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Blackhawks throttle Sharks 7-2
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The Sharks hosted the Chicago Blackhawks in one of the most-anticipated matchups of the NHL season to date. Chicago came in riding a 7-game winning streak, and was anxious to see their highest-paid-ever player, Marian Hossa, finally make his debut after 4 months of surgical rehab on his shoulder. The game only lived up to half its hype, however, as the Blackhawks thoroughly throttled San Jose, handing the Sharks their first regulation loss at home, 7-2.
After a largely lackluster first period, the Sharks finally went on the power play when Brent Seabrook was called for holding, after getting Joe Thornton in a headlock behind the Chicago goal, at 16:51 of the period.
Less than a minute into the power play, the Sharks sent the puck around the boards, but misplayed it near the blue line and Blackhawks defenseman Duncan Keith popped it forward to Troy Brouwer in the neutral zone. Brouwer was alone, came into the zone on the glove side of Nabokov, and released a slap shot from 55 feet out that nicked the post and rattled home at 17:45, giving Chicago a short-handed goal and the lead.
The Hawks out-shot the Sharks 8-5 in the first period, and were by far the more aggressive team, playing much of the period in the Sharks' end of the ice.
Brouwer went off the ice at 4:09 of the second period for boarding Fraser McLaren, and again the Sharks special teams had a horrible breakdown, with Patrick Kane taking a the puck off Kent Huskins' sticd and finding a streaking Marian Hossa behind all of San Jose's players. Hossa netted Chicago's second short-handed goal of the evening at 4:57 for a 2-0 lead.
The lead was almost immediately expanded when Patrick Sharp took a pass from Niklas Hjalmarsson after a rebound and took off down the ice. Defenseman Jason Demers lost his edge and fell at center ice, and Sharp barreled in on Nabokov, beating him top shelf from the glove side at 5:25 of the period, giving the Blackhawks three short-handed goals in less than eight minutes. The three shorties set a dubious franchise record for a game, and tied the franchise record for short-handed scores allowed in a single period with two. It was the fourth time in Blackhawks' history the team had registered three short-handed goals in a single game.
"When you're not prepared to play and not alert and not sharp, those things can happen," said Sharks coach Todd McLellan. "Especially when you are playing against perhaps the top team in the National Hockey League. You give up three shorties in one night, you're not winning. As a collective group, coaches, players, everybody involved were very disappointed."
"I don't know if frustrating is the word," said a subdued Dan Boyle, "it's embarrassing. I mean, three, one, two, three – that's embarrassing. All night, we should be embarrassed by the way we came out and the way we played. That was ugly."
At 10:38, the Hawks piled on another, this time five-on-five, when Dustin Byfuglien netted his 8th of the year on a scramble in the crease.
San Jose went on a late power play and registered three quick shots at the end of the period. Prior to the power play, Chicago had out-shot San Jose 28-8 over 39 minutes.
Cristobal Huet had his best performance ever against the Sharks. He was 1-3-1-1 with a 4.10 GAA entering play, while Evgeni Nabokov was 13-5-2-1 against Chicago prior to Wednesday's game, with a 2.28 GAA. Nabokov was excused from further duties at the start of the third period, when Thomas Greiss took over trailing 4-0.
Greiss didn't fare much better, as Brent Seabrook scored on a slap shot from the blue line, sneaking it between Greiss and the left post at 5:19. Exactly one minute later, Hossa tallied his first multiple goal game of the year, meaning Greiss had allowed a pair of goals in the first six shots he faced. The Blackhawks continued to pout on the offense, more than doubling San Jose's shot attempts, holding a 36-16 edge with 13:00 left in the game.
No doubt the game was hard to watch for fans, but also, for players. "I think you want to learn from it," said assistant captain Boyle. " You're not going to win every night, I think everybody knows that, but you want to compete, you want to be in there. Seven – that's just breakdowns by everybody, it's not just one guy. It's bad hockey, man, you can't do that."
The capacity crowd can certainly be forgiven for not hanging in to the bitter end on the night before Thanksgiving. By the time the score stood at 6-0, at least a third of the 17,562 had already left. They missed Chicago's seventh goal, at 11:38, when John Madden walked right down the slot and flipped the puck between an upright Greiss' pads,
The Sharks' frustration was finally sated somewhat when, at 16:17 of the third period, 51 seconds into a 5-on-3 situation, Dan Boyle ripped a shot from the left circle that banged loudly off the post . . . on its way back out of the net, thereby avoiding the shutout, at least.
That broke Huet's concentration a little, apparently, because San Jose scored again at 17:50, even strength, when Joe Pavelski scored his third of the year, making the final a bit more respectable.
Nabokov (14-4-4) stopped 25 of 29 shots, while Greiss stopped 9 of 12. Huet (12-4-1) stopped 22 of 24, facing more than half of them in the final period.
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