Heatley Gets Second Hat Trick in Quirky Game at the Shark Tank

The bizarreness that occurred in the San Jose Sharks’ 6-3 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers is almost inexplicable. The odd and unfathomable filled this game.  Probably the most predictable part of the game was who did the scoring.

Dany Heatley covered the spectrum netting his second hat trick of the season on an even strength goal, a short-handed goal, then capping it off with a powerplay goal. As expected Joe Thornton assisted on all three of the goals, as well as a Patrick Marleau goal with just a few seconds remaining in the second period. The hat trick was Heatley’s ninth of his career, and Thornton’s four assist game was also the ninth of his career. Heatley now has sole position of the goals lead with 17.

The first two of Heatley’s goals were carbon copies, coming in on 2-on-1′s with Thornton. The Flyers played each situation well, not that it really takes a genius to figure out who’s going to be passing and who will shoot in that situation. In fact, in both cases Thornton probably had the better opportunity to score but instead of shooting decided to outwait everyone on the ice, hold the puck and zip terrific passes to Heatley for the goals. Show off…

Heatley’s third goal came on the powerplay. A nifty display of skill where Heatley, with his back turned to Flyers netminder and former teammate Ray Emery, kicked the puck with his right skate to his stick and turned to fire the shot into the net.

This movie script had to have been prepared beforehand. Coach Todd McLellan put Heatley, Thornton, and Marleau on the same line because of the success they had late in the Sharks last game. It happened to coincide with Steve Yzerman and some of the Canadian Olympic team representatives being at HP Pavilion to watch the game. By the end of the night even Yzerman was chuckling in the press box watching the All-star line put on a show. The line ended up with eight points between them.

The first and last goals for the Sharks were supplied by the second scoring line of Manny Malhotra, Joe Pavelski and Ryane Clowe. Malhotra’s was the first goal for the Sharks, coming on the power play on a shot from the point that deflected off two Flyer defenders. He would later return the favor by accidentally poking the puck into his own net on a scramble in the front of the Sharks net.

Clowe crashed the net on a Malhotra shot late in the third period and snapped the rebound past Emery giving them the 6-3 final.

That was all the predictable part. Still wondering about the quirkiness?

How about a Marc-Edouard Vlasic fight! That’s right, the soft-spoken, quiet defenseman played with an unprecedented edge in this game. I’m sure the last thing fans expected in this game was a fight between Danny Briere and Vlasic, but that’s exactly what happened. Mostly it was a dance of grabbing but Pickles did get a few punches in towards the end.

It didn’t end there either. Vlasic was in the middle of scrums, checks, and even some not-so-friendly trash talk going back to the bench with Flyers players throughout the night. By the end of the night, he was even getting under the skin of Daniel Carcillo, though maybe that says more about Carcillo than Pickles.

Adding to the peculiarity of the game was players and referees alike not being able to stay on their skates. Players were losing their edges like clock-work, and most of the time there was with no one near them. Much to the amusement of Sharks fans, Chris Pronger ate it on his first shift of the second period resulting in Heatley’s second goal. Even Emery stumbled going after a puck.

As the score suggests, it was a pretty sloppy game on both ends. Each time had some terrible giveaways in their own zone that resulted in quality scoring chances. Despite nine goals being scored, Emery was very solid early on and Evgeni Nabokov made some key saves including a half-breakaway stop on Mike Richards when the score was still 4-3.

The Sharks will travel to Anaheim for tomorrow’s game against the Ducks to reignite the blossoming rivalry. My last prediction was Thornton scoring, and even though it was an empty-netter, it was correct. I think Joe Pavelski will have a 2-point game tomorrow night.