San Jose Sharks winger Timo Meier has by no means earlier than gone seven video games to start out a season with out scoring at the least as soon as. Teammate Tomas Hertl has by no means earlier than gone seven video games to start out a season with out scoring at the least twice.
However that’s what’s each Meier and Hertl are experiencing proper now in a nightmarish first two weeks by the Sharks’ prime two forwards from final season.
A yr after combining for 140 factors, Meier and Hertl have totaled three assists in seven video games. The one aim they’ve scored between them got here within the first interval of the primary recreation, with Hertl scoring at even power in his hometown of Prague on Oct. 7 in opposition to the Nashville Predators.
Meier, who had 35 targets and a ten.7 p.c taking pictures share final season, stays with no aim regardless of 29 pictures on internet.
Little marvel, then, that the offensively challenged Sharks are off to a 1-6-0 begin after Saturday’s 2-1 loss to the New Jersey Devils, their third one-goal defeat of the yr.
The Sharks end their four-game street journey Sunday evening in Philadelphia in opposition to the Flyers.
“They’re annoyed and generally when guys which can be scorers don’t get rewarded or get factors they turn out to be consumed with it,” Sharks coach David Quinn mentioned.
“Each scorer in some unspecified time in the future goes by means of a little bit little bit of a droop and sadly our guys are doing it early and collectively.”
The Sharks received a sharp-looking second-period aim from Kevin Labanc and 35 saves from goalie Kaapo Kahkonen, who repeatedly bailed out his group after a handful of puck administration gaffes by the skaters in entrance of him.
“Once you flip the puck over the best way we did, you’re not in construction defensively, so that you’re going be burnt and that’s form of what occurred,” Quinn mentioned. “Once you flip it over like that, that’s the place the possibilities come from and that was the core of our drawback from a defensive standpoint.”
Meier and Hertl had been each listed within the NHL’s official stats as having two giveaways every. The Sharks had been listed as having seven as a group.
Requested if these gamers’ offensive frustrations have led to some dangerous decision-making with the puck, Quinn mentioned, “that’s precisely what occurs. You wish to affect the sport a lot, you wish to assist your group a lot that generally you drive issues.”
However since Meier and Hertl – and a number of other others – aren’t scoring, different errors like those that led to the Devils’ two second-period targets get amplified.
Contemplating the giveaway in their very own zone that led to Yegor Sharangovich’s even-strength aim, and a reckless goalie interference penalty by Evgeny Svechnikov that led to Dawson Mercer’s power-play aim, the Sharks have little margin for error relating to gathering two factors regularly.
The Sharks have 12 targets in seven video games, together with solely 9 throughout 5-on-5 play. They nonetheless haven’t scored within the third interval.
“We had been simply too gradual,” Quinn mentioned. “We may have performed loads quicker. We may’ve been a little bit extra alert and we actually may’ve been extra bodily.”
It’s unfair to put all the Sharks’ scoring woes at Meier and Hertl’s toes. However the paltry offensive numbers are a transparent instance that if these gamers aren’t going, the Sharks have few forwards left to show to for targets.
Hertl is within the first yr of an eight-year, $65.1 million contract that makes him the group’s highest-paid ahead. Meier is a restricted free agent at season’s finish, due a one-year, $10 million qualifying supply if he and the Sharks can’t come to an settlement on a longer-term extension in some unspecified time in the future earlier than the beginning of subsequent season.
The common annual worth of Meier’s subsequent contract shall be sizeably bigger than the $6 million his present contract presently options. Seeing as if the Sharks and Meier’s consultant, Claude Lemieux, seem like in no rush to finish an extension, the dimensions of that AAV will doubtless rely upon how this season unfolds.
By this level final season, Meier already had 4 targets and 4 assists. After seven video games a yr in the past, Hertl had two targets and an help, because the Sharks received off to a good 4-3-0 begin. Meier had 76 factors final season and Hertl completed with 64.
It might be a problem for both participant to return to final season’s scoring tempo. However the Sharks would seem to have little probability to get to above .500 at any level this season until Meier and Hertl at the least come shut.
KAHKONEN’S DAY: Kahkonen, in his third begin of the season, made 18 saves within the second interval, together with a terrific cease on a Miles Wooden one-timer from in shut. Kahkonen entered Saturday with 4.10 targets in opposition to common and a .814 save share.
“He performed very well,” Quinn mentioned of Kahkonen. ”(He) made some big saves, particularly within the second interval the place we had been sloppy they usually had possibilities. He was excellent; gave us an opportunity.”