LOS ANGELES — Pete DeBoer learned some bad news when he showed up at Staples Center Thursday night: Logan Couture would be joining the Sharks dog pile of absent bodies.
Under the weather with flu-like symptoms, Couture ended up being a late scratch for the Sharks showdown with the Los Angeles Kings, taking a key piece off the chessboard in the midst of a tight race for the top seed in the Western Conference playoffs. With Couture, Joe Pavelski, Erik Karlsson and Radim Simek sidelined by ailments, the Sharks appeared to swap roles with the Kings, looking more like the conference’s cellar dwellers than a team competing for a Pacific Division title.
The Sharks got out-shot 35-25, giving up a pair of third period goals in a span of 2:17 as two crucial points slipped through their fingers.
Here’s what we learned in the Sharks 4-2 loss to the Kings:
1. Pete DeBoer expresses dissatisfaction with Martin Jones.
DeBoer might be joining the concerned-about-Jones club heading toward the playoffs.
Throughout the season, the Sharks coach has defended his goalie’s sub-.900 save percentage, pointing to Jones’ 34 wins, which rank third in the NHL. He rolled out the argument after his team’s morning practice on Thursday, saying, “beyond the numbers and analytics, the most important number is wins.” The idea here is that winning goalies often pitch to the score, so save percentages and goals-against averages can be misleading.
This week, the numbers paint an accurate picture. Jones’ performance hurt the Sharks in a pair of key games and DeBoer is clearly getting frustrated.
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DeBoer pulled Jones after just 12:24 on Monday in a game against the Vegas Golden Knights that was loaded with playoff implications after he coughed up three goals on 11 shots. After Thursday’s loss in Los Angeles, he went out of his way to call Jones out for letting in a softie on the game-tying goal.
With the Sharks leading 2-1 in the middle of the third, Matt Roy scored his first NHL goal, tying the game by beating Jones with a shot through traffic from the right point. Earlier in the game, Dustin Brown got the Kings on the board with a 39-foot shot from the left circle that got inside the near post on Jones’ blocker side, an area that opponents are clearly targeting against the Sharks netminder.
.@mattroy6 with a rocket to beat Martin Jones 😍😍😍#GoKingsGo pic.twitter.com/yZIts9Jgpb
— LA Kings (@LAKings) March 22, 2019
When asked how he saw the third period, DeBoer went straight to Roy’s seeing-eye goal.
“Well, the 2-2 goal. Did it go straight in? I haven’t watched it yet,” DeBoer asked reporters.
When provided the answer, the Sharks coach said: “if it went straight in then it’s not a great goal. We need a save there.”
DeBoer went on criticize his defense for falling asleep on Anze Kopitar’s game winner at 11:45 before he returned to the topic of his goalie later in the scrum.
“We need some guys to find another level this year,” he said. “At this time of year, you need someone to give you a first-star performance either in net or up front or somewhere to stop the bleeding.”
The goal crease sounds like a good place to start.
2. The Sharks chances of winning the Pacific Division are now quite slim.
Let’s face it, the Sharks faced a pretty-stacked deck on Thursday.
It’s hard to lose two top-four defensemen, especially when one of them is a two-time Norris Trophy winner averaging 25 minutes of ice time per night. Then, you pull a 37-goal scorer off the board along with one of the best two-way centers in the NHL.
Those are tough losses to absorb, even against the Kings. Couture’s absence pushed Tomas Hertl into the middle of the Sharks top line and forced Evander Kane into the center position, his position in junior hockey.
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But DeBoer is right, the Sharks needed to “find a way.” They almost found a way, carrying a 2-1 lead into the middle of the third before Roy scored the spirit-shattering tying goal at 9:28. Instead, they loaded the bus for Friday’s showdown with the Anaheim Ducks in Orange County trailing the Calgary Flames by five points in the Pacific Division with just eight games left on the schedule.
“We need to wake up,” Tomas Hertl said. “If we play like that in (the) playoffs, it’s just 4-0 and you’re out.”
If the Sharks are going to avoid a first-round matchup with their personal kryptonite, the Vegas Golden Knights, they’ll probably need to win at least seven games. By going 5-3, the Flames can reach 109 points, which would require the Sharks to run the table to clinch the division.
So yes, the Sharks need to find a way and they better do it quickly.
“We have to get points. We have to catch the team in front of us,” Marc-Edouard Vlasic said. “We need to win.”
3. Brent Burns ties his own record.
Burns hit the first of what could a string of historic numbers on Thursday.
The all-star defenseman tied his own single-season franchise record for points scored by a defenseman by setting up Tomas Hertl’s goal at 3:45 of the second with a drop pass off the rush. With his 76th point, Burns tied the mark he set in his Norris Trophy campaign during the 2016-17 season.
Hero in a half shield
HERTL POWER #SJSharks pic.twitter.com/5aaxqt8vyU
— San Jose Sharks (@SanJoseSharks) March 22, 2019
Over the last eight games, Burns could also become the first defenseman in 25 years to reach 86 points and accumulate more than 66 assists.
“It’s the same as last year. He’s always dangerous offensively,” Vlasic said. “Every time he touches the puck, he’s dangerous.”
