Goodrow makes most of chances
LOS ANGELES >> Barclay Goodrow has played a variety of roles for the Sharks since he began to establish himself as an every game NHL player two years ago.
Perhaps none have been as important as the one he’s in right now.
With Tomas Hertl missing his third straight game with a lower body injury, Goodrow was back as the Sharks’ second-line center for their game against the Los Angeles Kings at Staples Center on Monday.
So far, coach Pete DeBoer has liked what he’s seen. Goodrow didn’t have a point in the last two games before Monday, but took on
extra ice time, held his own defensively and became the Sharks’ go-to player in the faceoff circle.
Goodrow, one of the Sharks’ top penalty killers, is second on the team in faceoff percentage among players who have taken at least 60 draws. Goodrow was at 54.1 percent before Monday and Hertl was at 54.6 percent before his injury.
Impressive for a player who wasn’t drafted and was in the AHL with the Barracuda for most of the 201617 season.
“Goody’s taken advantage of every opportunity we’ve given him this year to move up,” DeBoer said. “It’s a great lesson for some of our young guys. We gave a lot of guys opportunities in camp to play up in the lineup, to play special teams.
“He’s one guy I think, that when he was given opportunities there this year, he grabbed them.”
This year, Goodrow’s mostly been used as a winger in the Sharks’ top nine forward group. But he was moved back to center the last two games after Hertl was hurt Nov. 19 in a game against the Edmonton Oilers. Hertl remains day-to-day.
With Hertl out, Goodrow played a season-high 18 minutes and 33 seconds in the Sharks’ 2-1 overtime win over the Vegas Golden Knights last Thursday, and followed that up by playing 17:55 in the team’s 2-1 win, again in overtime, over the New York Islanders on Saturday.
In that game. Goodrow, 26, led the Sharks in faceoffs with 16, winning 10 of them, and had a team-high five hits to go with three blocked shots.
“I’ve played center off and on the last few years,” Goodrow said. “It’s not too much different. Everyone on the team is pretty interchangeable once we get out there, other than faceoffs. You’re first back in the (defensive zone). It’s all about reading and reacting off the other guys. But it’s something I’m used to.”
Goodrow entered Monday with six goals, one shy of his career-high. He also has 11 points, five short of the 16 he had last season in 82 games.
“I’m sure part of it is he’s a veteran guy, it’s his age,” DeBoer said. “He understands now. I remember when we sent him (to the AHL) my first year here four years ago because he wasn’t ready to grab those opportunities. Sometimes that’s something you have to grow into.
“But every time we’ve moved him up, every time we’ve given him a little bit extra, he seized it. We’ve needed that.”
The Sharks clearly had some forward depth issues at the start of the season after the departure on Joe Pavelski, Joonas Donskoi and Gus Nyquist to free agency. Those problems were only exacerbated when Evander Kane was suspended for three games to start the season and Marcus Sorensen was injured for the following three games.
The Sharks scored five goals in their first four games when they went 0-40.
The Sharks signed Patrick Marleau on Oct. 9 to help alleviate some of those depth issues in the top nine forward group, and the Sharks responded with four wins in six games after Marleau’s arrival.
Still, depth remains an issue, and Hertl’s absence had the potential to be huge for a team that was trying to get back to .500. Before his injury, Hertl was tied for the team lead with 21 points and was averaging over 19 minutes of ice time per game, second most among all forwards.
When Hertl was unavailable to play against Vegas, DeBoer just simply slid Goodrow over to the middle on the second line with wingers Marleau and Timo Meier.
That line’s possession numbers weren’t great against the Golden Knights. Per naturalstattrick, the trio had a Corsi-for percentage of 38.9 in nearly 12 minutes of ice time at 5-on5. The numbers were much better against the Islanders, though, as the line created four high danger scoring chances in just under six minutes at even strength.
For the start of Monday’s game, Marleau was moved up to the top line with Logan Couture and Kane. Goodrow was playing with Meier and Kevin Labanc. ”I thought we’ve been pretty good,” Goodrow said. “We’ve been pretty tight defensively. We’d like to create a little more. We haven’t played a ton of time in the offensive zone, which I think we want to get back to.”
As of Monday morning, DeBoer said he wasn’t sure if he would return to using 11 forwards and seven defensemen against the Kings. The Sharks used the alignment in the wins over the Golden Knights and Islanders, but have a busy schedule ahead. Starting with Wednesday’s home game against Winnipeg, the Sharks have three games in four days.
Melker Karlsson skated Monday morning, although he later said he wasn’t sure if he was playing. Karlsson was injured by a hit from Vegas’ forward Ryan Reaves and missed Saturday’s game. Karlsson skated Monday morning on the fourth line with Antti Suomela and Noah Gregor.