The Sharks dropped their miniseries opener to the Coyotes 5-2 Friday night.
Most of the effort from the Sharks in this game seemed lackluster, especially on both sides of the puck. The Coyotes jumped ahead in the first period on Christian Dvorak's first goal of the game. The crazy and disappointing thing about the first period was that the Sharks only registered four shots on goal, which is absolutely pathetic. This also is a result of San Jose spending most of the period in their end of the ice.
Early in the second, Tomas Hertl ties it up at one while shorthanded, with Erik Karlsson getting the lone assist on that play. This also marked Hertl's 300th NHL point. Towards the end of the second, Nick Schmaltz scored to retake the lead for the Coyotes. This began a series of four consecutive goals by the Coyotes, three of which occurred in a few-minute span in the third. The second Coyotes goal in the third by Dryden Hunt was challenged for goaltender interference, but the challenge was unsuccessful. The others consisted of Christian Dvorak's second goal of the game and Phil Kessel's 11th goal of the season to give the Coyotes a 5-1 advantage.
Luckily the Sharks got one back later in the final frame, scored by Patrick Marleau on the power play. It was initially misplayed by Adin Hill, and Patrick Marleau took advantage of that by tucking it in to lessen the Sharks' deficit to three goals. Assisting on the Patty goal were Mario Ferraro and Timo Meier. It was also his 564th career goal, tying Mats Sundin and Joe Nieuwendyk for 23rd on the NHL all-time goals list.
Before Marleau's goal in the third, Nick Schmaltz was called for boarding against Radim Simek, sending Simek hard into the boards and shaking him up in the process. It was announced today that Schmaltz was fined $5,000 by the NHL Department of Player Safety as a result. From what I last heard, Simek seemed to have recovered quickly from the dangerous hit and should be ready to go for tonight's game in Arizona.
Martin Jones had a drop-off in his performance from the previous miniseries against the Kings, making 23 saves on 28 shots against. This was more so that the rest of the team left him out to dry than anything else. However, Jones did make some great saves throughout this game.
Last night's game marked the first game this season and the first time in a while that Sharks assistant coach John Madden coached from the Sharks' bench.
San Jose continues to get outshot and pass the puck around more than shoot it. These problems were exacerbated in last night's game. In addition, the Sharks are two points behind the Kings and three points behind the Coyotes in the West Division standings. If the Sharks had won last night, they would've had a chance to pass both the Kings and Coyotes in the standings after this weekend miniseries. Another interesting stat: the Sharks are 7-1-1 this season against their Southern California rivals, the Kings and Ducks, while they are 6-13-3 against the rest of the West Division.
We want and need to see the Sharks improve tonight in the second leg of their back-to-back in Arizona. Devan Dubnyk will get the start in net tonight, with puck drop at 7 pm PT. Kurtis Gabriel is also expected to return to the Sharks' lineup tonight in the second game of this back-to-back miniseries.
Sources: NBC Sports Bay Area/California, NHL App
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