Boughner feels mistakes Sharks made in tough loss to Blues are easily fixable
The goals-against totals look familiar, as do some of the unflattering plus/minus figures.
The head-scratching puck management gaffes also evoke painful memories among the fanbase, who may be feeling a sense of déjà vu right now.
Are these basically the same Sharks as last season?
Through three games, including Monday’s 5-4 loss to the St. Louis Blues, it’d be easy to get that impression. The Sharks (12-0) so far have allowed 10 evenstrength goals, second-most in the NHL on a per-game average, and are having a tough time getting much production from their bottom two forward lines.
The good thing from coach Bob Boughner’s perspective is
that most of the mistakes he’s seen — particularly as it relates to puck management — are easily fixable. Boughner will look for those issues to be resolved tonight when the Sharks hope to split the two-game series with the Blues at Enterprise Center.
“Most of the offense that we’re giving the other team is starting from 200 feet away from our net,” Boughner said Tuesday. “Whether that’s throwing a puck away in the (offensive) zone, bad puck decision on the blue line on a turnover, a bad pinch or no one covering up for (defense) pinching.
“We’re giving out numbered rushes against due to our actions. The one thing that’s really noticeable, and that goes with line changes and shift length and things like that, is that all of it is very, very correctable.”
The Sharks felt they fed into the Arizona Coyotes’ offense in their first two games this season, a trend that continued Monday.
Turnovers by Timo Meier and Fredrik Handemark in the first two periods in the offensive zone led to goals by Justin Faulk and Brayden Schenn off the rush. The Blues’ fifth goal, the game-winner by Jordan Kyrou, came after an atrocious Sharks line change.
The Blues’ two other goals began after they quickly broke out of their own zone and took advantage of some soft defensive coverage by the Sharks.
Early in the second period, Tyler Bozak took a pass out of the Blues’ defensive zone near the San Jose blue line and skated around Erik Karlsson and behind the Sharks net with the puck. Bozak fed Colton Parayko with a pass to the point, and Parayko’s shot was tipped by Mike Hoffman past Sharks goalie Devan Dubnyk.
As a right shot defenseman furthest away from the Sharks bench, Karlsson couldn’t get off the ice fast enough since the Blues broke out so quickly.
Karlsson had to do a better job of cutting off Bozak before he got behind the Sharks net. But when Hoffman scored at the 4:09 mark of the second period to tie the game 2-2, Karlsson had already been on the ice for 1:33. He was gassed at that point.
“We talked about that (Tuesday) morning,” Boughner said. “When you’re beat, you’ve got to turn in, minimize your angle and you’ve got to cut them off and keep them on that half of the ice. We didn’t, we got in trouble and that’s where your coverages break down.”
To be fair, Karlsson’s average shift length for Monday’s game was 47 seconds, right in line with the other Sharks’ defenseman. He finished with just over 25 minutes of ice time, including about 20 minutes at even strength, perfectly reasonable totals.
Although Karlsson may not be the same type of skater he was earlier in his career when he was with the Ottawa Senators, it does appear as if he’s moving a bit better than he was in the first half of the 201920 season.
Still, Karlsson has one point so far and his plus/ minus rating is minus-6 — exactly where he was after three games last season.
“There’s still some things that have to improve in his game, and he knows that,” Boughner said of Karlsson. “I think sometimes simple is better for him. Sometimes a lot of skilled players get caught up into trying to overcomplicate things, trying to make the extra play that’s not there or trying to hit the home run all the time.”
There are positive signs when it comes to the Sharks offense and special teams. San Jose has four powerplay goals in three games, Couture and Brent Burns both had three points Monday and the penalty kill was 3 for 3.
The Sharks have scored 10 goals in three games. It took them five games to reach 10 goals last season.