San Jose Sharks falling away from surging Anaheim Ducks

So much time is spent looking at power play and penalty kill. Many analysts give it equal priority to goals for and against that we often hear NHL teams broken down as if they are NFL—offense, defense and special teams.In the NHL, about 70 percent of the game is played at even strength. That is not what the San Jose Sharks want. They are 24th in a ratio of goals for and against at full strength, and have scored but one goal to four given up in other even strength situations. The Anaheim Ducks are second in full strength scoring ratio.Using their puck possession and the feisty nature of the Pacific Division rivalry (which includes a Stanley Cup playoff upset loss in 2009) to draw penalties might do well for the Sharks. Their power play has awoken and the Ducks do not have a good penalty kill.Generally the focus here is on hits. While each NHL team tracks hits for both teams in their home games, the standards vary from team to team. For what it is worth, the Anaheim Ducks out-hitting the San Jose Sharks 617-555 (2.3 more per game) fairly represents the difference in their body checking.But there is perhaps no defensive play more purely based on the use of one's physique than blocking a shot. Both teams are good at this all-important component of defense, but the Ducks average almost one more per game. This is helped somewhat by the lower puck possession totals compared to the Sharks, but they remain the superior shot-blocking team since they block more while allowing fewer to get on net.The only statistic generally heard from this category is a team's percentage in the circle. But adding differentials on not only draws but giveaways and takeaways gives a clearer indication of how well a team holds the puck—the first key to dictating the flow of the game.The San Jose Sharks are one of the best teams in the NHL in the circle, while Anaheim is one of the worst. Naturally getting possession of the puck more often will lead to more giveaways, but the difference (264-193) is still noteworthy. However, the road team also has 27 more takeaways for a whopping edge of 175 possessions—almost seven more per game.View the list »
The San Jose Sharks have struggled away from home in 2013

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After losing badly Saturday, March 16 to the Los Angeles Kings, the San Jose Sharks got on a bus ahead of their game against the Pacific Division rival Anaheim Ducks Monday. They had better find their game fast.

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When these teams last met, the Sharks sat atop the NHL standings without a regulation loss. Their loss that night was part of a seven game losing streak and was the beginning of a 5-9-5 stretch to date.

All San Jose's deficiencies are strengths of Anaheim. The home team has much deeper scoring, including getting it from their blue line, and has been on a roll all season. They have only three regulation losses all season, with the last one 11 games back.

The backbone of the Sharks has been defense, and it has kept them in the 90 percent of their games since late January in which they fail to score more than two goals. But for five games in a row, they have allowed at least three goals.

San Jose will almost certainly be without Martin Havlat and Thomas Greiss. Anaheim is without Corey Perry, Nick Bonino and maybe Brad Staubitz.

The Sharks are no longer concerned about catching the Ducks in the Pacific Division standings. If they failed to get just seven points in their final 21 games (a point percentage of .833), they still could not capture the division crown unless their rivals played under .500—virtually impossible to do with all the three-point games in the Western Conference.

San Jose must focus on making the Stanley Cup playoffs. There is not much more time for this declining team to prove that having three non-shootout wins in eight weeks is an anomaly like their comparatively short eight-game point streak to start the 2013 NHL season seems to have been.

Sharks general manager Doug Wilson has about two weeks to before the NHL trade deadline April 3 to figure out whether his team is a contender in the Western Conference. Failure to get a point here will drop them out of a Stanley Cup playoff position and put that status in serious question.

Anyone can look at the record and see the Ducks are better. Comparing NHL statistics like goals and shots scored and yielded or percentages on the power play or penalty kill gives an indication of why, as the Sharks lag behind in all but shots for and penalty kill. But there is a list of areas of the game often overlooked revealing at least one advantage they can try to exploit.

View the list
  • The only statistic generally heard from this category is a team's percentage in the circle. But adding differentials on not only draws but giveaways and takeaways gives a clearer indication of how well a team holds the puck—the first key to dictating the flow of the game.The San Jose Sharks are one of the best teams in the NHL in the circle, while Anaheim is one of the worst. Naturally getting possession of the puck more often will lead to more giveaways, but the difference (264-193) is still noteworthy. However, the road team also has 27 more takeaways for a whopping edge of 175 possessions—almost seven more per game.
  • Generally the focus here is on hits. While each NHL team tracks hits for both teams in their home games, the standards vary from team to team. For what it is worth, the Anaheim Ducks out-hitting the San Jose Sharks 617-555 (2.3 more per game) fairly represents the difference in their body checking.But there is perhaps no defensive play more purely based on the use of one's physique than blocking a shot. Both teams are good at this all-important component of defense, but the Ducks average almost one more per game. This is helped somewhat by the lower puck possession totals compared to the Sharks, but they remain the superior shot-blocking team since they block more while allowing fewer to get on net.
  • So much time is spent looking at power play and penalty kill. Many analysts give it equal priority to goals for and against that we often hear NHL teams broken down as if they are NFL—offense, defense and special teams.In the NHL, about 70 percent of the game is played at even strength. That is not what the San Jose Sharks want. They are 24th in a ratio of goals for and against at full strength, and have scored but one goal to four given up in other even strength situations. The Anaheim Ducks are second in full strength scoring ratio.Using their puck possession and the feisty nature of the Pacific Division rivalry (which includes a Stanley Cup playoff upset loss in 2009) to draw penalties might do well for the Sharks. Their power play has awoken and the Ducks do not have a good penalty kill.
View the list

, San Jose Sharks Examiner

Former community leader and featured columnist for the San Jose Sharks on Bleacher Report, MJ Kasprzak has been covering the Bay Area's most successful team for over four years. You may have seen MJ's work featured on Yahoo, CBS Sports and Fox Sports websites as well as numerous other places that...

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