What the hell is going on with the Sharks?

[lawrence]

4-0 loss to the Islanders is a little suprising to a lot of fans, but it's early on, they will pick it up.

 

[Lunatik]

Not every team can scream out to a hot "over .500 start" like my Sabres. Some teams take 5 or 6 years to get over .500, like Buffalo.

well played

 

[Choralone]

According to what I read, the refs are against them - at least when they play the Kings - so the odds are stacked against them, apparently.

 

[Lunatik]

According to what I read, the refs are against them - at least when they play the Kings - so the odds are stacked against them, apparently.

let's be fair here, if there are 5 games on a particular day, then on that day there are 10 fanbases that think the refs are against them.

 

[Semantics]

I said from the start neither burns or karlsson will score 60 points this year and got called an idiot.

Too many fools out there who don't understand that there's only one puck, only two assists per goal, and that they both shoot right handed.

 

[BelovedIsles]

What we've seen in 3 games is that Sharks are controlling the play and dominating the teams they are playing. Jones had some stinkers against the Ducks, and today the Islanders capitalized on some defensive miscues. The Sharks were still the better team and looked like the better team in each game despite the score. I'm not too worried about them just yet.

Our PP is trash though, and i think that is more due to strategy than the players being inefficient. We have no shot options with a lefty playing the left half wall and a righty playing the right half wall. that's on the coaching staff.

The guys are also learning how to play with a guy like Karlsson. He is not the same type of offensive Dman as Burns, and you can see players are not expecting passes or expecting him to be up in the rush with them. Many times he has been open joining the rush and hasn't gotten any looks because the forwards aren't expecting him to be there. That takes time.

I'm still optimistic about this team, though we really need to sting together some wins asap

NYI outplayed SJ for stretches. SJ had a few flurries, but they didn’t control play.

 

[PatrikBerglund]

[HOTTAKE]

Karlsson is a cancer. Eugene Melynk is a genius.

[/HOTTAKE]

Please use AIDS instead of cacer.

 

[Binister]

Isles' moneyline @ 2.50 was very tempting and actually very sure bet.

 

[LeafGrief]

I said from the start neither burns or karlsson will score 60 points this year and got called an idiot.

I don't think you're totally out of the woods yet champ.

 

[vippe]

3 games in man...

 

[almostawake]

They're a team full of veterans who all know the real season doesn't start until April.

 

[ScoreZeGoals]

It's early, they will be fine. Their PP is severely mismanaged so far though

 

[Howie Hodge]

Still 96.5% of the season to play here....

 

[Solmors]

I'll copy the post I made in our GDT today here as well.

So I'm looking at some stats over the last 3 games, because apparently I'm a masochist. Here is what has stood out to me.

Sharks have 101 Shots For and 66 Shots Against to combine for a 60.48% SF%. This is absurdly high and obviously unsustainable as the top team last year had 54%. Corsi% and Fenwick% are similarly above 60%.

Sharks have 98 Scoring Chances for and 70 against, but only have 4 SCGF vs 9 SCGA. Shooting percentage on scoring chances is 4% for and 13% against. League average last year was about 8.5%.

Sharks have 39 High Danger Chances for and 33 against, but only have 2 HDGF vs 7 HDGA. Shooting percentage on high danger chances is 5% for and 21% against. League average last year was about 14%.

Sharks have the leagues worst PDO so far, at 0.883. This is a combined 4.95% shooting percentage and 83.33% save percentage. League average last year was about 9% shooting and 91% save (for a PDO of 1.000 obviously). By the end of the season its rare to have a team below 0.970 or above 1.03 PDO. So a combined 3% shooting and save percent is extremely uncommon, the Sharks are a combined 12% just 3 games in.

The good to take out of this is that most people believe shooting percentage (and therefore PDO) is largely based on luck. If that is the case, these games should be anomalies and the Shark's record will normalize over the 82 game season. The Sharks are getting incredibly unlucky on both ends of the ice through 3 games and there is very little reason to believe it will continue to be so. I get why it is frustrating, it seems the Sharks outplay (out shoot and chance) opponents and lose games way more than they should (I can name a number of playoff series lost in this manner).

