Greycliff's Chronicles: San Jose Shark's December performance & fun stats

December is a month that the San Jose Sharks would probably like to have a do-over. A total of 13 games, for twenty-six points, was up for grabs. Ten of the games weer played on home ice while 3 were road games. Of the three road games, one was the shut-out (St. Louis Blues), one was an overtime win (Colorado on 12-13), and the third road game was an overtime loss (Chicago). Of the ten home games, three were losses and seven were wins. The team was shut-out once. San Jose ended the month with 15 points.

The Sharks ranked #13 in the penalty kill with a 31.%, and rankde 23rd in power plays with 14.6% scoring 22 power play goals. They are standing # place in the league overall and # in the Western Conference.

An improvement is needed in the penalty kill. San Jose stands in 28th place with a 75.2%. Their power play is better, ranked 13th place with a 13.2%. They rank #13 in goals for (96 total) and #8 (82 total) in goals against. They are at #16 for the plus/minus ranks, earning a +17.

Offense is an area where they should do better. The biggest problem is the penalty kill. Keeping the puck away from the net would help make a difference on the score board. A total of 392 hits were handed out during home games while 199 hits ocurred on the road. On the road, a total of 374 shots were blocked, while they only blocked 185 shots. The team has taken 1,176 shots total and allowed 975 attempts.
The team stats to date are listed below, taken from the San Jose Sharks official website.

The December game results are listed below, with regulation wins in grey, overtime points (lost game) in yellow, and losses in regulation in white. Our favorite boys of winter earned a total of 15 points.

12-01-11 4-3 win over the Montreal Canadiens
12-03-11 3-5 loss against the Nashville Predators
12-06-11 1-2 loss against the Minnesota Wild
12-08-11 5-2 over the Dallas Stars
12-10-11 0-1 shut-out loss to the St. Louis Blues
12-11-11 2-3 overtime loss to the Chicago Blackhawks
12-13-11 1 4-3 overtime win over the Colorado Avalanche
12-15-11 5-4 win over the Colorado Avalanche
12-17-11 3-2 win over the Edmonton Oilers
12-21-11 7-2 win over the Tampa bay Lightning
12-23-11 3-2 win over the Los Angeles Kings
12-26-11 2-3 loss against the Anaheim Ducks
12-28-11 2-3 overtime loss to the Vancouver Canucks

Team Teal was more productive at home. Each of the losses were one goal games. The Team Ststs, taken from the san Jose official website are listed below:

Forwards & Defensemen

#	Pos	Player	GP	G	A	P	+/-	PIM	PP	SH	GW	S	S%
19	C	Joe Thornton	34	7	23	30	8	18	1	0	1	66	10.6
12	L	Patrick Marleau	34	13	14	27	6	12	4	0	3	101	12.9
8	R	Joe Pavelski	34	15	12	27	9	10	4	1	1	110	13.6
39	C	Logan Couture	34	16	11	27	12	8	3	1	2	105	15.2
29	L	Ryane Clowe	34	7	15	22	2	52	2	0	1	93	7.5
22	D	Dan Boyle	34	2	14	16	2	38	1	0	1	106	1.9
9	R	Martin Havlat	26	2	13	15	8	16	1	0	0	62	3.2
26	C	Michal Handzus	33	3	11	14	4	10	1	0	0	45	6.7
44	D	Marc-Edouard Vlasic	34	2	12	14	14	8	0	0	1	50	4.0
64	L	Jamie McGinn	34	8	5	13	6	11	1	0	0	63	12.7
88	D	Brent Burns	34	6	6	12	11	10	3	0	1	95	6.3
17	C	Torrey Mitchell	31	3	4	7	2	10	0	0	0	38	7.9
69	C	Andrew Desjardins	33	3	4	7	1	27	0	0	2	35	8.6
60	D	Jason Demers	24	1	6	7	-5	14	1	0	1	33	3.0
10	L	Brad Winchester	34	3	3	6	0	39	0	0	0	31	9.7
61	D	Justin Braun	21	1	3	4	4	8	0	0	0	38	2.6
3	D	Douglas Murray	24	0	3	3	5	19	0	0	0	31	0.0
2	D	Jim Vandermeer	10	0	3	3	2	12	0	0	0	5	0.0
28	C	Andrew Murray	30	1	2	3	4	4	0	0	0	30	3.3
5	D	Colin White	24	0	2	2	1	8	0	0	0	12	0.0
78	R	Benn Ferriero	8	2	0	2	1	2	0	0	1	16	12.5
57	C	Tommy Wingels	3	0	1	1	0	4	0	0	0	9	0.0
68	L	Frazer McLaren	5	0	0	0	-1	9	0	0	0	2	0.0