San Jose’s complete domination
Sharks aren’t distracted at all by the off-ice chatter
On a weird and wonderfully wacky day in which Joe Thornton was trending worldwide on Twitter for a graphic description of what he would do to a certain part of his lower anatomy to celebrate four goals in a game — a feat he has yet to accomplish — a more important trend played out once again Thursday at Rogers Arena.
The San Jose Sharks continued their domination of the Vancouver Canucks with a 4-1 victory in which their fourth line scored a goal and caused the opposition’s fourth line to cough one up. It proved the margin for error against what may be the NHL’s best club this minute.
It also proved by stretching their winning streak over the Canucks to 11 games — if you include two preseason triumphs — the Sharks don’t worry about distractions on or off the ice.
As befits a 4-0-0 club that has outscored the opposition 21-5 and is already in the Stanley Cup contender conversation, Thornton has been laughing and lapping it all up.
Jovial Joe took the heat off rookie linemate Tomas Hertl with his colourful comments earlier in the day. The 19-year-old Czech winger had become the centre of debate as to whether his exuberant betweenthe-legs fourth goal Tuesday and celebration was too much mustard on the hotdog. Was Thornton upset in a post-game scrum knowing his rude quote (you can read it at white towel.ca) had gone viral?
“No, it’s OK,” said the centre. “But thanks for asking.”
That off-ice sideshow had a good, short run but the main on-ice event was the real story.
“We certainly didn’t have enough going to make a difference against a balanced team like that,” said Canucks coach John Tortorella. “We were out-quicked. The biggest thing that stuck out was on 50-50 pucks, they stick-checked us and were going the other way.”
In falling to 3-2-0, the most damage the Canucks inflicted was a heavy second-period sideboards check by Alex Edler on Hertl that popped off the winger’s helmet and could be reviewed by the league to determine if the head was the principle point of contact.
Add a 3-for-3 penalty-kill effort to improve to 18-for-18 and that was it about it. Except for Mike Santorelli, who scored his team-leading fourth goal and played 23:42 on the top line.
Santorelli’s deft deflection of a Mike Stanton point shot cut the deficit to 2-1 midway through the second period, but it took the Sharks less than two minutes to restore a two-goal advantage. Tyler Kennedy owned the boards and Patrick Marleau snapped his pass in the slot to the stick side before Brent Burns added an empty-netter.
“That was a gimme,” Tortorella said of the 3-1 goal. “We’re just too slow and turned it over and we don’t react defensively. Our reactions were slow tonight.”
Said Luongo: “I didn’t see it. He (Marleau) one-timed it. I want to find a way to pick those up somehow at an important moment in the game and find a way to make the save.”
It was as if to remind everyone that the Sharks could flip that switch to end the Canucks’ three-game win streak that included back-to-back overtime decisions. Vancouver’s switch was stuck in neutral Thursday.
“You have to win the one-on-one battles and we didn’t do it,” Henrik Sedin said of the club’s 26 shots of which only six came in the third period. “They play a tight system and are tough to play against. That’s where we weren’t strong enough. We didn’t get any sustained pressure in their end.”
Tortorella had to call a timeout at 4:34 of the first period when his listless club had yet to manage a shot and show any push. There was a brief flurry and another missed Chris Higgins chance before the fourth line looked confused on the opening goal. Burns faked a shot down the right side and spotted MarcEdouard Vlasic in the slot. Henrik Sedin nearly tied it when fed at the top of the crease by Ryan Kesler on a power play in which Daniel Sedin also forced a glove save.
However, just like their 4-1 loss at San Jose in the season opener, the Canucks couldn’t sustain any momentum. When Chris Tanev fell behind the net and Dale Weise stumbled to contain James Sheppard, the centre found an unchecked Matt Pelech in the slot and he found the top corner.
“In the first period we were a little tentative and against a team like that, you have to play 60 minutes to give yourself a chance,” said Luongo.
A Henrik wraparound attempt was stopped and went off the post in the second period before Santorelli and Marleau exchanged goals. Kesler then took a bad defensive-zone hooking penalty on Dan Boyle to emphasize the trouble the Canucks were having containing the Sharks.