Martin Jones will need a little bit of TLC after his defense couldn’t bail him out at all during the game last night.
The defense just wasn’t aware, wasn’t where they needed to be, was dropping sticks, missing guys, and that was on both sides of the puck.
Let’s go goal by goal –
Bryan Rust was able to score off a block from Vlasic, and a rebound that Melker Karlsson wasn’t able to dispatch. Having been in position for the first save, Jones was unable to recover in time to stop Rust’s shot. The goal really falls on Karlsson though, because had he been quick to react, the goal is negated and the puck is off to the side of the net.
A minute later (literally), Connor Sheary is able to get a goal past Jones as Justin Braun wipes out after being unable to beat Sidney Crosby to the puck and Vlasic allows a double screen (one of them being himself) on Sheary’s goal. It’s hard to save a shot when you can’t see it and this one falls on Vlasic for not collapsing Hornqvist and moving aside.
The Sharks goals also fall on the opposing defense. On Tomas Hertl’s goal to get the game back to one, Olli Maatta goes down too quickly to try and obstacle Hertl’s path to the net but Hertl sees it coming and fires one past Murray. This goal is more on Murray than either of the Penguins’ first two goals were on Jones.
The other goal from the Sharks having been from Marleau on a simple play where the defense just lost a guy, and Murray suffered for it. It tied the game, allowing for a close game heading into the third. Marleau’s intelligence on the play was phenomenal and he was able to see nobody on him and that he had a wide open net if he could get the puck in quick enough, which he did.
The Penguins’ third goal was because Paul Martin and Joe Pavelski didn’t see Bonino and were distracted elsewhere, and it allowed the Penguins the win.
I was right about close games and the Sharks. The Bonino goal felt like one in OT and the Sharks couldn’t recover. The Penguins took advantage quickly of an off game for the Sharks defense and while the Sharks held it close, that’s not always a great outcome for them.
The x-factors for the series, Martin and Evgeni Malkin, both allowed goals in this game. Martin allowed the winning and Malkin allowed the tying goal from Marleau. We’ll continue to track our x-factors as the series continues, but last night neither of their impacts were positive.
How the Sharks can do better – be more aware on defense. Don’t wait until the second to score a goal. The Sharks defense also allowed 41 shots from a high-powered Penguins team and only answered with 26. A better shot ratio would do the Sharks enormous favors and take some pressure off of Jones. The offense needs a bit more power and the defense needs a bit more awareness.
How the Penguins can do better – the defense also needs a bit more awareness, especially on that Patrick Marleau goal. Had someone been covering him, perhaps they can mess his shot up enough to stop it, and the Penguins have significantly less pressure to score. Their offense looked fine, but if I was a Penguins fan I’d be much happier with a few more rebounds when the defense of the Sharks was struggling.
How our prediction is going – you don’t win in 6 unless you lose 2 games. Game 1 was actually one of the ones I had stenciled in for Sharks losses. Game 2 was not.