SHARKSPAGE

Sharks earn fourth consecutive Pacific Division title with 6-1 win over Los Angeles, Western Conference teams battling for playoff spots starting to hit the wall

The Sharks earned an impressive 6-1 win against the Los Angeles Kings by sticking to the basics. The basics against the 2nd best defense in the Western Conference resulted in 6 different goal scorers, a 20-5 margin in blocked shots, and a 31 save effort for goaltender Antti Niemi in his 34th consecutive start. The Sharks sparked their turnaround in mid-January with defensively responsible play in their own zone, and a gameplan to get the puck deep and utilize a strong forecheck to create turnovers and to wear down opponents. In recent games San Jose has been generating scoring chances from all 4 lines, and a renewed confidence for several key contributors is bad news for the rest of the Western Conference. The Sharks, a team that has gone 26-4-4 since January 13th, is still gaining steam.

With the win over Los Angeles, the Sharks leapfrogged Detroit for 2nd place in the Western Conference. They also ensured home ice advantage in the first round by clinching their 4th straight Pacific Division title, 6th overall. San Jose head coach Todd McLellan noted the home ice advantage was the main takeaway. “That is the benefit, not the banner or anything else. The benefit is that you will be able to start in the 2 or 3 spot. We will be able to start in front of great fans,” McLellan told reporters after the game. “We worked hard to earn that right. Now we need to take advantage of it when it does arrive.”

Looking ahead has never really been a problem for this franchise, starting the playoffs with the proper intensity has. Not just content to turn around his team for the regular season, McLellan has molded his club into one that should exude several different traits for the 2011 Stanley Cup Playoffs. Instead of padding the scoresheet with statistics, the Sharks are content to use possession or to get the puck deep to set up the next line change in the proper position. For close to two months the majority of the Sharks wins came in 1 or 2 goal games, but they have also shown a penchant for a 60 minute effort with several late or last second comebacks. Beefs or inopportune penalties have gone by the wayside. Opponents are going to have to work harder to draw penalties. The overall them has been more of a responsible team effort, as opposed to inconsistent individual efforts. Given the depth the Sharks have up front, on the blueline, and in goal, they exhibit more characteristics with last year’s defending Stanley Cup Champions with each passing day, and not just with the same netminder between the pipes.

On the other side of the ice, the pressure may be starting to wear down several Western Conference teams battling for playoff spots. With their season on the line, Calgary folded with an 0-1-2 record on the road against each Californian team. Their worst effort by far was saved for San Jose. With only 4 games remaining on the season, that same lethargic effort continued for 2 periods against St. Louis on Friday night. Jarome Iginla’s 1000th goal was the only bright spot for the Flames. Whatever Brent Sutter said during that 2nd intermission had an effect, as Calgary stormed back with a pair of goals to earn the win. Another victory a night later at Colorado, and suddenly the Flames are back in the playoff picture (albeit trailing Chicago by 1 point with 2 less games to play on the season). Leading the Pacific Division in the first half, the Dallas Stars nearly dropped off the playoff map losing 9 of their last 11 games. A 6-0 loss to San Jose was their worst loss of the season. It prodded guest radio analyst and former Shark Dave Maley to say that it looked like their was only 1 team playing on the ice. The Stars came back with a controversial 4-3 win over Anaheim on Sunday, but the lack of effort and intensity against San Jose was palpable. Even more shocking when you consider the Hatfield vs Mccoys feel to the prior two games between the teams.

Los Angeles had a little more room to maneuver in the standings than Calgary and Dallas, but after losing both of their leading scorers to injury they could not afford to have an off night down the stretch. After really dictating play and controlling the pace and the line of scrimmage 2 weeks ago in a 4-3 shootout win over San Jose, that dominance and effectiveness against the Sharks lasted for only a few parts of the first period. I thought both teams were loose in the first period, ours included. Here goes a coach again, he is going to complain about a 6-1 win. We were attrocious in the faceoff circle. They had the puck for most of the first period,” Sharks head coach Todd McLellan said after the game. “We turned that around in the second and third. It worked in our favor. I was happy we got to use everybody tonight, there was some good minutes had by our fourth line. It was nice to see guys get rewarded offensively.” The Sharks lost power forward Ryane Clowe after he logged only 1:43 of ice time in the first period, but the first and third scoring lines took over and McLellan made adjusments to Couture and Heatley’s line as the game went on.

