Sharks Need To Match Eager

Ben Eager's antics were part of the reason the Sharks lost last night. But his ferocity needs to matched by his teammates.

Ben Eager was a maniac last night. He ran Daniel Sedin head first into the boards, he took more bad penalties than I can count on one hand, his yelled at the Vancouver Canucks bench, scored a goal and cursed out Roberto Luongo (by the way the Sharks were down 7-2 at that point) and start a brawl at the end of the game.

Overall Eager tallied 5 minor penalties, a game misconduct, did more harm than good for his team and for the most part looked like an idiot doing it…

And the rest of the San Jose Sharks need to get mean and angry like Eager if they want to come close to winning this series.

True, I didn’t like Eager’s antics one bit, however at least he showed some sort of caring on the ice last night while the rest of his teammates let the Canucks tap dance on their heads without any recourse. After a dead even first period Vancouver mauled San Jose over the last two periods.

The Canucks out shot them 25-18 outscored them 5-0 and forced six penalties that led to two power play goals and kept the Sharks on their heels for the rest of the night. What was worse was how the Sharks defense played. They were routinely out of position and the let Canuck forwards do whatever they wanted.

On Daniel Sedin’s goal that made it 5-2, he, brother Henrik and Alex Edler basically skated untouched in a 3-man weave behind the net while the Sharks defenders stood there and watched until Daniel Sedin knocked home a rebound from Henrik. The last two goals were virtual untested one-timers where Aaron Rome and Mason Raymond got open and had clear shots while San Jose’s defense was either shielding Antti Niemi or four feet away from the puck. It was embarrassing.

Antti Niemi would love some help right now.

In essence the Sharks are playing right into Vancouver’s hands with their style of play. The Canucks are a finesse team that relies on their forwards to handle the bulk of the work and always push the puck. The Sharks are the way except I think that it’s safe to say that Patrick Marleau, Joe Thornton and Logan Couture are not the Sedin twins and Ryan Kesler.

What the Sharks have to do is get physical. They have to disrupt the Canucks offensive flow and knock around their top two lines. Ryan Clowe and Eager have to bruise these guys up if the Sharks want to advance to the Cup finals. As good as their offense is they cannot keep up with the Canucks and have to slow them down. That also means Dan Boyle, Ian White and company have to play better in front of Antti Niemi and keep pucks from going by them.

If not then the Sharks will be going home in four again just like last year.

(Not that it would surprise me at all. I told you that I never have and never will trust the Sharks in the playoffs until they actual win in a convincing and emphatic manner in the way that this team is built. It makes no sense that a team with this much offense, a good defense and good goaltending gets killed in the playoffs year after year.

Is it Todd McClellan? Do they need different pieces? Maybe they need to get tougher, add more physical pieces, more mentally tough players… something, anything, because I think I speak for most of the hockey fans in Northern California that this is starting to get old and something has to change and change quickly.)

Even though I think Ben Eager’s antics last night went beyond the antics of the average NHL goon, I think that the San Jose Sharks need to channel some of that anger and get tough to find a way back into this series. The Sharks are facing another disappointing ending to their season and with the way things are going it will end very soon.

Maybe that’s why Eager was so volatile, he sees it coming and wants to stop it at all costs.

The Kings Fortunes Come Crashing Down

The Sharks comeback left them jubilated and the Kings stunned.

The Staples Center was rocking, the Los Angeles Kings were on fire, and the San Jose Sharks had no answers. Antti Niemi was pulled, the score was 4-0, and it looked like the Sharks had gone back to their playoff underachieving ways.

In reality they had the Kings right where they wanted them.

The Sharks survived an early barrage of goals by the Kings to score five in the second period and tie the game at five heading into the third period and eventually overtime.

In overtime Devin Setoguchi put the Kings out of their misery with a game-winner that shocked the Kings and left the Staples Center crowd stunned in disbelief.

How did a game that was so one-sided end up turning the other way? Even the Kings don’t know.

The Brad Richardson, Wayne Simmonds and Kyle Clifford line was dominating San Jose scoring two goals and creating a bevy of opportunities for the Kings. Their physicality and energy wore down the Sharks and kept Niemi on his toes to the point that on Richardson’s tally he misplayed the puck that led to the goal.

Once he left the game the fortunes seemed to turn in favor of the Sharks and turn in furious fashion.

All three lines and every big name for the Sharks got involved in the action and turned their level of play up a notch. Patrick Marleau started the fury then came rookie sensation Logan Couture, Ryan Clowe, Joe Pavelski then finally Setoguchi in OT. All in all the Sharks scored 5 goals on 18 shots and found holes in a young and overmatched Kings defense.

Michal Handzus and the Kings were eaily up 2-1 but are now in that hole.

As bad as Jonathan Quick looked from the second period on a lot of the blame has to go on to the shoulders of Drew Doughty who after playing the best game of his playoff career played the worst one.

He was routinely out of position and caught off guard. On the Setoguchi goal Doughty was way out of position and had couldn’t catch up to Setoguchi to even make an attempt on the puck. His poor play along with the lackluster play of Alec Martinez and the rest of the defensemen had as much to do with the Kings losing the game as Marleau, Couture and the Sharks stepping up to win it.

So who does this affect more, the Kings or Sharks?

The postseason ills of the Sharks have been much chronicled. After a terrible game two and first period of game three you could start to see the wheels coming off again for them. However, after such a furious comeback you have to wonder if the least talked about team in the Western Conference can turn this win into a mini run towards the Stanley Cup finals. It would have to start with Niemi playing better in net for them to have a shot, but when you spot a team 4 goals and comeback with ease then that tells you something about how good this team can be when it brings it’s a game.

As for the Kings their youth and inexperience showed its ugly head again. They’ve shown that they can score without the presence of their best scorer Anze Kopitar, but their focus will be a huge question mark heading into the rest of the series. Can a team this young come back from such a devastating defeat? I don’t think so.

I picked them to win the Cup at the beginning of the year but this team clearly isn’t ready yet. Unless Quick, Doughty and others play more consistently they’ll be exiting stage left in the first for the second consecutive year.

The Sharks are up 2-1 with a huge mental advantage going into game 4, quite a change for a team that has been long known for their playoff shortcomings. They have a chance to put the Kings, who are down in the dumps, on their backs for good. After last night’s 6-5 OT victory it looks like they’ll be able to handle that no matter what the Kings throw at them.