Well that was a game. Maybe not the prettiest win in the world, but a win is a win, and a nice way to start off a west coast road trip. The Jackets looked like they were going to get blown out, getting dominated by the Sharks in the first period, and looking like the weaker squad through the first half of the second. Strangely, once the Jackets took the lead, they also took control of the game for a while. Another slow start at the beginning of the third period setup a pretty wild final frame. Joe Pavelski tied it up, then Cody Goloubef committed one of the worst turnovers I’ve ever seen (how do you not take a look there) to Logan Couture who buried the go ahead goal. The Sharks seemed to take control of the game for the next few minutes until the Jackets managed to get some sustained pressure, drew a penalty, and then tied it up on the powerplay. Then the final minute and a half happened. Ryan Johansen scored a hat trick, let’s get that straight. The refs straight up blew that call. Nick Foligno was pushed into the crease, barely made contact with Niemi, then was out of the way of the goaltender when the shot was taken. Had he not been pushed in, or had he been making contact with Niemi still when the shot was fired, I’d have no issue with that call. But it was Joe Thornton interfering with Niemi, not Foligno. Fortunately, Mark Letestu let the refs off the hook a minute later with the game winner.
3rd Star: Mark Letestu
Two goals, including the game winner, 54% on faceoffs, a game high +10 corsi, and some damn fine penalty killing. That’s more than enough for the third star. Let’s backtrack to his first goal though. Holy what a pass by Artem Anisimov. Just a beautiful saucer pass right where it needed to be. Letestu had a nice finish on that one as well.
2nd Star: Joe Pavelski
Two goals for Pavelski, a game high six shots on net, 64% on faceoffs, team high +8 corsi, and 21:39 time on ice is a pretty solid stat line. Pavelski was arguably the Sharks best all around forward tonight, logging major minutes on the powerplay (5:36) and penalty kill (3:24), while generally getting paired up against the Johansen line. A pretty solid all around night from a player who I think is a little underrated (at least in terms of his two-way game). He’s one of those guys that isn’t necessarily flashy, but always does the right thing, and scares me every time he touches the puck in the offensive zone.
1st Star: Ryan Johansen
A first star doesn’t make up for missing out on his first career hat trick, but it will have to do. He wasn’t super dominant tonight, but he was successful when he needed to be. Getting matched up against Thornton (a surprisingly tough player to play against) and Pavelski can lead to a rough night though. Johansen led the Jackets forwards in time on ice as well, and playing the Sharks big guns to a draw is no easy feat. My favorite Rimer-ism of the night also concerned Johansen. Shortly after scoring his second goal, Rimer stated something to the effect of “how good would Johansen’s start to the season be if he didn’t miss training camp”. At this point in time, Ryan Johansen had 5 goals and 4 assists, for 9 points in 6 games. That is a 68 goal pace. That is a 55 assist pace. That is a 123 point pace. He’s pretty clearly not off to a slow start. He’s off to a start to basically double his career best in every category. He’s not going to keep up a near 70 goal pace, but I wouldn’t put 40 out of question this year. I think he spent his training camp time shooting about a million pucks against a garage door (or a basement wall, or into a dryer, whatever), as his release has gotten just a touch deadlier this year. That in itself is probably worth a handful of goals.
Dud: Jared Boll’s 1st Period Fight
That was some shameful stuff. There is really no excuse for what Boll did there. Desjardins really did not want to fight, and Boll had dropped the gloves and was throwing fists before Desjardins even really knew he was in a fight. Then Boll threw multiple punches, squarely landing one on the kisser, while Desjardins was down. I thought maybe at first glance that Boll was sticked by the one Sharks player behind him, turned around and found Desjardins (not the player who had originally been behind Boll) and decided to get some quick revenge. But the overhead replay made it pretty clear this wasn’t the case. Now I am not against all forms of fighting, but this kind of pointless fight is the kind that needs to go. The stick up for your teammate fights can be fantastic when warranted. But jumping someone who doesn’t want to fight, then continuing to punch him when he is down, well there is no place for that anywhere.
Stud: The Powerplay
I really like what they were doing during this game. Which is a little bit of everything. They presented a lot of different looks and were quite unpredictable (minus the stretch where Erixon and Savard passed it back and forth at the point about seventeen straight times). They attacked the box with regularity, had players moving all over the ice, and just generally caused chaos. They were constantly making the Sharks penalty killers look around and try and figure out who was where. A lot of movement is good, as it forces the defenders to move (which opens up space) and make decisions (which can really open up space). Too often in the past they would get obsessed with getting a shot for Wisniewski. That is great and all, but you can plan for that after so long. Scott Hartnell is a big part of this as well. He’s basically filled into Umberger’s spot on the powerplay, but Hartnell is a much more diverse player. Umberger was pretty much only capable of squatting down in front of the goalie. Hartnell does that too, but he can also slide up to the high slot as a one-timer option, and is craftier in the corners than RJ. This allows him to move to wherever spot best suits that particular moment, which opens up more options for everyone else. The Wiz-bomb is still there as an option (and a hell of an option), but it’s not the focal point anymore.
There it is. Jackets win. Jackets win. The left coast trip is in progress now, and off to a 1-0 start. If they can ramp up their 60 minute play, they might just come back from this one ahead in the win column. San Jose is a good team, and the Shark Tank is a tough place to come out with two points, and fortunately the Jackets were able to pull one out tonight. Now it’s crazy late, so I’m going to sleep. So you all tomorrow night, as the Jackets take on the Ducks in Anaheim.
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