Los Angeles Kings head coach Terry Murray did not take the glass half full view after the game. “When you come into this building, you know you have to play good. You’ve got to show up and compete real hard. We gave up that first goal, and it’s the goals I don’t like,” Murray said. “You’ve got to show up against a real good hockey club, and play well, and we didn’t do they. They came right back, after we made it a 2-1 game, and that’s just the way they approach business. They come right back and score, and after that it was all their game.”

Many pundits, bloggers and analysts predicted a tight, defensive affair between San Jose and Los Angeles. That decidedly was not the case. “We weren’t in positions. Whether it was on the checking part of the game, without possession, or if we had possession we were not in the proper lanes. Our centermen were not there, our wingers were not in position, our defensemen were looking up and they’re almost seeing the seat of the pants,” Murray said. “There’s no way to get the puck up the ice, unless they get their feet going and get to the red line themselves. It got a little bit better in the second half of the game, but early, my goodness, structurally we were really broken down.” Complicating matters was the line changes Murray made after the loss of Anze Kopitar and Justin Williams.

After a strong push by LA early, Joe Pavelski put the Sharks on the board at 1:47 with his 19th goal of the season. After an offensive zone faceoff loss, Torrey Mitchell kept a clearing attempt in along the half wall and fired a shot on goal. Pavelski slid to the open area of ice in the slot, but then positioned himself between the defense. He got a shot on goal before the defense could turn, and it beat Jonathan Quick clean. Defensive defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic’s goal in the first was a textbook display of the Sharks gameplan. With Pavelski and Mitchell on either side of Quick with their sticks on the ice, Kyle Wellwood slid a pass through the crease to a pinching Vlasic on the left point. As Quick went down thinking Pavelski or Mitchell would bang a 1-timer, he got up and tried to get over to his right. Vlasic buried it up high before he did. 2-0 Sharks. A brief Jamal Mayers and Kyle Clifford tussle, and a subsequent Mayers hook were the only penalties called in the first 2 periods. The Sharks finished off the first with a hard Wellwood cut through the offensive zone. He started on the right wing, and angled hard to his left through 2 players. He fired a backhand off the right shoulder of Quick. Wayne Simmonds tried to hammer defenseman Douglas Murray with a check, but was briefly shaken up after the collision.

It was a night for defensive defenseman to take center stage, and Matt Greene made a spectacular play on the Kings goal 1:57 into the second. After the Sharks killed off a power play, Greene took two hard strides to open up a shooting lane on the left point. He fired an across the grain shot that Niemi stopped, but could not control. The puck dropped to the ice and was hammered home by Handzus. Wallin had marked his man on the right side, but Thornton could not get back in time to cover Handzus on the right. Defenseman Ian White was up high on Ponikarovsky after taking a puck off his body. All three of the Sharks defensive tandems are working well together, but the d-zone coverage starts to fray when they get more than 20 feet from their net.

The Sharks answered 22 seconds later with their 3rd goal of the game, cutting short any momentum the Kings were hoping to gain. First announced as Vlasic’s second goal, Kyle Wellwood was credited for his 5th of the season as he tipped a Vlasic shot by Quick. Rookie center Andrew Desjardins, playing in a 4th line role with Scott Nichol recovering from an injury, made a solid play to start the scoring sequence on the mixed and matched line. Desjardins took a hit along the end boards, but still managed to get the puck up to Vlasic on the point. After his highlight reel goal against Calgary, Desjardins recorded his first NHL assist of a similar highlight reel variety. Desjardins has shown versatility in a number of different roles given his limited ice time. He may have earned a playoff roster spot on or off the ice if everyone returns to the lineup. With a fourth line of Eager, Mayers, Desjardins and Nichol only Scott Nichol was not sprinkled occasionally on the top 3 lines. That was probably because head coach Todd McLellan was saving him for the penalty kill.

After a huge Douglas Murray point shot deflected violently off the side of the net, his defensive partner Dan Boyle scored his 8th goal of the season at 5:33. It came as he weaved inside, and then outside on Willie Mitchell before lasering a wrist shot. Joe Thornton held on to the puck for an inordinate amount of time while Dan Boyle gathered speed in the neutral zone. He would finish the game with a goal, an assist, and a fight for a Gordie Howe hat trick. The route was on. “We have been putting the puck in the net the last few games, myself and Pickles. We haven’t done that too much this year. It is nice to chip in,” Boyle told reporters after the game.

On how the Sharks have been generating so much offensive of late, Boyle noted that it stems from responsible play in the defensive zone. “It is just because we are playing good defense, it leads to good offense,” Boyle said. “We are taking care of the puck and being patient. Our goal scorers are scoring right now, it is a good sign.”

