Offense can’t put up fight at Joe Louis
DETROIT — The Sharks had defensive issues at various times throughout their fivegame road trip. Saturday night against the speedy Detroit Red Wings, their offense went to sleep as well.
The Sharks, in what was likely their last game inside Joe Louis Arena, fell behind by two goals after two periods and saw some frustration boil to the surface in the third as the Red Wings skated away with a 3-0 win.
Gustav Nyquist scored twice in the second period and Andreas Athanasiou beat goalie Martin Jones with a blistering slap shot in the third as the Sharks lost for the third time in four games to conclude their five-game road trip.
“We were late everywhere tonight, and when you’re a step behind a good team, they expose you,” Sharks coach Pete DeBoer said. “That was the story.”
The Sharks had 30 shots on goal but didn’t get much traffic in front of Red Wings goalie Jimmy Howard, as they were shut out for the first time this season and fell to 3-3 overall.
“The number surprises me,” Sharks center Logan Couture said of the amount of shots on
Howard. “I can’t think of too many grade-A chances we had. They defended well, but we have to play inside of their net and find a way to generate some offense.”
Not only did the Sharks go 0-for-4 with the man advantage, they took four penalties in the third period, thwarting any comeback attempt.
Joe Pavelski was assessed an attempting to spear double-minor, a penalty drawn by noted agitator Steve Ott. Brent Burns, Justin Braun and Patrick Marleau also took minor penalties in the third.
Pavelski said he didn’t think he made much contact with the pesky Ott, who took an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on the play. But Pavelski lamented that the sequence cost his team a shot at a power play with the Sharks down 3-0 with 13:38 to go. Drew Miller was already going to the box for interference.
“It’s Ott, and the next thing you know, I’m taking away our (power play), so it’s a play you don’t want to make,” Pavelski said. “You don’t need to be there with the position we’re in.”
The Sharks have allowed 17 goals since their season-opening 2-1 win over the Los Angeles Kings, although two of those came in an empty net.
They played strong in the first two periods against Columbus last Saturday and scored late to beat the New York Islanders on Tuesday, a day after a sloppy loss to the New York Rangers.
They also did what they wanted in the first two periods against Pittsburgh on Thursday before things fell apart in the third.
In other words, consistency is an issue.
“We didn’t play well,” Couture said. “First game against L.A., throw that one out. It’s the first game. Columbus, we struggled at the end of that, Rangers we struggled. Islanders, we were lucky to win that one.
“We haven’t played very well through our first six games, so we have to find it here soon.”
Nyquist’s goals came 10:56 apart, with his first coming on 2-on-1. As Thomas Vanek joined the rush off the Detroit bench, Nyquist stopped near the faceoff dot and beat Jones high-glove side with a pretty wrist shot to give the Red Wings the lead.
On the second goal, Matt Nieto lost control of the puck and Ryan Sproul picked it up and fed Nyquist, whose shot to the short side got through Jones for a 2-0 lead.
“I thought they controlled the middle of the ice a little bit tonight,” Jones said. “A lot of their shots were coming from the middle of the ice and we were having a tough time getting inside them.”
The Sharks did not hold a practice on the trip. They had previously scheduled days off on Oct. 17 and again on Wednesday, and canceled a scheduled practice on Friday in Detroit. The Red Wings beat the Nashville Predators 5-3 on Friday at home, and somehow looked like the fresher team Saturday.
“There are nights where we handle the puck well and make some passes and keep it pretty simple. We’ve had success on those nights,” Pavelski said. “You just have to understand the recipe . ... There’s really no shortcuts around it.”
The Wings will be moving out of Joe Louis Arena at the end of the season. So unless the Sharks and Wings meet in the Stanley Cup Final, Saturday marked the final time they’ll play each other at The Joe.
It was an ugly way to go out.
“Some breakdowns, some guys not being above,” Couture said. “Some giveaways in our own end, we’re kind of leaving early. It doesn’t seem like we’re dedicated to defense like we were at the end of last year.”