Despite squeaking out a 5-4 shootout victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Friday, the San Jose Sharks experienced many of the same problems that enabled the Chicago Blackhawks to embarrass them on their home ice just two days prior.
Poor defensive coverage and lack of hustle allowed the injury-plagued and bottom-feeding Oilers to take two different leads in the contest.
After the Sharks opened the scoring in the first period on Patrick Marleau's goal, San Jose once again got complacent.
While seemingly running through the motions, the Sharks saw their 1-0 lead evaporate in the middle of the second period when Dan Boyle's dump in attempt was blocked at the blue line.
Oilers center Ryan Potulny was then off to the races but it seemed as if Sharks center Joe Thornton could have caught up on the back check. However, Thornton stabbed at the puck and missed, then simply seemed to give up on the play. Potulny then beat Nabokov through five hole on a nice deke to the backhand.
Although there would be no more scoring for the rest of the period, the lack of hustle from San Jose on Edmonton's tying goal set the tone for a poor start to the third per ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NHL
Article written by Andy Bensch
San Jose Sharks: Defense in Need of an Upgrade
November 28th, 2009 by Andy Bensch Leave a reply »
Advertisement