Quick was done for the night, replaced by young netminder Jonathan Bernier. Joe Thornton scored his 20th goal of the season, the 999th point of his career, and Devin Setoguchi added his 22nd as the Sharks finished out the scoring in the 2nd. It nearly could have been 7 -1 after a quick release by Ben Eager ricocheted off the post.

“You want to win your division so you get home ice. We have a pretty darn good division, so it is a feather under your cap. We still got some work to do. We are still fighting to get that second seed. It is a good step for us,” Joe Thornton said after the game. He also repeated the good defense, good offense mantra. “We are playing good defense, it leads to good offense. We are taking care of the puck and being patient. Our goal scorers are scoring right now, it is a good sign.”

Not content to play out the string, the Sharks continued to wear down Los Angeles in the third period. Not having to come back and force an overtime as they did in their previous meeting, the Sharks used puck possession and a strong forecheck to fluster a strong defensive team. In one of several scoring chances created after Joe Pavelski stole the puck in the neutral zone, a quick Pavelski, Mitchell to Demers sequence saw the young Sharks defenseman ring a shot off the post.

Niemi was strong as usual, effectively shutting off the lower portion of the net against Los Angeles. He made an explosive pad save on a Wesgarth rebound attempt. Later in the period, he stopped Lewis in front and Wesgarth tried to push Niemi, the pile, and the puck into the back of the net. As Wesgarth looked like he was trying to push a large boulder up a hill, Lewis also tried to kick the puck in. Jonathan Bernier answered on the other side of the ice with a quick acrobatic save on Joe Pavelski.

The game finished with a physical element, and a little bad blood to position both teams in case their is a Battle of California playoff series down the line. The Oakland Seals and Los Angeles Kings met for the only playoff series featuring all-California teams, and Monday night was the 35 anniversary of the last game ever played in Oakland (a 5-2 win over the Kings). 5-foot-11, 190 pound Kings forward Brad Richardson pulled up hard on defenseman Douglas Murray along the right wing in the offensive zone. As Murray closed in, Richardson tried to spin around and reverse direction down into the corner. The 250-pound Murray pasted him against the glass. The Kings maintained possession, and a Richardson-Clifford give and go along the blueline resulted in an even larger collision between Murray and Richardson. This time the 6-foot-3, 210-pound Clifford raced over to challenge Murray and defend his teammate. As Murray fought Clifford and Richardson, Dan Boyle came over to siphon off Richardson from the scrum. He earned an extra 2 minute penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct.

“I turned around and I saw two guys hitting Dougie,” Dan Boyle said after the game. “I know he can probably take on two guys any day of the week, but I just wanted to go in there and help him out like he has helped me out all year. It just kind of happened pretty quick.” As the teams chatted back and forth on the bench, head coach Todd McLellan quickly squashed any extra carricular activities. His focus was on keeping the team focused on the task at hand, earning 2 points against the Los Angeles Kings. Mission accomplished. Next mission, Anaheim on Wednesday night.

[Update] Three reasons why this year’s San Jose Sharks team is different – Former Battle of California blogger and current NBC Pro Hockey Talk writer James O’Brien. Agreed on all points, except the baggage claim is a bit of a tenuous one. It is an issue, this is a team built and paid to go all the way, but it is also an issue constructed for the most part by individuals who do not watch the team on a regular basis. You could tell there were major problems with this team in December and January, but you could also tell at that time that there were the tools needed for a rebuild within the current lineup. The additions of Ben Eager, Kyle Wellwood and Ian White added more veteran skill, and speeded up the process. And given all the comments regarding Niemi, he is playing inspired hockey but there is still growth potential.

[Update2] Could this finally be the Sharks’ year? – Erik Duhatshek for the Globe and Mail. I do not think this is a “Stanley Cup or bust” year, a question that was posed to Todd McLellan prior to a past playoff appearance. This may differ with the Sharks message, but if they give 100% effort throughout a 7-game series and still lose, it would be a successful season. In the past too much talent was left on the table, and the Sharks were outworked in the playoffs far too often. Trying to play and score your way out of holes in the postseason doesn’t work. This team has been playing a playoff style of defensive, grind it out hockey since mid-January, and has gone 26-4-4 in that span.

[Update3] Here’s what we little we heard about Clowe: lower body tweaking, know more Tuesday – David Pollak’s Working the Corners blog.