Struggling Sharks look for more star power
Top offensive players, power play not clicking as needed
Five games into the season and Sharks coach Bob Boughner is still looking for a little more consistency from some of his offensive stars.
Going into today’s game against the Minnesota Wild at the Xcel Energy Center, players on the Sharks’ top three forward lines have been held scoreless for six consecutive periods and one overtime.
The Sharks’ power play, which was off to such a white-hot start after three games, has now misfired on 10 straight opportunities.
The Sharks have discovered an effective fourth line as Matt Nieto and Mar
cus Sorensen have scored in consecutive games, with Patrick Marleau adding an assist on Nieto’s goal in Friday’s 4-1 loss.
But if the Sharks (2-30) hope to finish their season-opening eight-game road trip on a positive note, their big weapons are going to have to provide a bit more punch. After today, the Sharks head to Colorado for games against the equally-tough Avalanche on Tuesday and Thursday.
“I think the difference is our power play, at crucial times, needs to get us one there,” Boughner said. “Minnesota’s a pretty good penalty-kill team, but we didn’t generate a lot of emotion from our power play. Especially when we had chances, we didn’t capitalize on our chances.
“We need more from the big guys. We got another goal from Matt Nieto on that fourth line, and we need our best players be our best players.”
At the start of the season, the Sharks were concerned mainly about their puck management and their defense; they allowed 10 5-on-5 goals through the first three games.
Now the pendulum has swung in the other direction. They’re playing tighter defense but aren’t creating enough high-danger opportunities.
Maybe teams are starting to play with more structure after some wide-open hockey in the first few days of the season. That certainly would explain why it was such a struggle Friday for the Sharks to get a lot of quality looks.
According to naturalstattrick.com, the Sharks managed just four highdanger chances Friday, matching their total from Wednesday’s 2-1 shootout win over the St. Louis Blues.
Minnesota was credited with 24 blocked shots Friday — to the Sharks’ 12.
“We have to have the ability to play low, try and play below the tops of the circles, obviously still using that low-to-high play,” Boughner said. “I thought we played well enough to win. But we need more offense, obviously, than just one goal. I thought our power play at crucial times in the game could have made a difference.”
The Sharks, in their first three games, connected on five of their first 11 powerplay chances. But after going 0 for 7 on Wednesday, they went 0 for 3 on Friday. The Sharks got seven shots on net, but the Wild also did a good job of getting into shooting lanes.
“We just have to keep it simple, get some more pucks through,” said Sharks winger Timo Meier, who has been held without a point in four of five games. “Net presence is important. A lot of times we’re moving the puck well, but we’re not really dangerous in front of the net. We just have to fight to get an ugly one you know, and that will give us confidence.”
Other takeaways from Sharks’ loss:
SOLIB START >> The Sharks got their second straight quality start from one of their goaltenders Friday as Devan Dubnyk returned to St. Paul to make 25 saves. Martin Jones stopped 22 of 23 shots Wednesday.
While Jones will likely be back in net for the Sharks today, Dubnyk’s performance could mean that he’ll get chances to start on a regular basis for some time to come. The Sharks play 13 games over the next 28 days.
Dubnyk was making his second start this season after he was in net for the Sharks’ 5-4 loss Monday in St. Louis.
“I probably felt better in (Monday’s) game to be honest, just with all of the strangeness with coming back (to Minnesota),” Dubnyk said. “I’ve been around a long time and played a lot, so just understand that you have to be sharp, work on the things on the days off, make sure you’re working in the games. Don’t start thinking about wins and losses, just be sharp, make sure you’re stopping pucks you should and giving the guys a chance to win and eventually it’ll start to come.
“(Jones) has played great so far and I think we’ve just got to both continue to work to give us a real good chance every day.” NAMSRDLL’S namd >> Dylan Gambrell played 15 minutes Friday and spent most of the third period on a line with Meier and Evander Kane. From a possession standpoint, that was the Sharks’ best trio.
Over the years, Gambrell’s game has been come and go at times. But right now he’s competing hard and seems to be giving Boughner the type of consistency he’s looking for.
It would be quite something to see Gambrell continue to improve and become the Sharks’ secondline center. Perhaps if he does that, it might allow Tomas Hertl to move to the top line with Logan Couture, which might go a long way in helping cure the offense.
Friday’s late summary Wild 4, Sharks 1