Sharks hoping to avoid bad history
SAN JOSE >> Just add it to the list of things the San Jose Sharks need to address, at least in the eyes of coach David Quinn.
Midway through the second period of Saturday's game, Sharks winger Evgeny Svechnikov got into something of a jousting match with Minnesota goalie Marc-Andre Fleury in front of the Wild net. Forward Marcus Foligno came to the area and shoved Svechnikov out of the way before he cross-checked him in the arm.
Late in the second period, Foligno also took a decent-sized run at defenseman Nikolai Knyzhov in the Sharks' zone, pasting him against the end boards. Foligno finished with four hits, including one on William Eklund.
Asked after the game, a 5-2 Sharks loss, if he feels other teams have sometimes taken liberties against his team this season, and if it is something that needs to be corrected, Quinn said, “Yes, 100 percent.”
Can that come from within, or do the Sharks have to go outside the organization to find that kind of player?
“Probably both,” Quinn said.
Bottom line, Quinn probably wanted to see someone get in Foligno's face. The problem for the Sharks is that their most experienced fighter, Jonah Gadjovich, remains out with an upper-body injury, and there really is no one else on the NHL roster right now who can fill that role with the same level of expertise.
“We don't really have anyone that's going to go out and fight Foligno, (Ryan) Reaves, and those guys,” said Erik Karlsson, who now has 84 points this season, a new single-season record for a Sharks defenseman. “I think they know that. We let the (officials) police it and leave it at that.”
Asked if that needs to change going forward, Karlsson said no.
“You don't have to fight in this league anymore,” he said. “It's been pretty clear that they've been trying to get rid of that. I played in the league when everyone was accustomed to it and it happened every game. There are not that many guys that can still play the game and throw some punches. You'll have to ask the big man (Mike Grier) how he wants to address this group.”
Per hockeyfights.com, the Sharks have 19 fighting majors this season, tied for 11th most in the NHL. Gadjovich leads the Sharks with nine fights. Noah Gregor is second among current Sharks players with two.
Last season, the Sharks had 31 fights.
Still, if not fighting, some more pushback might be missing from the Sharks' roster right now, some more players willing to get into confrontations.
“When you're playing hard and you're playing with the intention of contact being part of the game, which it is in every shift, then there is going to be a scrum every now and then,” Quinn said Saturday morning. “That's a great signal to what type of edge you're playing with and what type of intentions you're playing with.”
PENALTY WOES Svechnikov found himself stapled to the bench after the incident with Fleury, which saw him take one last swipe at the Wild goalie and a slashing penalty with one of the referees just a few feet away. Svechnikov was there because Alex Goligoski had possession of the puck behind the net.
The Wild scored on the
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ensuing power play to take a 2-1 lead.
“I don't think (I did) anything crazy to get (a penalty), especially by myself,” Svechnikov said. “I don't know. It's just frustrating. It could have gone differently but it is what it is.”
Quinn felt it was unnecessary for Svechnikov to go into Fleury's crease at that juncture. Svechnikov had just one more shift after the took the slashing minor.
“It was a bad
Quinn said.
The Sharks have been one of the NHL's most penalized teams since the NHL all-star break in early February. Going into Saturday, the Sharks had been shorthanded an average of 6 minutes and 19 seconds for each of their 15 games since Feb. 7. That was tied with the Arizona Coyotes for the second-highest average in the league, behind only the Ottawa Senators (7:04).
penalty,”
After their latest loss, it might be a struggle for the Sharks to avoid setting a new team record for futility at SAP Center.
The Sharks are now 6-19-8 at home this season. Of the seven games they have left at home, only one is against a non-playoff team. That comes Tuesday when the Sharks host the Columbus Blue Jackets, the last-place team in the NHL which has won just seven of its 30 road games this season.