The San Jose Sharks just aren”t putting the puck in the net.
It seems simple enough, but this most basic strategy for winning hockey games has stumped the defending Pacific Division champs early in the 2011-12 season.
The Sharks have averaged 17 more shots than their opponents during the first four games but have managed only one win, a season-opening 6-3 victory against the Phoenix Coyotes.
The problem appears to be either the Sharks can”t get their shots on line or the team has had a tough, three-game run against hot goaltenders (or some combo of the two).
Of course, there”s plenty of time to find a solution – though 1-3-0 probably wasn”t the record the Sharks wanted going into a key six-game Eastern Time zone road trip, which begins tomorrow in New Jersey.
Don”t forget, spotty goal production plagued the Sharks in last year”s playoffs and led to many of the offseason moves.
And it was a busy offseason for San Jose officials.
They shipped Dany Heatley to the Minnesota Wild after his disappointing postseason, clearing salary cap space in the process. In exchange, the Sharks received playoff veteran Martin Havlat.
In the biggest trade, the Sharks sent Devin Setoguchi (10 playoff points), Charlie Coyle (2010 first-round pick) and their 2011 first-round draft pick to Minnesota for All-Star defenseman Brent Burns and a draft pick.
The 26-year-old has performed well as a Shark, putting away two goals while providing a strong defensive presence during four games.
Free agency also helped the Sharks.
The team did lose some of last year”s bench players (Niclas Wallin, Kyle Wellwood and Ian White, to name a few) but made up for it by adding centers Michal Handzus and Andrew Murray, defenseman Colin White and wing Brad Winchester.
Along with the acquisitions, San Jose brought back eight of its top 10 scorers from last season.
All that being said, the Sharks had a strong offseason. It just hasn”t translated to the regular season thus far.
Maybe the returning players haven”t had enough time to familiarize themselves with the new guys. Maybe missing Antti Niemi (cyst surgery) in net for the first three games threw the team out of whack. Maybe giving up a power-play goal more than 25 percent of the time has cost them games.
Or maybe it”s the pressure; the pressure of realizing the team must succeed this year, otherwise head coach Todd McLellan and some of the core players could be gone.
The Sharks are seeking their fifth consecutive Pacific Division title, but could only muster two Western Conference Finals trips (with one combined win in those series) in the previous four years.
In fact, San Jose has made the playoffs 12 of the past 13 seasons but doesn”t have a Stanley Cup Finals appearance to show for its regular-season consistency.
Now, the Sharks have the unfortunate reputation of floundering when it counts. And the San Jose players know it (including guys like Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau and Logan Couture, who”ve struggled early on this year).
It”s time they come through in the playoffs, but they have to get there first. The easiest way to do that is win games. And the easiest way to do that is score goals.
The Sharks need to change the tides of this early-season slump and start getting their pucks caught in opponents” nets.
Jeremy Walsh is a staff reporter for Lake County Publishing. He can be reached at 263-5636 ext. 37 or jwalsh@record-bee.com.
