San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Man disadvantage trumps Shark Tank
Vegas’ 3 goals on power play spoil 1st San Jose game
The rival Vegas Golden Knights scored three powerplay goals to spoil the Sharks’ longawaited first game of the season at SAP Center on Saturday, 31.
“Losing sucks, I hate losing,” San Jose captain Logan Couture said. “There’s not a single player in our room who is happy.”
And, with that, it was a home opening like no other in the Sharks’ 30 years of hockey in the Bay Area.
Tealcolored tarps covered the first 15 rows of the lowerbowl seating which otherwise are typically filled with ravenous Sharks fans. While some arenas are allowing a small percentage of fans to attend, that is not likely to happen in Santa Clara County where COVID19 restrictions are strict.
Yes, the team did skate out of the oversize Sharks mouth as tradition, and the anthem was sung live by Melissa Gialdini. She performed rows behind the penalty boxes, and below where telecasters Randy Hahn and Bret Hedican called the game instead of their familiar spot in the press box.
Without fans, the only recognition was stick taps from the Sharks bench when the live image of former Sharks coach Pete DeBoer, now the Golden Knights’ coach, appeared on the overhead video board midway through the first period.
The fake fan noise was mostly muffled and generally a bit behind the play. Celebrations were quick, quiet and awkward at the benches. This is the NHL during a pandemic, and teams must get used to it.
As for the game, the Sharks failed to generate enough production from 5on5 play, and paid dearly for going to the box.
“We won the 5on5 game,” Sharks coach Bob Boughner said. “I’d like to score more than one. … Their power play was the difference.”
The Golden Knights converted on each of their first three power plays — Jonathan Marchessault on a batted puck out of midair at 13:13 of the first, Mark Stone on a backhand on a rebound at 9:56 of the second and Chandler Stephenson when the puck caromed off his skate past goalie Martin Jones at 6:45 of the third.
“We’ve been struggling for a couple games in a row,” Sharks defenseman Brent Burns said. “We just have to get back to being disruptive and taking things away. It’s the NHL. If you give guys room they’re going to make plays.”
Couture added: “Any time you give up three on the PK in back to back games you’ve got to work on it.” The Sharks lost 62 in Los Angeles on Thursday.
While Jones has come under fire recently, Boughner did not have criticism for his goalie.
“I thought he gave us a chance to win,” Boughner said. “That’s all we can ask every night. It’s tough to produce one goal and put that on the goalie.”
Tomas Hertl’s third goal in two games and sixth of the season at 18:39 of the second period was the Sharks’ offense. Their power play was 0for3.
While the Sharks were relatively injuryfree during their record 12game road trip to start the season, the hosts lost two defensemen against Vegas.
Radim Simek did not return after a clean hit by Marchessault early in the second period caused the rugged defenseman to hit his head on the glass before getting crosschecked moments later.
And Erik Karlsson skated hunched over to the bench following Vegas’ third goal, did not return and was unavailable to the media afterward. Boughner turned to forward Dylan Gambrell to take a couple of shifts on defense in the final 13 minutes.
“I don’t think it’s anything crazy serious,” Boughner said of Karlsson. “We were scraping the barrel there.”