JGD 2: Live Every Week Like It’s Shark Week

The most unfortunate part about the overreaction of San Jose General Manager Doug Wilson to last year’s playoff loss is that we still have to hear about their failure to close out a series against one of the best teams in the league. No brownie points for taking them to seven, or developing a blueprint for how to use speed to beat the Kings (something Maurice and staff might want to watch for during Sunday’s contest).

Instead, the narrative is set as an emotional one – the team with the chip on their shoulder hosts the plucky Jets with something to prove. Alternatively, we might note that these teams are built in very similar ways, and get excited for what should be an entertaining show of outrageous athleticism between two big, fast teams.

Lines provided by Daily Faceoff.

Halischuk draws in with Kane nursing a knee injury from game one. Importantly, a year ago Halischuk was a top-9 RW for the club and struggled visibly with half-court defence. I don’t know the player well enough to say whether he’s more capable on the left side, but certainly we should get to see more of his in-zone defence while playing with the possession-misfits. 

One game ago, I suggested the Jets had iced their best top-6 in their four year history. Injuries happen, but for this club, it has immediately exposed their lack of scoring depth. Byfuglien can find the back of the net just fine, but the bottom-six is hardly a group of twine-bulgers without him.

Clitsome also comes out of the lineup for Paul Postma. Does anyone else feel like that job will be Ellerby’s by December?

Maurice was impressed by Postma’s offence and particularly his shot during the pre-season. He’s a limited player in a few ways – large gaps in defensive transition, not a strong lateral skater makes his offensive blue line work a bit static. He does have size over Clitsome, and we can imagine it would be a tough matchup against the 7th tallest and 9th heaviest team in the league for the smaller defender.

As I said, it’s a similar build. The Sharks do have some lingering injuries – most notably to Raffi Torres and Tyler Kennedy who add considerable offence to their third line – but for the most part the gap between top-6 and bottom-6 is massive for this club. That’s a change from years past, but the advantage might be that they use traditional checkers to lighten the competition on their stars while playing at home. 

Unlike the Jets, the Sharks don’t have many players who have both size and speed on the wings, but it’s still a club that motors through the neutral zone. Where the Jets like to attack from the wings – think Kane’s toe-drag, Wheeler’s power move, or Byfuglien skating around the net – we’ll see the Sharks use the top of the zone a little more to get moving east-west upon entry, and of course Thornton will take up residence on the end boards and make life impossible for Jets defenders.

Also, Adam Burish and Mike Brown will flip a coin for who gets to fight Chris Thorburn in the Battle for Relevancy. 

It seems the Sharks are sticking with a platoon as Stalock is set to start even after Niemi posted a shutout against the Kings in game one. 

This defence group looks weird to me without Dan Boyle, and I’m interested to see how Burns, Braun, and Demers manage the powerplay (Pavelski is apparently the other point man on the top unit). It’s been a generation in NHL roster years that Boyle has been at the top of their umbrella and his mobility was part of the unit’s success. They haven’t replaced that in this group, however successful they might be in a new schema. 

Rookie Mirco Mueller made the club out of camp, which is astonishing for a defence-first defender in his draft +2 season. He scored only a little in Junior – 58 points in 123 games for Everett – but is known as a mistake-free player with reasonable skating and a good first pass. Worth watching him closely with the newly-returned-to-the-back-end Brent Burns as his partner. 

Game Day Prediction: The Sharks aren’t the club they were this time last year. A rookie at third line centre, another in the top-4 on defence, no Dan Boyle, and some missing depth players. They still have a remarkable top group, though, and have two advantages over the Jets – that top six isn’t injured yet, and they don’t have Pavelec in net. This ones goes 4-3 for the Sharks in regulation after the Jets jump out to an early 2-0 lead and slowly lose control of the game. 

Obvious Prediction: Patrick Marleau makes Pavelec look a bit silly with two wristers that find holes not shown on any shooter-tutor.

Not So Obvious Prediction: When asked about the loss, Dustin Byfuglien says, “it was a lot easier to beat this team when Burnsy played forward.”