Game Thread: SHARKS (35-28-8) at CANADIENS (45-20-7) - 03.21.15 @ 4PM

[Mr. Teal]

TV: NHLN-US, CBC, TVA, CSN-CA

MONTREAL -- San Jose Sharks coach Todd McLellan isn't reading too much into the fact his team has not allowed a goal against the Montreal Canadiens in more than three years.

San Jose has shut out Montreal three times in a row over the past two seasons, including a 20-save effort by backup goalie Alex Stalock in the Sharks' 4-0 win at SAP Center on March 2.

Erik Cole, who now plays for the Detroit Red Wings, scored the Canadiens' most recent goal against the Sharks in Montreal's 4-3 overtime loss in San Jose on Dec. 11, 2011.

"Well, I don't think we can go too far back," McLellan said after San Jose's morning skate at Bell Centre on Saturday. "The teams have changed, circumstances are different; we can only look at this season, and I don't know if it was a good thing or a bad thing that we played this team on trade deadline day. We had a pregame skate with 17 skaters in the morning. I'm sure they looked at that and they were excited about adding pieces to their roster and what-not, so their circumstances, ours were completely different.

"I think [Saturday] we're going to be playing that first-place club, and we're going to have to rise to the occasion to beat that first-place club."

Montreal (45-20-7) leads the Eastern Conference with 97 points. Canadiens right wing Brendan Gallagher is confident he and his teammates will come up with a better effort than they did at the beginning of the month in San Jose.

"We know they dominated us that game; we weren't very good," Gallagher said after the morning skate at the Canadiens' suburban practice facility. "They out-competed us, out-battled us and if we play like that again, we're probably going to get a similar result. We know we have to be much better, and we've been playing better as of late, so hopefully that carries over."

The Sharks (35-28-8) are fifth in the Pacific Division with 78 points, six points behind the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference. San Jose has not missed the playoffs since 2002-03.

"I feel like it's a playoff run for us, so if you want to have success in the playoffs you have to be able to win games, so it's the same thing here," said Sharks goalie Antti Niemi, who will make his eighth start in a row.

Niemi had both of San Jose's shutouts against the Canadiens in 2013-14.

"If we just play the game that we're supposed to and stick to our systems, I mean, you see where we are in the standings, and I think the team's obviously done that for most of the year," Montreal right wing Devante Smith-Pelly said. "As long as we play the way we're supposed to we should be alright."

Here are the projected lineups:

SHARKS

Joe Thornton - Joe Pavelski - Melker Karlsson

Matt Nieto - Logan Couture - Tommy Wingels

Patrick Marleau - Chris Tierney - Tomas Hertl

Daniil Tarasov - Ben Smith - Barclay Goodrow

Marc-Edouard Vlasic - Justin Braun

Matt Irwin - Brent Burns

Mirco Mueller - Brenden Dillon

Antti Niemi

Alex Stalock

Scratched: Scott Hannan, John Scott

Injured: Mike Brown (leg), Raffi Torres (knee)

CANADIENS

Max Pacioretty – Tomas Plekanec - Brendan Gallagher

Alex Galchenyuk – David Desharnais – Pierre-Alexandre Parenteau

Jacob De La Rose – Lars Eller – Devante Smith-Pelly

Brandon Prust – Manny Malhotra - Dale Weise

Andrei Markov – P.K. Subban

Alexei Emelin - Jeff Petry

Tom Gilbert - Greg Pateryn

Carey Price

Dustin Tokarski

Scratched: Nathan Beaulieu, Sergei Gonchar, Mike Weaver, Brian Flynn

Injured: Torrey Mitchell (upper body)

Status report: McLellan will dress the same lineup he used Thursday for the Sharks' 4-1 win against the Toronto Maple Leafs at Air Canada Centre. … Petry returns after missing Montreal's 4-0 win against the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday because of the flu. "I'm feeling a lot better than [Friday], and [Friday] was a lot better than [Thursday], so I'm taking steps in the right direction," said Petry, who will be partnered with Emelin for the first time.

Who's hot: Thornton (one goal, four assists), who got his 900th assist Thursday, Pavelski (two goals, two assists) and Karlsson (two goals, one assist) each have three-game point streaks. … Couture has a goal and two assists in his past three games. Prust has three assists in his past two games, and Weise has a goal and two assists. Plekanec has two goals and three assists in his past four games.

 

[Mr. Teal]

1st period was alright.
Niemi looked strong in net but the Sharks transition defense is lacking which was especially apparent when on that odd man rush where the Habs scored.

Nieto gave up on the rush instead of hustling to take his man and as a direct result, the man he was supposed to be covering scored. If Nieto hustled instead of giving up on the play, he could've covered his defensive assignment.

I don't mind so much when a Shark gets beat legit but Nieto was just flat out lazy and it cost the Sharks a goal. I cant stand it when players give up.

 

[sjrules99]

so so first period. Disappointing backcheck on the goal.

Will patty hit -20 on the season? If so, he'll be the first -20 player since the 1996-1997 sharks (todd gill, greg hawgood, bernie nicholls)... His -1 tonight puts him at -18, by far the worst on the team, and only 2 away from the big number.

Go Patty! We know you can do it...

 

[sjrules99]

so so first period. Disappointing backcheck on the goal.

Will patty hit -20 on the season? If so, he'll be the first -20 player since the 1996-1997 sharks (todd gill, greg hawgood, bernie nicholls)... His -1 tonight puts him at -18, by far the worst on the team, and only 2 away from the big number.

