These days, the San Jose Sharks are living by rookies and dying
by rookies. Or, as in Saturday afternoon’s 3-1 loss to the Montreal
Canadiens inside the Bell Center, a little bit of both at the same
time.
MONTREAL
These days, the San Jose Sharks are living by rookies and dying by rookies.
Or, as in Saturday afternoon’s 3-1 loss to the Montreal Canadiens inside the Bell Center, a little bit of both at the same time.
Example: Rookie Benn Ferriero scored San Jose’s only goal, his third in the four games since being called up from Worcester as an injury replacement. Of the Sharks’ five goals on their current road trip, four are by players eligible for the Calder Trophy.
Example: Montreal held onto a one-goal lead almost midway through the third period when rookie Justin Braun tried to send the puck deeper in the offensive zone. Instead, it went off the skate of Montreal defenseman Roman Hamrlik. Six seconds, one breakaway and three shots later, it was 3-1.
“They’re calling on us,” said Braun, a defenseman who scored his first NHL goal in Ottawa, the previous stop on this trip. “Sometimes we’re getting it done and there’s other times we’re having some hiccups as rookies. We need to get rid of those and help the older guys out a little bit more.”
From coach Todd McLellan’s perspective, a few of those older guys were the bigger problem.
“Whether they didn’t feel like they had it in their legs or for whatever reason, some key people weren’t as effective as they normally are,” he said. “And when you play against a top defensive team and play against the No. 1 goaltender, those players have to be there.”
McLellan doesn’t criticize players by name, but the only line he seemed to exclude was the one of rookies Ferriero and Logan Couture along with Ryane Clowe.
When it came to the play of his rookie defensemen, McLellan was more forgiving.
“Our young corps has played maybe better than I thought they might have,” he said, referring to Braun, Mike Moore and Derek Joslin, the latter not technically a rookie. “They still make some mistakes and we have to accept that, we have to build that in.”
The Sharks were facing a Montreal team that has given up only 53 goals this season, second fewest in the NHL. Goalie Carey Price already has earned four shutouts and looked sharp in making 26 saves while the Canadiens got goals from Mathieu Darche, Tomas Plekanec and Mike Cammalleri.
Darche’s goal opened the scoring and was one of those that essentially illustrates the fickle nature of hockey — to a degree.
The Sharks were entering the offensive zone when a dump-in hit the skate of referee Dave Jackson and stopped. That sent the Canadiens in the opposite direction in a hurry, but when Darche took his initial shot, it went wide of the net.
Unfortunately for San Jose, it caromed off the lively back boards right back to Darche, and he buried his second chance before Sharks goalie Antti Niemi could regain position at 6:00 of the first period.
To McLellan, however, it was more than just a bad bounce or two.
“A lot of things didn’t go right, obviously,” he said. “Yet our positioning at or around the net was poor. It’s preventable.”
San Jose tied the score a little more than seven minutes later when Clowe forced Montreal to cough up a puck. After the turnover, Ferriero beat Price with a 31-foot wrist shot.
Montreal regained the lead at 13:58 of the second period when Plekanec eluded both Douglas Murray and Jamie McGinn, skated into the slot and fired a low shot through traffic that beat Niemi.
That’s where it stood until Braun’s misfire after getting the puck from Joe Thornton.
“Jumbo tried to work it back to me after I called for it, and it kind of skipped to my backhand,” Braun said. “I just tried to chip it in, and it went off the back of the guy’s skate and it was off to the races.”
San Jose will practice here this morning before an afternoon flight to Detroit, where they play the Red Wings on Monday night.
— Story by David Pollak, San Jose Mercury News
