SAN JOSE, Calif. – San Jose coach Todd McLellan would seem to have plenty to be pleased about after watching his team post consecutive shutouts to open the season.
Instead, he wanted to dwell on an inept power play that failed to convert on eight chances and a sloppy second half of the game in the home opener.
Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Tomas Hertl scored first-period goals, and Alex Stalock made 30 saves to give the Sharks a 3-0 victory over the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday night.
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“People who didn’t see the game, they’re going to say, ‘Boy, the Sharks are off to a pretty good start,”‘ McLellan said. “But that was not a well-played game on our behalf by any means. I thought we played a good 26, 27 minutes. Then after that we weren’t close to being the better team. I thought our power play absolutely sucked the life out of our team today. That’s probably as weak as it’s been in a long, long time.”
The Sharks retooled their power-play units this season after the loss of quarterback Dan Boyle to have two more evenly matched groups instead of loading up the first unit. Neither group generated many scoring opportunities, with just six shots in 15:41 of power-play time.
“The puck was bouncing a little bit,” forward Patrick Marleau said. “Passes weren’t on the tape. I think we were trying to be too fancy. They’ve got some good penalty killers over there and get sticks on passes, but I think we need to funnel more pucks to the net and try to get those ugly goals.”
Marleau added an insurance goal late in the second period in the Sharks’ home opener. San Jose began the season with a 4-0 win behind Antti Niemi against defending champion Los Angeles and followed it up with Stalock’s third career shutout.
The Sharks joined this year’s Minnesota Wild team as the first to open the season with consecutive shutouts since Florida did it in 2005-06.
“Obviously the hard work we put in early on is paying off, and we’re having a little success early,” Stalock said. “The penalty kill has been sharp early and that’s huge. Second chances, they haven’t had many, so it’s been good.”
Ondrej Pavelec made 23 saves for the Jets, who came out flat following a 6-2 win at Arizona in the season opener on Thursday. Winnipeg was hampered without top line forward Evander Kane, who hurt his knee in the opener.
“We didn’t have a very good start,” forward Michael Frolik said. “If you can survive the first 10 minutes in this building you can be successful. We didn’t do that. We have to learn and then come back with a better start.”
After spoiling Los Angeles’ banner-raising ceremony with a win over the Kings on opening night, the Sharks got off to another strong start against the Jets as they try to bounce back after becoming the fourth NHL team to lose a best-of-seven series after winning the first three games.
San Jose scored twice in the opening 5:12, with Vlasic getting his first of the season when his point shot deflected off Winnipeg defenceman Mark Stuart and past Pavelec.
Then the Sharks capitalized on a pretty transition play with Joe Pavelski sending a pass from his own zone to Thornton at centre ice. Thornton then quickly fed a racing Hertl, who beat Pavelec for his first of the season to make it 2-0.
“We just, maybe, overcompensated with respect to their speed and gave them five feet of ice,” Jets coach Paul Maurice said. “We were fearful of getting burned and that’s when you get burned.”
The Sharks outshot the Jets 15-3 in the period and controlled the play throughout the period. San Jose was a bit sloppy after that but Stalock managed to keep Winnipeg off the scoreboard and Marleau capitalized on a misplay for his goal with 29 seconds left in second period.
Zach Bogosian had trouble playing Brent Burns’ clearing attempt at the blue line. Matt Nieto got to the loose puck and sprung Marleau for a breakaway. Marleau beat Pavelec for his second goal in as many games. The Sharks didn’t generate another shot on goal in the game.
NOTES: Kane will miss at least two weeks after a knee-on-knee collision with teammate Mark Scheifele on Thursday. He will be re-evaluated after that time. … San Jose F Mike Brown left in the second period after blocking a shot with his hand.
