The Sharks paid tribute to the California
Golden Seals, the first NHL team to call the Bay Area home, by donning their
new reverse retro uniforms in a home contest with the Los Angeles Kings. San
Jose played like the underachieving Golden Seals, losing to the Kings 5-2 in a
game more of a gift to the Kings.
Typically a strength for San Jose,
goaltender James Reimer had a nightmare game, surrendering 4 goals that could
have been stopped. Three of them certainly should have been stopped. With the
Sharks struggling to score goals, poor goaltending was not what the Sharks need
against a team that vying for a top spot in the Western Conference.
This one started in the wrong direction and it went downhill from there.
Adrian Kempe appeared to give the Kings an early 1-0 lead on the
opening shift, but a challenge by the Sharks negated the score for offside.
Jaret Anderson-Dolan would bag one that counted at 8:55, after he
snapped a shot from the right dot that beat James Reimer. Anderson-Dolan's shot
may have been screened by a Sharks defender, as Reimer was late to react to the
wrister.
Kevin Labanc knotted the game at 1-1 4 minutes later, taking
a Timo Meier feed in the slot before patiently selecting his target and firing
the puck in the upper right corner for his 4th goal of the season.
A
Radim Simek tripping penalty at 16:08 gave the Kings their 2nd power play of
the night and they would get one past the league's top ranked penalty kill when
Phillip Danault ripped a one-time chance from the inside of the left circle.
The shot zipped past Reimer's glove hand for Danault's 7th of the season.
Viktor Arvidsson pushed the Kings lead to 3-1 on what can best be
described as a shot that Reimer should have stopped. The Kings winger carried
the puck up the right side before uncorking a shot from 45 feet out. Reimer
appeared to collect it into his midsection, but it slipped past him for
Arvidisson's 4th tally of the season.
San Jose bucked the trend of giving up goals late in
a period when Alexander Barabanov scored his 4th of the season with 46.3
seconds left in the middle frame. The Sharks were the benefactors of terrible
turnover by Sean Durzi, who tried passing the puck out of his own right corner.
The puck rolled off his stick and right to the front of the net where Barabanov
tapped it between goaltender Jonathan Quick's pads.
Reimer's tough
night continued early into the 3rd period when he let a Rasmus Kupari shot
squeeze through his pads 2:51 in. Once again, it was a shot that Reimer should
have made, but for whatever reason, it slipped through his pads and the Kings
had a 2-goal lead.
Kevin Fiala provided the Sharks with one last
chance to make a game of it when he took a tripping penalty at 14:22, but San
Jose's power play struggled to gain the zone and burned most of the
man-advantage spinning their wheels in the neutral zone.
Sharks head
coach David Quinn pulled Reimer for an extra attacker late, but that simply
served as a stat padding opportunity for Los Angeles. Anze Kopitar was the
winner of the free-goal sweepstakes, when he scored on the empty net with 2:28
left in the contest.
Quinn reinserted Reimer simply to keep the final
score from ballooning.
Game Notes: * The Sharks
debuted their retro California Golden Seals sweaters.
* San Jose is
now 2-for-2 in challenges this season. They also won their initial challenge on
October 23rd in Philadelphia.
* Radim Simek made his return to the
lineaup after missing the last 5 games after suffering a hit to the head in
Minnesota. Evgeny Svechnikov also made his return to the lineup after missing
the last 2 games. Nick Cicek and Jonah Gadjovich were scratched.
*
Kevin Labanc and Timo Meier each had 5 shots in the game. Meier leads the NHL
with 114 shots on goal this season.
* James Reimer has now lost 12
straight on home ice. That streak extends back to last season, but still not
something the Sharks were expecting.