Boughner’s patience wears thin
The San Jose Sharks can’t afford to give away games and fritter away points in this shortened season, even if they were considered to be one of the West Division’s top teams.
But that’s how it played out Monday night against the St. Louis Blues, as the Sharks coughed up a two-goal lead after the first period and a one-goal lead in the second in what became a 5-4 loss at Enterprise Center.
Sharks coach Bob Boughner wants to have patience with a team that has not played since March, is getting used to a new system and was dressing five players Monday who are either in their first or second season of North American professional hockey. But it’s tough when in his view, a more positive outcome that would have given his team a boost of confidence was within reach.
“This game was a winnable game for us,” Boughner said. “We scored four on the road. We won the special teams and that should be a recipe for at least a point. I can think of three goals off the top of my head that they came off our sticks.
“Just high-percentage, really
not smart hockey plays, and they go down and they score, and that’s difference. St. Louis is a good team. You can’t give them anything, let alone (goals on) bad decisions and bad hockey-sense plays.”
After not playing a game the past 10 months or having a preseason to help work out the kinks, the Sharks fully expected some mistakes to happen in the early part of this season.
But Jordan Kyrou’s third period goal, which became the game-winner, was inexcusable, so much so that Boughner all but promised more lineup changes ahead of Wednesday’s rematch with the Blues.
At the midway point of the third period, the Sharks cleared the puck out of the zone but not past the red line. Still, four players — Fredrik Handemark, Matt Nieto, Noah Gregor and Radim Simek — headed off for a change.
The Blues quickly charged into the zone, and after taking a pass from Colton Parayko, Kyrou, with time and space, made a move in front of rookie defenseman Nikolai Knyzhov, used him as a screen and fired a wrist shot past Sharks goalie Devan Dubnyk for a 5-4 St. Louis lead with 9:32 left in regulation.
Boughner said the Sharks have harped on these kinds of details since the start of the season, and even went over them again before Monday’s game.
“You can’t have all three guys change at once. The left winger’s got to hold there,” Boughner said. “You know, you can only do so much talking and then after a while you’ve just got
to change personnel to the guys that want to do it right. And that’s what’s going on right now.”
The Sharks made a final push, but the end result was a missed opportunity against what is thought to be one of the West Division’s top teams, ruining three-point nights from Logan Couture and Brent Burns and a solid effort from Dubnyk. The Sharks went 2 for 3 on the power play and 3 for 3 on the penalty kill.
The Sharks felt good about their third period as a whole, as Couture scored an opportunistic even-strength goal at the 4:17 mark. But the Sharks are not going to win many games this season when they allow five even-strength goals.
“Gave them too many chances, too many oddmans, too many defensive zone breakdowns,” Couture said. “I thought we were working. Some sloppy plays in our own end, a few turnovers that need to be fixed. But I liked our response in the third. I thought we came out with some energy.
“When we’re successful, we play below the goal line, we use our points, we shoot the puck and get it back and we do that again. We had a few shifts that are like that. Just not enough.”
Other takeaways Monday’s game.
MORE CHANGES? >> Boughner felt the Sharks’ third line of Gregor, Nieto and Ryan Donato had a terrific training camp, but the trio hasn’t been able to generate much offense through the first three games. Donato has one goal and Gregor and Nieto are still scoreless for the season.
Boughner said Monday morning he felt those three players were capable of a lot more. And after the loss to the Blues, it would not be from
a surprise at all to see that line broken up Wednesday.
For the last half of the third period after Kyrou’s goal, Boughner moved Donato up with Couture and Kevin Labanc, moved Timo Meier alongside Evander Kane and Tomas Hertl.
“I have Plan B always in my back pocket,” Boughner said Monday morning. “Being off 10 months, this is all new to everybody, I’m trying to be as patient as possible. But we don’t have the luxury of having an 82game schedule where you can take a little more time to make some adjustments.” DUBNYK’S PLAY >> Dubnyk didn’t get a ton of help from the skaters in front of him but finished with 27 saves. The Sharks, according to NaturalStatTrick.com, allowed 11 high-danger scoring chances, and Dubnyk had to make 12 saves in the first period.
Dubnyk competed but was put in some tough situations.
The Blues were embarrassed 8-0 by the Colorado Avalanche on Friday and the Sharks knew they would start strong in response. Dubnyk kept St. Louis off the scoreboard for the first 20 minutes but couldn’t do it all game as the Blues’ scoring opportunities mounted.
“The last two games we’ve had leads, and, yeah, it’d be nice to get that next goal after you get a lead, but you’ve got to play smart hockey, and you can’t play high riskreward hockey once you’ve got a lead in this league,” Boughner said.
“I think that’s what’s happening right now and hopefully we’re going to learn our lesson because, when we can play our game and we play the right way, we’ll be OK. It’s just disappointing that some of that stuff that we’re giving away right now.”