With OT goal, S.J. defeats Carolina
First things first for the Sharks. And that means a focus on secondary scoring.
San Jose finally got its one goal in regulation during a 2-1 overtime win over Carolina at SAP Center on Monday night Alexander Barabanov scored 1:42 into sudden death just after the Sharks’ lone power play of the game expired.
San Jose, however, is still looking for more from its third and fourth lines, and that has to change if the team wants to fancy itself as a playoff contender.
“Good teams are getting production from their bottomsix, and it’s been a while since we got that,” Sharks coach Bob Boughner said. “That’s got to be something we figure out because you can’t depend on the same couple guys every night.”
Monday’s bottom-six for a game against the Hurricanes featured a third line of Andrew Cogliano, Nick Bonino and Scott Reedy, who made his NHL debut. Cogliano’s two goals and four points in 17 games at even strength is all the production from the trio.
The fourth line was Matt Nieto, rookie Jasper Weatherby and Kevin Labanc, who returned from a one-game suspension. Labanc scored the regulation goal, his first point at even strength in 11 games. That led to a demotion from a top-six role for Labanc.
One of Weatherby’s two goals, and three of his five assists in 18 games, are at evenstrength, and Nieto’s only point in 10 outings is during 5-on-5.
It’s “tough to win hockey games 1-0 in this league,”
Boughner said.
Bonino is the poster boy for San Jose’s bottom-six struggles. The 33-year-old free-agent offseason signing was scoreless through 17 games. It’s the longest drought of his 13-year career since failing to register a point during his 26 games with Anaheim in 2010-11 when he was just 22 and breaking into the league.
“He has terrible puck luck right now,” Boughner said.
“You’ve got to figure it’s going to turn for him.”
Averaging 17 minutes of ice time, Bonino is used in all situations including the penalty kill and stationed in front of the net to provide screens on the power play. He’s won more than 53% of faceoffs, blocked 21 shots and provided leadership to a locker room that teammates say is vastly improved.
“He’s getting a lot of opportunities, and that’s a good thing,”
Boughner said. “Everybody feels for him, and you can see he puts a lot of pressure on himself to help the team out.”
Bonino, who had 132 goals and 308 points in 698 NHL games before Monday, has produced double-figure goal totals each of the past five seasons. But he’s still waiting for No. 1 with his sixth NHL team.
“I just have no answer why it won’t go in to be honest,” Bonino said after Saturday’s loss to Washington.
Boughner has been patient. He moved Bonino to a top scoring line for two games during Timo Meier’s absence when the team had seven players missing due to COVID-19 protocol. But nothing has worked so far.
“I’ve said all along he’s doing some great things in other areas,” Boughner said. “It would just be nice to see him get rewarded, and it’s going to help our team when it starts going in for him. We desperately need some production from that bottom six.”