Opening Night Review of San Jose Sharks

Well, there wasn't a lot to like about a 2-5 loss to one of the worst teams in the Western Conference the past two years in Colorado. Then again, I guess you can't really cheer against the Avs since it was Joe Sakic night. But as great as Colorado played despite their youth, their goals were more of them capitalizing on really horrible San Jose mistakes.

When you look at a score like 5-2, you think, well, the goaltender must have had a horrible night. And as eager as San Jose and the hockey world will be tomorrow to jump all over Nabokov, who took a lot of heat this off-season, I'm not placing the blame on him. Out of the 5 goals, only one of them was completely his fault, as he gave up a huge rebound on a fast break chance, which resulted in an easy goal for Cody McLeod. But the other 4? San Jose not controlling bouncing pucks in front of their net. San Jose not clearing skaters out of the face of Nabokov. San Jose defensemen not turning around fast enough and being walked around by Avalanche forwards. It was a sad sight to see for the Sharks defense. They were over-committing to pucks, not playing good team defense, and looked incredibly slow and out-matched on the ice.

It wasn't a great night offensively. Joe Pavelski, Ryane Clowe, and Patrick Marleau are going to have a great season. Clowe is crashing the net, and Pavelski is making perfect passes to defensemen or Marleau, who seems to love sneaking in as a trailer behind the defense. But Thornton, Heatley, and Setoguchi, who are supposed to make up the deadliest line in the NHL, looked like they had no team chemistry whatsoever. Setoguchi was all over the puck, but Thornton rarely assisted him and Heatley was never in the picture. On the fast break goal previously mentioned, Heatley was on the tail of McLeod, but gave up as soon as McLeod entered the offensive zone. That was disgusting to see on replay; imagine what a difference the game would've been if Heatley kept skating and harrassed the stick of McLeod. We're looking at a 1-2 game 5 minutes into the second instead of 1-3. Although it wasn't a game changer, Heatley missed a wide open net on a beautiful pass across the crease in the dying seconds of a 5 on 3 power play. I'm not about to run Heatley out of town, nor demand a line-up change, but for San Jose fans and fantasy owners investing in the first line, it might take a couple of weeks before they start producing.

I did like the penalty kill, particularly Scott Nichols and Jed Ortmeyer, two ex-Nashville Predators picked up during the free agency to add defensive depth and grit to San Jose's third and fourth line. Nichols had two great hits on Avalanche forwards trying to crash the net, and Ortmeyer played solid defense throughout the game. Manny Malhotra failed to clear 2 pucks near the end of the power play that the Avalanche scored on, but he played hard throughout and hopefully his role will be more offensive once Torrey Mitchell comes back.

That's not to say Nabokov wasn't at fault for the other 4 goals, however. First and foremost, Nabokov did cover the five hole really well. He had two shots get re-directed by him, one through a screen, so I'm not blaming him on that. But it seems like he forgot how to cover the puck. Nabokov in the glory years smothered pucks left and right and always let the Sharks win faceoffs to get out of their zone. Against Colorado, rebounds were flying all over the place, and San Jose defensemen didn't have time to rest as they scrambled to try and retrieve (and fail) pucks out of the corners. If Nabokov is going to try and contend for a Vezina trophy this year, let alone backstop a Stanley Cup contender, he's going to need to cover up more pucks. He specialized in it, so hopefully he can figure it out without too much trouble, unlike last year's 5 hole problem.

I wouldn't be surprised if San Jose starts the first 10 games with a .500 or worse record. This is a team that has clearly been rebuilt from the ground up, and even the top skill guys are playing with new linemates who have yet to experience a fast-paced system that McLellon uses. But this is a strange season, with the early start and the long Olympic break, so hopefully they figure out what to do with each other fast and never slow down.