Making the most of practice
‘Deconstructing’ Martin Jones: Will his work with new goalie coach Nabokov pay off for the Sharks?
SAN JOSE >> One week ago in the wake of a Sharks win over the Vancouver Canucks, interim coach Bob Boughner made a pair of decisions.
One, he was starting Aaron Dell for the team’s next game against the Arizona Coyotes. Two, he wanted to give Martin Jones a few days to work closely with new goaltending coach Evgeni Nabokov.
The time has arrived to see if the work has paid off, as Jones will start today when the Sharks host the defending Stanley Cup champion St. Louis Blues.
“A good opportunity for me to get some good practice time in,” Jones said of the last few days. “A lot of it was details, fundamentals, moving around, making sure I’m sharp.
‘It’s not a big overhaul or changing a bunch of things. It’s just a good week to just get some good work in and make sure all the details are sharp.”
As much as the Sharks’ skaters have needed time to get used to Boughner’s way of doing things, Jones needed time to reset his game after he lost five straight starts from Dec. 3-12 to fall to 12-13-1 this season.
Jones was solid in a 3-1 Sharks loss to the Nashville Predators on Dec. 10, stopping 29 of 31 shots. But he was inconsistent otherwise, getting pulled in games against Washington and Tampa Bay and struggling to make timely saves in losses to Florida and the New York Rangers.
In that five-game stretch, Jones had a
.853 save percentage and 4.64 goals against average as the Sharks went 0-4-1. Of course, the skaters in front of Jones didn’t offer much in the way of support, scoring just seven times in those five games. Entering today, Jones has a .888 save percentage in 27 games this season.
With Dell starting against Arizona, Jones has had extra time to work with Nabokov and goalie consultant Adam Francilia to help fine tune his game.
“Nabby and Adam coming in sort of deconstructed his game a little bit,” Boughner said. “I’m not a goalie guy, but I know they worked on a lot of movements that when he’s down, he still has the ability to go side to side. His posture, those kinds of things. The details, the ins and outs of goaltending.
“More than anything, it’s a chance for him to sort of sit back, readjust his game and get some good practice time.”
In practice, Nabokov has clearly been more demonstrative and vocal in his instructions to Dell and Jones than his predecessor, Johan Hedberg, who was more understated on the ice.
But “in terms of how they want you to play,” Jones said, “it’s not that drastically different.”
Before Friday’s practice, Francilia was working with Dell and Jones using a medicine ball. Francilia would stand a few feet in front of one of the goalies and toss the ball to him. That goalie would then turn to his left and toss the ball to the other goalie.
The exercise is partly meant to help a goalie turn his head at the same time he’s turning his body. Jones wants to get to his spots early and make sure he’s set for the shot.
“He’s out of the box,” Boughner said of Francilia’s teachings. “You can see some of the stuff he was doing before practice with the medicine balls. He had the tow-ropes (Thursday). He’s really good at the small details.”
Dell will likely start Sunday’s game against the Vegas Golden Knights, and the Sharks (16-18-2) need every point. Entering Friday, they were seven points back of a Western Conference playoff spot and were tied for sixth in the Pacific Division with the Los Angeles Kings.
“It’s a chance for Jones to get back in there and again, make the saves he’s supposed to make, give the team a chance to win. That’s all,” Boughner said. “Try and limit the bad goals, really.”
• Kevin Labanc is now considered hopeful to play against the Blues after he made it through a full practice Friday when he was back on the Sharks’ second line with Tomas Hertl and Joe Thornton.
Labanc had been considered doubtful to play this weekend after he did not skate Thursday. Labanc was injured in Tuesday’s game against the Arizona Coyotes and did not play the third period.
“I’m going to check with the trainers, but he looked pretty good out there to me. Lasted a whole practice,” Boughner said. “He’s hopeful to play (today.)”
On the Sharks’ other forward lines, Patrick Marleau was on the top line with Logan Couture and Evander Kane, and Timo Meier was on the third line with Barclay Goodrow and Marcus Sorensen. The fourth line had Joel Kellman at center with Stefan Noesen and Melker Karlsson on the wings.
Mario Ferraro, who was scratched Tuesday with a minor upper body injury, skated after practice Friday and is questionable to play against St. Louis.