All season, San Jose Sharks coach Todd McLellan has been
forgiving when one of his young defensemen would make a costly
mistake, chalking it up to part of the growth process. Not
Wednesday night. Not after two Nashville Predators goals 44 seconds
apart late in the third period turned near victory into a crushing
3-2 loss. Not when the deciding goal came on a three-on-one rush
after a crucial error by Jason Demers.
NASHVILLE, Tenn.
All season, San Jose Sharks coach Todd McLellan has been forgiving when one of his young defensemen would make a costly mistake, chalking it up to part of the growth process.
Not Wednesday night. Not after two Nashville Predators goals 44 seconds apart late in the third period turned near victory into a crushing 3-2 loss. Not when the deciding goal came on a three-on-one rush after a crucial error by Jason Demers.
“Obviously we made two mistakes, and it’s in our net, but the third one’s the one that pissed me off more than anything,” McLellan said outside what had been a deathly quiet locker room. “It’s a 2-2 game, and you decide to pinch when it’s four on two? Absolutely unacceptable. It’s called game management, and it was poor.”
And this time the fact that Demers is his team’s youngest player at 21 didn’t blunt the criticism.
“He’s in the NHL. Young, old, it doesn’t matter,” McLellan said. “He’s in the NHL. That’s a situation that you have to read.”
For the first 56 minutes, the Sharks had played a strong, tight-checking game and were rewarded with a 2-1 lead on an even-strength goal by Niclas Wallin and a power-play tally by Dany Heatley. Goalie Antti Niemi was outplaying Nashville goalie Anders Lindmark, who entered the game hoping to become only the third rookie in NHL history to record three consecutive shutouts.
But at 16:44 of the third period, Nashville left wing Sergei Kostitsyn out-positioned Dan Boyle as the two raced down the slot to chip a centering pass into the San Jose net, knotting the score at 2-2.
And at 17:28, Predators center Colin Wilson finished off the odd-man rush created after Demers focused on offense rather than defense, taking a cross-ice pass from longtime Sharks nemesis Steve Sullivan and firing a 30-foot wrist shot past Niemi.
“I own up to it. It’s on my back,” Demers said. “At that time of the game, I shouldn’t be trying those things. It’s one of those 50-50 plays, and it didn’t work out.”
If Demers was looking around the locker room for a sympathetic ear, Wallin was ready to provide one.
“It’s a pinch that can’t happen,” Wallin said. “But, you know, we’re all going to make mistakes and we’re going to pick him up.”
It was Wallin who launched the 54-foot slap shot that gave San Jose a 1-0 lead at 7:25 of the first period, beating Lindmark despite the lack of any traffic. It was the defensive-oriented veteran’s third goal of the season, lifting him within one of his career high.
Nashville got that goal back at 12:14 of the second period, but it was an ex-Predator — not a current one — who ended up scoring on Niemi when Scott Nichol inadvertently directed the puck through his own goalie’s five hole.
Predators pest Jordin Tootoo got credit for the goal after forcing rookie defenseman Justin Braun to cough up the puck, then throwing it to the crease where Nichol tried but failed to clear it.
Nichol acknowledged that he felt somewhat relieved a little more than five minutes later when Joe Thornton centered the puck and it caromed off Nashville defenseman Ryan Suter to Heatley, who gave the Sharks a 2-1 lead.
“Jumbo did a good job of getting it into the paint, and we got lucky with that one,” Heatley said.
McLellan said his team recognized that the Predators were going to push and press but generally felt good about his team’s effort to counter that until things fell apart.
“Even after it goes 2-2, we should have enough poise, enough composure “¦ to get it to overtime and see what happens from there,” he said.
The coach indicated he didn’t plan to further address his players on the overnight flight to Dallas, where the Sharks face the Stars at 5:30 tonight.
“I’ll leave them alone,” McLellan said. “They feel the same way I do, obviously.”
— Story by David Pollak, San Jose Mercury News
