Back on the Roller Coaster

Sharks 1, Kings 2

San Jose has been given a very odd schedule by the NHL; consequently, Sharks fans were stuck waiting a week between games. This gave seven days to stew about the loss to Anaheim, seven days to look forward to an opportunity to exact revenge on a division foe. Unfortunately, like Spider Man 3, the loss to the Los Angeles Kings was a huge let down, and it officially puts Team Teal back on their roller coaster of a season (see San Jose Sharks Win-Loss Chart).

Things did not start well on Saturday night for both myself and the Sharks. For me, I missed the first ten minutes of the game on Fox Sports Net Bay Area because of a college football game overlapping with the telecast. As if seven days weren't long enough, my patience was tested with having to miss part of the game. As for the Sharks' bad start, that came in the form of a first period goal scored by Dustin Brown. This gave the Kings the lead; unfortunately, they would build on it.

Late in the period, Los Angeles struck again, but this time on the powerplay. This goal was Anze Kopitar's 9th of the season, but more importantly, it was a punch in San Jose's gut. Instead of heading into the second period down a goal, the Sharks ended up looking at a two goal deficit.

The only major highlight of the second period was a penalty shot that was awarded to the Kings' Ladislav Nagy. On the penalty shot, the Los Angeles winger skated in on Evgeni Nabokov. Nabby kept calm in net and made a relatively easy save to keep the score at 2-0.

In the third period, the Sharks finally got on the board. At 12:41, Milan Michalek produced in his first game back, and scored his 7th goal of the season, giving an assist to Joe Pavelski. On a clean faceoff win, Michalek swatted at the loose puck and put it in the back of the net. Unfortunately, that would be the only Sharks goal of the game. In the remaining seven minutes, the Kings kept their lead intact dropping the Sharks record to 11-8-0-3.

The week off seemed to put some rust on the Sharks, but that shouldn't be an excuse. These guys are professionals and should be prepared to play. As the first period showed, they weren't ready. This two game slip comes after a four game winning streak, and as I mentioned earlier, puts the Sharks back on their roller coaster.

A San Jose Sharks Blog