Philadelphia spoils San Jose’s opener
It’s only one game. That’s what the Sharks are telling themselves after a 5-3 loss to the Flyers at SAP Center on Wednesday night.
It’s just one game in which they surrendered power-play goals the first three times San Jose skated shorthanded. It’s just one game Kevn Labanc started with a bang on offense with two goals, but was guilty of three minor penalties that all turned into goals against.
It’s just one game in which Martin Jones didn’t have a good opening period, and maybe should have let the defensemen play a few pucks instead of getting involved himself.
It’s just one night the Sharks had to watch Patrick Marleau score two goals in a different uniform for the first time in 20
years. Oh, never mind. The sellout crowd in San Jose didn’t want to hear about its beloved player having success in his first game with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Back in San Jose, it was forward Wayne Simmonds scoring the second of his three goals to break a tie midway through the third period to power the Flyers past the Sharks.
Simmonds redirected a Jakob Voracek drive past Jones as Philadelphia converted three of five opportunities on the power play. The Flyers needed only six seconds following Labanc’s trip of rookie Nolan Patrick 200 feet from the San Jose goal to convert.
“That shouldn’t have happened,” Labanc said, “and they scored off them, so I’ve got to be a little bit more disciplined and watch where I put my stick.
“They’re definitely cracking down on the players. Anything on the hands, on the hips, and they’re going to call it. It’s going to get better as time goes on. Just got to be wary where your stick is when you’re on the ice.”
Simmonds scored his third goal of the game into an empty net with 35.7 seconds remaining.
“Right from the start, every time we got in their end, it felt like we had a chance to score,” Sharks captain Joe Pavelski said. “We got a lot of pucks back, and we had a lot of energy. I don’t know, you’ve got to figure it out sometimes and tonight we came up a little short on the special teams.”
Logan Couture tied the game 3-3 early in the third when the Sharks converted their second of five power plays.
With Philadelphia’s Travis Konecny off for hooking Dylan DeMelo, San Jose worked the puck deep, where Couture spun a backhand shot from behind the goal line with his back to Brian Elliott that somehow found its way behind the Flyers’ new goalie at 3:12.
The Sharks continued their last first-period territorial advantage through most of the middle period, but Labanc’s second minor penalty of the game proved costly.
The Flyers needed only eight seconds to convert for the second time in two tries as Simmonds redirected a slap shot from defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere past Jones at 17:36.
“On the PK, it was one of those nights, it didn’t even get going,” Pavelski said. “Three, four seconds and it’s in the back of the net . ... At times, you believe you can do something about it, whether your position is off by a little bit or not, it finds the back of the net. We have to be better.”
Labanc went to work to tie the game 2-2 by the end of the first 20 minutes.