Sharks Plagued by Another Slow Start to Game

Lightning supposedly never strikes the same place twice. Unfortunately for the San Jose Sharks, it struck in five different areas of the net in one game. Another slow start put the Sharks in the hole early and Tampa Bay never looked back.

The Sharks were behind 30 seconds into the game after a great passing play between Vincent Lecavalier and Martin St. Louis resulted in James Wright’s first NHL goal.

Ryan Malone would make it 2-0 on a nice deflection in front of Evgeni Nabokov. Can’t really blame Nabby on either of those two, but that will come later.

The Sharks got a goal back when ancient rookie Ryan Vesce, 27, poked in a rebound from a Jason Demers point shot. In the Sharks’ Worcester Express Shuffle (more on this another time) so far this season these are probably the two bright spots. Vesce has now scored goals in three straight games, and with the assist, Demers is tied with former Shark Matt Carle for the NHL lead in assists for defenseman.

With the momentum from that goal, the Sharks had their best chance to get back into the game when Steven Stamkos took a holding penalty. On a good pass from Patrick Marleau across the ice, Marc-Edouard Vlasic heeled a one-timer that if on net probably would’ve gone in.

Things stayed tilted toward the Sharks side until late in the period. Nabby tried to clear the puck and was unsuccessful. Stamkos ended up with the puck carrying it along the boards. Then Demers fell, clearing up the ice and he brought it out in front of Nabby, fanning intentionally missing on the first shot, then scoring on the second.

In the 3rd came the goal that shouldn’t happen. Andrej Meszaros let a wrist shot go from just inside the blue line and Nabby just flat out missed in on the glove side. The puck may have been deflected by Pickles’ stick but that’s one Nabby has to have. The number of those kind of goals is getting a little too high for my liking.

After a Dan Boyle power play goal made it 4-2, late it the third there was a mad scramble in front of Mike Smith with virtually every player in on the ice (Nabokov not included) within 5 feet of the crease. Smith was down, and of all the Shark’s sticks the puck could have found: Marleau, Thornton, Setoguchi, Boyle… it found good old Douglas Murray’s stone hands. He backhanded the puck over a pretty empty net. Crankshaft may have had a hat trick in the preseason, but I would’ve settled for anyone else getting the puck there.

Stamkos added an empty netter in the last minute on a better shot than Meszaros’.

The Lightning got a great effort out of Smith, but the Sharks did him a few favors with their missed opportunities. Some odd stats were the Sharks losing the faceoff battle, and not giving up a power play goal for once.

I’d like to see Greiss get a start on one of these last two games in Atlanta and Philadelphia. I’m not calling out Nabby for bad play because he’s looked very good the previous few games, but on a long road trip I just think it’s a good time.

I’ll make a prediction for next game:  I think Ryane Clowe will get his first goal of the season next game against the Thrashers. Keeping fingers crossed.