Saturday, March 15, 2014

San Jose Sharks update

It’s long past time for an update on the San Jose Sharks, and wow are the guys kicking some ice hockey butt this season! What is amazing about the team’s success this year is how it has been done with many key players on the injured reserve list. Thankfully, the Olympic break allowed hurts to heal.

The Gold-medal winning Canadian team included Patrick Marleau and Marc-Eduoard Vlasic, who both returned with a boosted enthusiasm while Antti Niemi was a member of the bronze medal winning team Finland. Team USA didn’t win a medal, but Joe Pavelski gave a good performance.



Once the guys suited back up in the teal, they were joined by Raffi Torres, who had been out since the pre-season with an injury. Logan Couture also rejoined the roster after having surgery on his hand. The immediate impact of Raffi’s return showed when three of his initial four shots resulted in goals. Logan also began earning points with goals.

Prior to the Olympic break, the Sharks had been winning games, utilizing Taylor Doherty, John McCarthy, Matt Tennyson, Eriah Hayes, and Freddie Hamilton from Worcester. The minor league players each had the opportunity to get ice time, helping to keep the Sharks numbers up in the standings.

At the end of play, Friday, March 14th, San Jose was tied with the Anaheim Ducks with 95 points. This has the team in third place in the Western conference (Anaheim takes second as they have earned the points based upon one less game played). St. Louis has 97 points. Overall, in the League, the standings are the same, St. Louis, Anaheim, and San Jose as 1, 2, and 3. The top ten follow with Boston (93P), Pittsburgh (92P), Colorado (91P), Chicago (90P), Los Angeles (82P), Toronto (80P), and Minnesota (79P). 

Obviously, the points can and will change between now and the end of the season. Any of these top ten are good teams and have ‘slumps’ in wins. Will each of these teams maintain their slots? It’s doubtful. Too many others are banging on the front door.

The exciting part about the season is how San Jose has managed to quietly maintain its place in the top ten standings for the majority of the season to date (stats from the official NHL website). The only concern so far is the power play, which has struggled to convert opportunities at 22%, for 16th place. Out of 68 games played, San Jose has only lost 17 games and had 7 overtime losses. Their combined regular and overtime wins is 34, which set them in 6th place overall for stats. They have a 2.98 goals per game, putting them in the seventh spot in the League and compare that to the goals against per game of 2.35 which is good enough for the 4th spot overall. The Sharks 5-on-5 goals for & against ratio is 1.24 per game for sixth place overall. Being short-handed on the penalty kill is an important part of defense and San Jose does this well a penalty kill percentage if 84.4, which has them taking the 7th spot in the League. When it comes to putting the puck to the net, no one beats the Sharks: they are number one with an average of 34.8 shots per game and they don’t allow opponents to get to their net, either at an average of 27.8 shots, San Jose is fifth in least amount of shots allowed per game. When they out-shoot their opponent, the Sharks win 0.696% of their games, for first place. Finally, San Jose is very good in the face-off department, sitting in the third place with a winning 52.9%.

In the past, we (Sharks fans) know how the team does during the regular, and we have seen our team get knocked out during the post-season. This year is different. This team is a grinding, gritty, in-your-face bunch of guys. Winning the Cup is not just about winning 98 ice hockey games. To hoist the silver cup, one has to dig deep within oneself, find that fortitude & determination, and decide that nothing will stand in your way. It’s not an easy road. The Sharks have the Cup in their sights. The mainstream media have ignored them.
That’s okay. When Jumbo lifts the Grail, those reporters won’t ignore San Jose then. To end this, here are the latest stats from the San Jose Sharks website:

Forwards & Defensemen
#
G
8
C
68
34
32
66
22
28
11
1
3
179
19.0
19
C
68
10
55
65
19
16
2
0
3
95
10.5
12
L
68
28
32
60
5
18
8
2
2
240
11.7
39
C
52
18
26
44
17
14
3
1
3
188
9.6
57
C
63
15
21
36
11
35
0
2
7
135
11.1
88
R
55
18
17
35
26
24
1
0
2
194
9.3
5
D
62
4
27
31
16
24
1
0
0
94
4.3
22
D
61
8
19
27
-3
24
6
0
1
122
6.6
48
C
35
15
10
25
11
2
3
0
3
94
16.0
44
D
68
5
18
23
30
34
0
1
0
117
4.3
83
L
54
10
11
21
3
12
1
0
2
101
9.9
52
D
51
2
16
18
0
33
1
0
0
122
1.6
81
R
55
4
12
16
-4
30
0
0
1
125
3.2
61
D
68
4
12
16
15
20
1
0
1
102
3.9
10
C
67
2
13
15
-4
84
0
0
1
80
2.5
15
L
53
2
13
15
3
31
0
0
0
59
3.4
9
R
35
7
7
14
7
8
0
0
1
53
13.2
27
D
47
3
9
12
6
51
0
0
0
44
6.8
7
D
51
3
6
9
6
29
0
0
3
55
5.5
13
L
5
3
2
5
4
7
0
0
0
9
33.3
18
R
39
2
3
5
-10
64
0
0
0
37
5.4
38
L
22
3
1
4
1
6
1
0
0
35
8.6
43
C
36
1
1
2
-11
4
0
0
0
49
2.0
42
R
6
1
0
1
1
22
0
0
1
3
33.3
76
R
15
1
0
1
-2
2
0
0
0
17
5.9
37
R
9
0
0
0
-2
4
0
0
0
6
0.0
75
C
11
0
0
0
-5
2
0
0
0
13
0.0
GOALIES
#
G
31
53
53
3109
2.37
33
13
6
3
1405
123
.912
0
2
0
32
20
15
1038
1.91
11
4
1
2
479
33
.931
0
0
0


 game highlights from Sharks verses New York Islanders

http://video.sharks.nhl.com/videocenter/console?catid=-3&navid=TLN

Former San Jose Shark draft pick Marco Sturm announced his retirement this year and did a ceremonial uck drop. Watch it here:
http://video.sharks.nhl.com/videocenter/console?navid=TLN


Go Sharks and say safe out there!!

No comments:

Post a Comment