Sharks open road trip with win over Blues

The San Jose Sharks opened their three game road trip with a 3-1 win over the Blues. The Sharks had one lineup change as Ryan Vesce was returned to Worchester and Logan Couture was called up. Vesce needs more playing time than centering the 4th line in the NHL is going to give him to get his game back. Jody Shelley missed his third game in a row with general body soreness. (Welcome to the new NHL where they don't have to tell you about the injuries.) Also significant before this game was that the Blues owner had publicly challenged the team to play better.

The first penalty call of the game went against the Sharks as Ryane Clowe was whistled for boarding. Sharks color commentator Drew Remenda doesn't like that style of a call for boarding. His contention is that the player is committed to the hit, and then the opposing player turns to expose his back. While he has a point, I think also that the hitting style has changed over the years. It used to be the hit would be lower, driving more of the middle of the player into the boards. It would almost hold the guy up. Now, they are making contact higher, and knocking the opponent over. So, when he's 3-5 feet from the boards, he almost goes in face and/or head first.

A little later in the game, we see Devin Setoguchi hit one the Blues very hard that the Blues took exception to. In my view, the guy got caught in no man's land. He was about 4 feet or so out from the boards, and Seto hit him with a shoulder, knocking him down. If he's farther out, it's not into the boards. If he's closer or against the boards, he doesn't go down, and it's not as dramatic. I think he just got caught a little unawares, and that's on him for not paying enough attention. (At least, in my opinion.)

The first goal came from the Blues. Derek Joslin had the puck in the right corner and tried clearing it up the middle. What's the old saying? Never, ever pass the puck up the middle. It gets cut off, and goes to Jay McClement charging the net. He puts the puck in, and runs over Evgeni Nabokov. The Sharks take a little umbrage to this and a scrum develops. BJ Crombeen gets called for a roughing penalty. For the Blues, it was good news/bad news. Good news is that they're up 1-0, bad news is that they go straight to the penalty kill.

St. Louis was able to consistently put pressure on the Sharks, outshooting them each period.

St. Louis was dealt a blow early in the second period when David Backes went off injured. On the play, it looked like Dan Boyle knocked Backes down, then a fellow Blue accidentally kneed Backes while skating by. Backes looked a little off while trying to get off the ice. It wasn't like he couldn't move something, more like he was stunned.

With Keith Tkachuk off for hooking, the Sharks were able to get on the board. Dany Heatley carried the puck in on the left side, and sent one around the boards. Boyle picked it up at the right point and found Heatley with a cross ice pass down in front. Heatley was able to take the pass near his back foot, bring it out into a shooting position and put the puck in the top corner. It was Heatley's 7th power play goal on the year, good enough to lead the league. I'm sure Heatley's just keeping that chair warm for Ovechkin, but I'd love to be wrong on that.

The Sharks then put out their third line of Scott Nichol, Jed Ortmeyer and Manny Malhotra. The Blues decide to return the favor by attempting a pass up the middle. Malhotra intercepts and launches one of his heavy shots. Blues netminder Chris Mason stopped it, but a rebound popped up in front. Jed Ortmeyer was Johnny on the Spot and batted it before it came down into the net just 16 second after Heatley had scored. Sharks now lead 2-1 and the Blues are wondering what happened.

Down the stretch in the third period, the Sharks seemed to go into a shell, trying to hang on. They would play for extended periods in their own zone, but had pretty good coverage in front of the net, The earlier in the year problems boxing players out weren't there. The Blues may have hung themselves this game with a really bad change after the Sharks cleared the puck into the neutral zone. They were called for too many men with under two minutes remaining. This left them with an even number of skaters once they pulled Mason. Boyle was able to find Joe Thornton just outside the zone. Thornton was able to skate up to the red line and then shoot it into the empty net (with authority!) to pick up the clinching goal.

Third star of the game was given to Dan Boyle. He had a great game, directing the play, picking up two assists (hurting me in my fantasy hockey pool!), and could easily have been second star. Second star went to Andy McDonald. He didn't have much in the way of stats to back this up (no points, even, 29 shifts, led forwards in ice time, 6 shots to lead all players, 4 and 7 on faceoffs). I don't really remember much from him during the game. I think there were probably better choices here, like David Perron, or Dany Heatley. First star had to be pretty obvious for Evgeni Nabokov. He made 38 saves on 39 shots, had to deal with a lot of traffic in front of him, was great on the penalty kill as the Sharks held the Blues to 0 for 6 on the power play.

The Sharks next game on the road trip is in Chicago, Sunday night.