San Jose ends winless streak
The Sharks responded to head coach Bob Boughner’s plea to refocus and broke a fourgame winless streak Monday night.
Forwards Logan Couture and Ryan Donato scored and goalie Martin Jones made 41 saves as the Sharks beat Los Angeles 21 at SAP Center.
“I felt really good the last few games, just focused on playing and not thinking too much out there,” said Jones, who has stopped all but three of the past 103 shots he has faced over three games.
Boughner thought the Sharks had played well enough to win lately, but because they did not handle adversity well at key moments, they left points on the table .
Boughner urged the players to take a step back, reflect on their reality, take accounting of the number of games piling up for opponents and try to reverse those recent fortunes.
“We can’t think about where we’re going to be in the middle of April right now,” Boughner said. “We have to worry about where we’re going to be Sunday with one good week of hockey.”
And how does that start? Couture gave San Jose a 10 lead at 8:22 of the first period when his seeingeye shot glanced first off Jonathan Quick then off teammate Kurtis MacDermid and past the Kings’ goalie. The San Jose captain’s 13th goal was also his first point in six games.
Donato’s fifth of the season — and just second in 23 games — broke a 11 tie at 3:48 of the third. Donato circled behind the Kings’ net and his backhand shot caromed again off MacDermit and behind Quick.
“It starts with your best players who have to get the job done,” Boughner said. “Especially with this schedule, and if you’re one of the best players, you’ve got to manage your game better, whether that’s shorter shifts, managing the puck better or just simplifying your game a little bit.”
That still needs to happen for a number of Sharks, including key contributors Timo Meier, Thomas Hertl (one goal each in six games), Brent Burns (goalless in nine), Erik Karlsson (one point in six) and Patrick Marleau (goalless in 14 with one point in that time).
“We have two paths to go down right now,” Boughner said. “One you don’t want to even think about. The other is you want to fight, stay in this thing, compete, have fun together and enjoy working hard.”
Marleau skated in his 884th consecutive game Monday, tying Steve Larmer for the fourthlongest such streak in league history. Without having missed a game since April 9, 2009, Marleau also crept three shy of Mark Messier for second on the alltime gamesplayed list, and to 14 back of Gordie Howe’s record of 1,767 games played.
Playing under an expiring contract, Marleau once again could be on the move by the April 12 trade deadline, which potentially comes five days before he’d catch Howe in a Sharks jersey.
“Business is business and Patty Marleau is going to be the one who controls what happens,” Boughner said. “If he wants to stay, I’m sure he stays. If he wants to have a chance to go somewhere else, I’m sure that opportunity will be afforded to him as well.
“We have to support him and hopefully get to that spot where we see him break that record as a Shark.”