Last night was Exhibit A as to why the Sharks need Dan Boyle in the lineup.  Chicago is a speedy team with tons of young talent, and with the Sharks missing their best puckmoving blueliner (and his shutdown defensive partner) the number of defensive zone giveaways was staggering.  They had 24 giveaways total, 9 of which in the defensive zone.  To put this in perspective, San Jose had 11 total giveaways against Phoenix, and only 4 against Colorado.

Most of those defensive zone giveaways (forgive me for stating the obvious) was due to pressure.  The Hawks, after getting embarrassed Thursday night in L.A., clearly had a chip on their shoulder and something to prove.  With Boyle out of the lineup, we were looking at a Sharks defense not even as good as a year ago this time, which would have included Rivet, Carle, and McLaren.  Instead, we had Blake (upgrade) but Semenov and Joslin too.  This actually isn’t going to be another Semenov rant- he’s holding his own.  He even made a little move in the offensive zone once last night and drew a hooking call.  As far as Joslin goes,  it’s way to early to get on his back about anything.  He’s 21, and last night was his 10th NHL game.  He deserves some slack.

But I say again- the Sharks are a different team without Boyle.  Not a single aspect of the Sharks game wouldn’t have been improved by having him around. The questions are, how much worse are they without Boyle, and are they good enough to withstand a tough playoff opponent?  These are questions I hope we don’t have to answer.

FYI, Joe Pavelski will be live on the radio tonight on Chomp Talk, which takes place from 9-10pm. You can listen at http://1220kdow.com.  We will be taking callers during the Pavelski segment, so if there’s anything you want to ask him, make sure to tune in and call us at 1-800-516-1220.  Or just call during the other parts of the show to chime in on anything hockey related.