Go Patty! We know you can do it...

BTW, patty has been worst on the team in minus FOUR times ('99-00, '05-06, '07-08, '14-15) 2nd worst by one ('03-04), 3rd worse by three ('10-11), 5th worst ('02-03).

He has led the team in the category by himself exactly ZERO times (though he has tied twice in '08-09 and '09-10).

I would say if patty didnt completely suck this year, the sharks would likely be in the playoffs right now. He alone, has likely cost the team at least 4 or 5 wins given his awful play at both ends.

Nice to see Bakes call out patty at the start of the 2nd since there is no excuse for his play. If you dont score, at the very least you cant give it up like he has.

 

[Cbrower91]

BTW, patty has been worst on the team in minus FOUR times ('99-00, '05-06, '07-08, '14-15) 2nd worst by one ('03-04), 3rd worse by three ('10-11), 5th worst ('02-03).

He has led the team in the category by himself exactly ZERO times (though he has tied twice in '08-09 and '09-10).

I would say if patty didnt completely suck this year, the sharks would likely be in the playoffs right now. He alone, has likely cost the team at least 4 or 5 wins given his awful play at both ends.

Nice to see Bakes call out patty at the start of the 2nd since there is no excuse for his play. If you dont score, at the very least you cant give it up like he has.

Yeah couture,pavelski, and Nieto going MIA parts of the season and Nietos case the entire season has nothing to do with it. The team collectively playing like shit defensively the majority of the season a complete non factor, nemo going on 10-12 game shit show stretch a non factor. All one players fault at least pretend to be a little fucking objective.

 

[sjrules99]

Yeah couture,pavelski, and Nieto going MIA parts of the season and Nietos case the entire season has nothing to do with it. The team collectively playing like shit defensively the majority of the season a complete non factor, nemo going on 10-12 game shit show stretch a non factor. All one players fault at least pretend to be a little fucking objective.

Of course a bunch of guys have had off years, but nieto had a nice rookie year, but he's not supposed to be a top 6 forward. Hertl is still recovering from the knee and has had an off year for sure, but its patty's performance that has been most glaring (and the most rightly criticized.). I'm not saying they'd be in the tops of the division, but they'd be in the PO's if he didnt suck. He's likely to fall short of 20 goals and approach the worst +/- in nearly 20 years. I am saying that his play could be attributed to at least 4 or 5 fewer wins than they have.

Marleau has exactly 2 more goals this year than Melker Karlsson while playing in 29 more games and 4 extra mins/night. Karlsson has 4 more goals at EV than patty. Other players have had some off nights and even some togh stretches, but patty has been bad since october. He has not been good for any reasonable stretch in the entire season. He has 11 goals in the last 65 games. He has ONE goal at even strength in the last 18 games. And this is when the team is at its most desperate. And, while failing to score so incredibly he is also a -9 over that stretch, and -20 since his hot start the first 5 games.

To me, its not exaggerating to say that Patty is the main reason the sharks are likely to miss the PO's.

 

[sjrules99]

Obviously, it's time to tank it down the stretch. If the sharks can manage to play in the last 10 games as they have in the last few months, they could well land a top 10 pick. Right now, they are tied with dallas for the 9th overall pick. It might be hard to catch jersey or philly for the 7th or 8th picks, but the 9th overall should land a pretty nice gem.

It woould be just like the sharks to now win 7 or 8 of the last 10, fall 3 or 4 points shy of the PO's, but catch florida or ottawa and end up picking 12th or 13th. That would really stink. At this point, you gotta look to tank it.

Id also like to see them use this last 10 games to test out the youth. Give more quality ice to tarasov, tierney, nieto and hertl. Give those kind of guys the #1 PP time. Also, Id consider calling up some worcester guys (even though that could hurt wooster's chances of the PO's, which might be valuable to their development). Id like to see what Taylor Doherty can do. or Maybe ryan Carpenter. They can also give an extended look to stalock as well as maybe give Dell a shot given how well he's played in the AHL. Maybe they can find a goalie out of nowhere.

The way I see it, this is the first opportunity SJ has had in the last 12 years to see what they have in the farm in games that they probably want to lose anyway, but against opponents who are at their best, trying their hardest, as opposed to preseason, which tells you little or nothing.

Todd can also begin to experiment with future lines by putting patty and jumbo together with someone like barclay goodrow. The idea being that the other top 6 forwards get used to each other. Maybe Hertl, Pavelski, and Karlsson on one line and Couture, Nieto, and Wingels on a different line. Tierney, Tarasov, and smith on a 3rd line.

I figure this is not likely to happen, but logic would dictate that it should.

 

[MrChangoT97]

Didn't see the game, but it sounds like I didn't miss anything. Just another missed opportunity in collecting two points again, very common this season.

 

[Mr. Teal]

IMO it wasn't a terrible game by the Sharks but if the Sharks want to be playoff contenders, they need to be great and right now, they're average at best. Collectively, they look like a team that just doesn't have the fire needed for a playoff run.

 

[Dean_Youngblood]

IMO it wasn't a terrible game by the Sharks but if the Sharks want to be playoff contenders, they need to be great and right now, they're average at best. Collectively, they look like a team that just doesn't have the fire needed for a playoff run.

Totally agree... they played a decent game. They just don't have the talent across the entire roster to compete with top-tier teams on a consistent basis.

And to put it all on Patty is just silly. While I'm the first to say I'm extremely disappointed in his play this year, he is not the "sole" reason we aren't in a playoff spot. This team is a shit sandwich right now - he's just one of the turds.