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WCF Game 4: No urgency for San
Jose
Blues even series with 2-1 win at
home
After getting shutout in Game 4 of their quarter
finals match-up with the Vegas Knights and their semi-finals match-up with the
Colorado Avalanche, you can claim a small victory for the San Jose Sharks on
Friday night. They didn't get shutout by the St Louis Blues, but they did fall
2-1, which begs raises a different concern. That being that the Sharks have a
difficult time getting prepared for games which afford them the ability to step
on their opponents throat.
For a third consecutive series, the Sharks
failed to build on a 2-1 series lead and now head home with a best of three
opportunity in front of them. The Sharks did win back home ice advantage by
winning Game 3 on Wednesday night, but their lack of urgency in Game 4 left
everyone still wondering. Is this a team that's serious about trying to win a
Stanley Cup?
Many of the bad habits that have plagued the Sharks
resurfaced on Friday. Giving up goals early to start a game made an appearance.
Playing perimeter hockey, rather than taking the fight to the front of the net
was back. A lack of urgency until it was too late had a staring role in Game 4,
and it cost the Sharks.
It cost them a chance to head home and close
out the Conference Finals and prepare for the Boston Bruins. By virtue of
losing on Friday, the Sharks ensured that the Bruins will have a full 10 days
of rest before the start of the Stanley Cup Finals. That's an advantage that
teams can only dream of. San Jose served it up on a silver platter at
Enterprise Center on Friday night.
St Louis took all of 35 seconds to
get a puck past Martin Jones. Ivan Barbashev snapped a shot from the slot that
appeared to deflected by Marc-Edouard Vlasic's stick as the defenseman tried to
get his blade in front of Barbashev's attempt.
Brendan Dillon was
called for holding the stick at 5:09, which was an about face from Game 3 where
nothing short of sodomizing an opponent was called. The early energy that St
Louis brought to the start of the game did not translate into a strong power
play showing for the Blues.
The Sharks best scoring chance of the
period came with 3:21 remaining in the frame when Melker Karlsson found himself
with the puck in front of the Blues net and nary a defender in sight. The
Sharks forward took forever to decide on a shot, then tried to lift one from 8
feet out, only to be snuffed out by Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington.
Timo Meier was sent off on what was formally cited as hooking at
17:44, but it was about as soft a penalty as they come. Justin Braun turned the
horrendous call into a goal for St Louis when he kicked a deflected puck past
his own goaltender to make it a 2-0 Blues lead.
Sammy Blais was called
for hooking Tomas Hertl at 5:41 of the 2nd period, but the Sharks lethargic
approach to the power play netted them a pair of harmless shot, but no goal.
Brayden Schenn appeared to give the Sharks another
power play 3 minutes later, but the linesmen huddled and tacked on a slashing
penalty to Marc-Edouard Vlasic to offset Schenn's infraction. San Jose used the
opportunity to try and find a hole in Binnington, but they would not generate
any quality scoring chances on the 4-on-4.
The Sharks finally enjoyed
some sustained pressure in the Sharks zone at the end of the period, but Brent
Burns chance from the right side clanked off the crossbar, leaving the Sharks
searching for answers.
Brendan Dillon was called for a phantom high
sticking penalty at 4:35 of the 3rd period, but Alex Pietrangelo countered the
infraction with an interference penalty. That left the Sharks with 1:20 of
power play time, which they used to cut the St Louis lead to 2-1.
Burns fired a shot on net from the left point, but Binnington made the stop.
the Blues netminder didn't control the shot however, allowing Tomas Hertl to
swipe at the loose puck and knock it home for his 10th goal of the playoffs.
Barbashev was sent off for tripping at 9:52 to give the Sharks their
3rd power play chance of the game. Rather then build on the previous power
play, San Jose reverted to a discombobulated approach that did little more than
burn valuable time off the clock.
The Sharks were so disorganized that
they got crossed up on a line change, when they needed to be mounting sustained
pressure on Binnington. Instead, Dillon sent a pass to the bench were bodies
were flying on an off the ice. That resulted in a too many men penalty that
crippled the Sharks chances at establishing that pressure.
San Jose
finally established a foot hold in the Blues zone, and when they pulled Jones
with 2 minutes to play, they looked as if they might pull another rabbit out of
their hat. Logan Couture may have played that card in Game 3, but he or his
teammates didn't have the card up their sleeve this time.
Binnington
was aided by 21 blocked shots in front of him, but none were more important
then those that came in that last 5 minutes. The Sharks relied on long range
shots, hoping for a deflection, but the Blues defenders never let anything get
to a secondary level. Game 4 was lost.
Game Notes:
*
Sharks defenseman Erik Karlsson was noticeably absent for much of the last 8
minutes of regulation. He did skate one shift but it raises questions about the
condition of the groin injury that sidelined him for weeks during the regular
season.
* Sharks head coach Peter DeBoer was forced to shuffle his
lines in order to spark some response from his lethargic offense. Joonas
Donskoi was moved up to the 2nd line, Melker Karlsson had a shot on Joe
Thornton's line. Nothing seemed to work.
* Hard to blame Martin Jones
for the two St Louis goals. Marc-Edouard Vlassic redirected the first goal with
his stick and Justin Braun booted the second goal right between the wickets.
* Despite missing so much time in the 3rd period, Erik Karlsson still
led the Sharks in shots on goal. The Sharks defense accounted for 9 of the San
Jose's 30 shots on goal.
* San Jose scored 1 goal in 9 Game 4 periods
thus far in the playoffs. The Sharks held 2-1 series leads against Colorado and
St Louis, but left those cities tied 2-2. They left Vegas down 3 games to 1.
* The Sharks loss guarantees that the series will return to St Louis
on Tuesday, May 21st for Game 6.
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think of this story? Post your comments on the
Feeder Forums |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| SJ |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
| STL |
2 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
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| 1st period - 1, STL,
Barbashev 1 (unassisted), 0:35. 2, STL, Bozak 4 (Maroon, Tarasenko), 17:53,
(pp). |
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| 3rd period - 3, SJ,
Hertl 10 (Burns, E. Karlsson), 6:48, (pp). |
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| 1st period - Dillon, SJ
(holding the stick), 5:09; Meier, SJ (hooking), 17:44. |
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| 2nd period - Blais, STL
(hooking), 5:41; Vlasic, SJ (slashing), 8:24; Schenn, STL (roughing), 8:24.
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| 3rd period - Dillon, SJ
(high sticking), 4:35; Peitrangelo, STL (interference), 6:01; Barbashev, STL
(tripping), 9:52; Bench, SJ (too many men), 12:33. |
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Shots |
Saves |
| SJ - Jones |
22 |
20 |
| STL - Binnington |
30 |
29 |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| SJ |
9 |
11 |
10 |
30 |
| STL |
10 |
8 |
4 |
22 |
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| Enterprise Center -
18,496 |
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| Referees: Dwyer,
Rooney. Linesmen: Devorski, Berg. |
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