The San Jose Sharks’ subsequent scheduled follow previous to their common season opener Friday towards the Nashville Predators will mark solely the third time the entire group’s NHL regulars have skated collectively on one sheet of ice since coaching camp started final month.
The primary time was Monday at a modest-sized rink in Berlin. The second time was Tuesday for an exhibition recreation inside 17,000-seat Mercedes-Benz Enviornment.
Maybe that’s a part of the explanation why the Sharks had one thing of an uneven begin towards Eisbären Berlin, even trailing by one objective late within the second interval.
However the Sharks discovered a rhythm as the sport went on and earned a 3-1 win over Eisbären on targets by Tomas Hertl, Steven Lorentz, and Luke Kunin to conclude the exhibition portion of their schedule.
Hertl and Lorentz scored even-strength targets 40 seconds aside late within the second interval to present the Sharks the lead and Kunin scored an insurance coverage objective shorthanded on the 11:56 mark of the third to quell Berlin’s upset bid in entrance of its raucous house crowd.
“I don’t assume anyone panicked. We simply play our hockey and rating two fast targets to alter the sport,” Hertl stated. “However it wasn’t a straightforward recreation tonight.”
Takeaways from Tuesday’s recreation.
1. TOP LINE CARRIES ON: Over the past three seasons when the Sharks misplaced a top-six ahead for any size of time, it severely impacted the remainder of their comparatively skinny lineup. However with a deeper group this 12 months, it seems the Sharks is perhaps higher in a position to face up to such an absence, a minimum of for the brief time period.
With Alexander Barabanov injured and never on the journey, the Sharks have turned to Kunin to fill in at proper wing on the highest line with Hertl and Timo Meier. Thus far, he appears to be doing wonderful.
The trio, which has skated collectively for a lot of the final week with Barabanov unavailable, dominated possession at even energy within the Sharks’ 7-3 win over the Vegas Golden Knights on Friday and created a handful of scoring probabilities Tuesday.
“I actually like him. He’s quick, he’s aggressive, he works laborious on each shift, he will get plenty of pucks for us,” Hertl stated of Kunin, who was acquired from Nashville within the offseason.
“Actually, I didn’t know what to actually count on from him nevertheless it’s plenty of enjoyable. Hopefully, we now have a great connection on Friday and rating some targets, however I’ve actually favored taking part in the final couple of video games with him.”
Final season with Evander Kane out of the image, the Sharks moved Meier as much as the highest line with Hertl and Barabanov. That line had a terrific statistical 12 months, however Logan Couture’s line suffered in consequence. Meier additionally spent a while with Couture to assist present a spark, however that may negatively have an effect on the Hertl line.
It’s quite a bit to ask of Kunin, who has by no means had greater than 31 factors in a season, to be a top-six ahead for a very long time. However with no timetable for when Barabanov would possibly return, Kunin is the Sharks’ most suitable choice for proper now.
“I feel certainly one of my strengths is having the ability to play up and down the lineup,” Kunin stated earlier than Tuesday’s recreation. “Proper now that’s with Tommy and Timo and I simply wish to do no matter I can to assist these guys, assist out any manner offensively but additionally be dependable in all areas.”
2. POWER PLAY SPUTTERS: The Sharks went 0-for-3 on the ability play Tuesday, which included a 49-second 5-on-3 within the second interval when the Sharks perhaps had a bit of an excessive amount of room to play with and weren’t directing sufficient pictures towards the online.
The Sharks scored 5 power-play targets in 5 NHL preseason video games. They clearly must make the most of these alternatives extra usually contemplating how powerful it is perhaps for them to attain 5-on-5 targets this season, after being thirty second in that class final season.
On the plus aspect, San Jose did kill all 4 penalties it took towards an Eisbären group harm by the absence of 5 injured gamers.
Sharks coach David Quinn stated he would possibly tweak the personnel a bit on the ability play items, “however nothing drastic.”
“I believed our energy play was fairly good early, then we had the 5-on-3 and I didn’t assume we have been very opportunistic there or actually had a lot circulate there,” Quinn stated. “They did a great job killing it. However we’ve obtained to be higher in these conditions. Everyone knows how necessary a 5-on-3 is, you’ve obtained to make the most of these alternatives.
“A little bit bit disappointing we didn’t, however we’ll get higher at it.”
3. GADJOVICH’S IMPACT: At this level, it might be a shock to not see winger Jonah Gadjovich on the 23-man roster this weekend – for quite a lot of causes.
One is, the Sharks seemingly don't wish to danger dropping Gadjovich to a different group, as they would wish to put him on waivers to assign him to the AHL. Two is as a result of he’s asserted himself fairly properly on the Sharks’ fourth line each time he’s performed within the preseason.
Gadjovich had two targets and two assists in two NHL preseason video games and had a hand in Lorentz’s second-period objective Tuesday. Gadjovich went into the nook to the left of the Eisbären web and bodied a Berlin participant off the puck, which ultimately got here again to Erik Karlsson. His shot from contained in the blue line was tipped by Lorentz into the online for a 2-1 Sharks lead.