We’ll Take It, Part 2
March 16th, 2009, 7:33 am
Another fortunate win for the Sharks, this time in Anaheim less than 24 hours after they slipped by the Kings. The Ducks have certainly lost a lot of that Stanley Cup shine, and they just aren’t as intimidating as they used to be. Getzlaf, Perry, Hiller, and Ryan are on the way up, and most of the rest of the team is on the way down.
Looking at the boxscore, there’s another cause for relief- McLellan didn’t play the top forwards an inordinate number of minutes last night. Patty and Jumbo played about 25 minutes each in the Kings game- last night, less than 20. Looks like the 4th line got a bit more than usual- 8 minutes for McGinn, 6:28 for Staubitz, but the 3rd line got a bump as well. Blake and Boyle still got a ton of minutes, but that includes over 6 minutes of PP time for Boyle, and almost 5 for Blake. Those minutes aren’t a grinding as even strength or short handed.
Now with two wins, is the ship completely righted? I wouldn’t go that far, but my hand has moved further away from the panic button. With two very winnable games this week in Phoenix and Nashville, I wouldn’t mind seeing the win streak reach 4. With Lemieux, JR, Grier, Huskins, and Mitchell still out, the Sharks are doing fairly well with what they have.
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Having Nabby back brings a lot of my confidence back in this team’s ability to win. He just seemed to be confident and a steadying force for the team for the last two games even though scoring and the powerplay seem to have been shut down lately.
Hopefully, some of the injured guys will be able to come back soon and give some of the workhorses a little more rest.
We’re having some issues with putting conventional goals in the net lately which really seems to be the nexus of our problems. Goal tending by Nabby and Boucher has been good, our issue is scoring especially on the power play.
It seems that we’re getting one part of our game back and slowly starting to clean up play in our own zone, its just a matter of getting our scoring back. Once we do that we’re unstoppable.
That was good, but hit Cheatermayer a little harder next time for us, Sharks. I was disappointed to see him come back out.
Best part of the Niedermayer hit was that it was leveled by his own player, and not Marleau.
Although the Sharks went 2-for-22 in the last week, they are still 3rd in the NHL in conversion percentage. I’m hoping lame-duck Phoenix can help us in that regard.