The good news is a Sharks team that struggled offensively last year has scored 15 goals in the last three games.  The bad news is they’ve given up 14.  Makes for exciting games, but play is littered with bad turnovers and giveaways in inopportune areas of the ice.  Such was the case against Philly, where they managed to pull it out in a wild one, 7-6, but not so last night, en route to only the second loss of the season against the Panthers, 4-3.

Florida is a young team that skates very hard every single shift.  They have a vigorous low cycle in the offensive zone that the Sharks were fairly adept at cracking.  That cycle will give many other teams fits.  However, the Sharks were not very good at clearing pucks out, and keeping possesion at the offensive blueline- a critical area of the ice for springing odd-man rushes against.

Am I worried about this team’s recent sloppiness on defense?  Only mildly.  Keep in mind the Sharks only gave up four goals in their first four games, and they are implementing an entirely new system with new players.  Common wisdom says the a team needs the first 15 or 20 games of the season to really get it’s identity, and this team is no exception.  Some of the chemistry between players like Thornton-Boyle is really flourishing.  But other coordination on the ice between O and D, or between the D partners, is a bit off.  The Sharks have proven to me that they can win games in decisive fashion-  now it’s time to pay out a little rope and let them get their bearings.

We could easily see more of the same tonight against Tampa.  Tampa has been lauded for their high-flying offense but poor defense- will the Sharks again try to trade body blows?