All Good Things...

Sorry about the lack of updates over the past few days...I was in the great city of Milwaukee over the weekend, where I visited friends, participated in my fantasy baseball league's auction draft (verdict: it's a rebuilding year) and attended Friday night's AHL game between the Milwaukee Admirals and the Peoria Rivermen (more on that later). I also missed both Friday's 4-1 San Jose victory over St. Louis, which stretched a franchise-record winning streak to eleven games, and the 2-1 shootout loss to Edmonton last night that ended it.

You knew the streak was going to come to an end at some point, and I suppose it could've ended in worse ways. Sounds like the Sharks just ran into a hot goalie last night...Dwayne Roloson stopped 48 of 49 San Jose shots. And as everyone in the NHL has learned this season, you do not want to go past the third period against the Oilers (counting last night, they are an extraordinary 19-5 in overtime/shootout games).

Bearing in mind that it's easy to become bewitched by shot totals, you still have to like firing almost fifty shots while giving up just twenty-three. Patrick Marleau scored (again) and although it was in vain he buried one during the shootout, too. I actually witnessed the last 5-on-5 goal conceded by the Sharks, and that was a week ago yesterday against Minnesota at the X....an outstanding streak in its own right. Furthermore, remember that last night's game against Edmonton was essentially a tie; Edmonton gets the extra point for winning the little bit of crowd-pleasing stunt hockey that follows a tie these days.

So to the best that I can discern without having watched the last two games, things still seem like they're going pretty well. The Sharks are at LA tomorrow...the Kings may have the league's lowest point total, but they can still bite you if you take them lightly. Indeed, San Jose suffered a bunch of losses to LA towards the beginning of the season, and the Kings are better now than they were then. They need to come out firing and sustain the momentum that's carried them this far.


Go Admirals!

Milwaukee is home to an American Hockey League franchise, the Admirals (not to be confused with Norfolk's American Hockey League franchise, also called the Admirals). A friend of mine from Milwaukee (you can read his blog here, by the way) and I went to Friday night's tilt against the Peoria Rivermen.

The whole evening was a blast. First my buddy and I grabbed a burger at a cool bar right across the street from the Bradley Center (where the team plays). Then we strolled over and took in the game. Our seats were great (about twenty rows up just inside one of the blue lines) and way cheaper than NHL seats (seventeen bucks apiece before TicketMonster fees), and the hockey was excellent. The lower bowl of the arena was about three-quarters full...I had read before my trip that the Admirals average about 5,000 a game, and was on par with what it looked like I was seeing. The team clearly has a devoted fan base...many people showed up in Admirals sweaters, and one young girl a few rows in front of us was in possession of a well-made poster praising Milwaukee goalie Pekka Rinne. There were even a couple sitting near us who were Rivermen fans and had made the trip from Peoria, to provide a little bit of in-stands rivalry.

The Admirals won the game 3-2. The one player that really stood out to my eye was Milwaukee center Cal O'Reilly. It was clear from watching him play that he's a gifted skater, stickhandler, and passer, and his numbers bear that out. He had two assists on the night and was +2. I could see him playing in the big league one day (he's only twenty-one). Although his numbers are similar to Joe Thornton's, he's too small to really be a Thornton-type player, but I think he could reasonably aspire to be a Marc Savard-type player.

All told, it was an extremely fun night. If you are fortunate enough to live in a city that is home to an AHL franchise, I urge you to take the opportunity to check out some awesome hockey for a reasonable price.

Well, Dallas Lost Tonight, Too. So There.

The Sharks played poorly tonight against an undermanned and less-talented Edmonton Oilers team that will likely (although by no means certainly) be on the outside looking in come playoff time, and lost 3-2.

I did not get the sense tonight that the Sharks were deflated in the wake of Tuesday's last-minute loss to Calgary. This wasn't like other poor outings I've had the displeasure of writing about since I started this blog, in which San Jose came out with zero energy. There was at least some energy tonight--J.R., Jody Shelley, Marcel Goc, and Jonathan Cheechoo were among the players in teal who put in good efforts, and Joe Pavelski scored a hard-working goal--but this doesn't change the fact that the Sharks were sloppy and disoriented for most of the night, and there were significant stretches of poor and even lazy play (notably a dreadful effort on a 5-on-3 in the first period). Even Thornton had a relatively crummy game.

No disrespect to the Oilers, whom I generally like (unless they're playing San Jose), but they are a very beatable team this season and they represent the type of team the Sharks will need to pile up wins against down the stretch to win the Pacific. To their credit, the Sharks never gave up tonight, and they made the game close just because, well, they have better players than Edmonton, but if they were to turn in a performance like that against Anaheim or Dallas or even Minnesota they'd lose by three, easy.

Not a good way to end a six-game home stand. Now they set off on an absolutely crucial road trip, starting Sunday at Madison Square Garden. Hey, at least the game will be on at a reasonable hour for those of us who don't live in California...


Blockheads

The revised rules standards of the post-lockout NHL have decreased the defensive utility of small hooks and holds and other bits of interference and substantially increased the importance of shot blocking. But blocked shots are more than just a defensive weapon--they are also often the catalyst for a counterattack. We saw this tonight on Edmonton's third goal--the real back-breaker that put the Sharks in what turned out to be an excessively deep hole.

You could see the nightmare developing as soon as Christian Ehrhoff made the decision to flip the puck towards the net with an Edmonton Oiler obviously in the way. The shot was (inevitably) blocked, the puck was instantly behind Ehrhoff, and the play was headed the other way. Seconds later Fernando Pisani was clear and beat Evgeni Nabokov on the breakaway. Oilers 3, Sharks 1, just like that.

Players in general--and particularly defensemen who spend a lot of time at the points seeking to create offense by driving pucks toward the net--have to be extremely aware of the potential for shots to be blocked. Frequently I see players wind up and attempt to shoot even when there is clearly a defender in position to block the shot. Unsurprisingly, these shots are, in fact, typically blocked, rebounding the opposite way with considerable speed. At a minimum this can allow the defense an easy clearance, and at worst it can wind up behind the shooter's goalie. Now more than ever, generating open shooting lanes is crucial. This requires precise, rapid movement of the puck and movement of players away from the puck. If the shot ain't there, it's best not to try.


Data of Questionable Value

In a previous post I alluded to the danger of putting too much stock in shots on goal as a measure of how a game is going or did go. Good example tonight--San Jose outshot Edmonton 30-18, but the Oilers were the better team all night long.