota tonight. Let’s play our game and stay within ourselves.’”
The Sharks’ win Wednesday might have been their most complete effort of the season, receiving contributions from up and down the lineup.
Rudolfs Balcers finished off a nice sequence for the Sharks’ first goal, taking a pass from Tomas Hertl before he beat Kaapo Kahkonen with a nice move. Brent Burns’ long pass to Hertl helped set up the scoring chance.
Ryan Donato scored later in the second period on the power play for a 2-0 Sharks lead. Kirill Kaprizov’s phenomenal goal at the 8:23 mark of the third period cut
San Jose’s lead to one, but Nikolai Knyzhov responded with his first NHL goal just 2:35 later, restoring San Jose’s two-goal lead. Evander Kane added an empty-netter.
Besides the depth scoring,
Couture’s line with Kane and Kevin Labanc combined for 11 shots Wednesday. They also held Kaprizov, the midseason favorite for the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s rookie of the year, to just one goal and five total shots throughout the two-game series.
CHANNEL SWITCH >> The Sharks announced television schedule changes for seven games in April and May because of conflicts with the A’s. NBC Sports California Plus will now show the Sharks’ game in Los Angeles tonight at 7 p.m.
Other games which will be on NBC Sports California Plus include: April 6 vs. Anaheim (7:30 p.m.); April 9 vs. Los Angeles (7:30 p.m.); April 23 vs. Las Vegas (6 p.m.); April 24 vs. Minnesota (6 p.m.); May 3 vs. Colorado (7:30 p.m.); May 7 vs. Arizona (7:30 p.m.).
NIETO NOT IMPROVING >> Matt Nieto’s lower-body injury will keep him out of the lineup longer than expected. Boughner said that Nieto hasn’t been skating in recent days, adding that the winger had a “setback” during his rehabilitation.
When Nieto was placed on injured reserve on March 28, the Sharks were hopeful he could return sometime next week. Now the timeline appears much less clear.
Nieto hasn’t played since March 19 when the Sharks lost to St. Louis.