TL;DR: The Sharks are statistically out playing their opponents by getting more shots, and more importantly more chances to score (both high danger and normal). However their shooting and save percentages are abysmal. They are essentially the anti-2017-vegas (because vegas had unsustainable PDO all last year). Their PDO will normalize over the next 79 games and their record will reflect that, so don't burn the town down just yet.

 

[BKIslandersFan]

3 games in, relax. They need time to fit Karlsson in. They will hit the stride soon.

 

[Terry Yake]

holy overreaction

its 3 games people. they'll eventually click and win the pacific like everyone expects them to

 

[Syckle78]

I said from the start neither burns or karlsson will score 60 points this year and got called an idiot.

Well you showed us.

 

[Syckle78]

Too many fools out there who don't understand that there's only one puck, only two assists per goal, and that they both shoot right handed.

Please teach us the hockeys, Mr. Bowman.

 

[Tage2Tuch]

3 games.

How did the lowly sens beat allstar toronto the other day?

I nominate thus thread the dumbest in hfboard history

It will be come November when the sharks start dominating. I’m not a fan of Evander Kane and think it’s hilarious how some think he’s gonna be this 40 goal scorer but the sharks are still every bit as good as they are being advertised.

Wow there 1-2. Time to tank.

 

[Roomtemperature]

4-0 loss to the Islanders is a little suprising to a lot of fans, but it's early on, they will pick it up.

It makes sense. Like in the NFL a west coast team playing at 1 pm messes with their body rhythm

 

[CashMash]

In my humble opinion, the Sharks are pretenders and Karlsson is lipstick on a pig.

Their core is getting old. Thornton, Burns, Pavelski, Vlasic are all on the wrong side of 30. The clock is ticking on their effectiveness big time.

Couture, Kane, and Hertl aren't good enough to carry the offense.

Who knows if Karlsson will be back next year.

Come January everyone will know it's time for them to re-build.

Pretty much. I thought it was lame that Karlsson signed with them. Don't like them for some reason, and I don't like him in those colors. xD Johnny T looks a bit bizarre in Toronto colors after having worn the Islanders jersey for so long, but he still makes it work for the most part. Karlsson in a Sharks jersey is just jarring to my brain. Maybe it's the autism acting up.

 

[zeke]

their forward group just isn't that good.

while their defense doesn't really play defense, other than vlasic.

that being said, they're still gonna win a bunch of games.

 

[KyleSeaBass]

Old, weak, slow.

You just cannot win a cup without an elite centre regardless of how good your defense is (or should I say offense from the the backend in the case of the Sharks).

The Sharks have a mediocre offense and two elite pseudo wingers in Karlsson in Burns masquerading as defensemen, when truth be told, they're just not that great defensively.

That team's last chance to win a cup passed them by in 2016, now they're just clinging on to guys that are already over the hill or will be washed up soon enough.

Time for a scorched earth rebuild. Hughes and Lafrenière are two great franchise players, not as good as Matthews or even McDavid, but still unreal. The Leafs did it, so can the Sharks.

 

[BlueDream]

I don't think you're totally out of the woods yet champ.

Well sure he is.

60 points in 82 games? It was possible.

But now Karlsson has to score 59 in 79? That's going to be tough.

 

[WesMcCauley]

I wouldn't really classify where guys line up from now the point. Most of the one-timers are on PP are from closer to what many would label the Ovi spot, which tends to be between the faceoff circle and the lines drawing the faceoff circle. Gone are the days of guys lining up where MacInnis did at the Blue line and the boards. Pretty much all the one-time guys line up as the half-wall guy on the side opposite of the way they shoot. Generally, when someone is at the point on a PP, it is the back defender in the 1-3-1 set up, because the half-wall guy, and either the net-front, or middle crasher are trying to win a puck down low and the defender is there to block the exit clear.

You can run your PP through Karlsson as the right-half wall guy. It just means Burns has to be more willing to be the guy who keeps the puck on-side and then be willing to quickly re-set trying to get it back to EK. Now, you probably want Karlsson to be the primary guy getting the puck in your own-end of clears and creating zone-entries, which is a bit more work from the half-wall position, and may kill a couple seconds each time when re-setting.

Its about having the threat of a onetimer from up top. Im certainly aware of teams having their best onetimer by their forwards on the wall, like Ovechkin, Eichel and Stamkos. They also have the threat of Carlson, Risto and Hedman at the point.

I really disagree with it beeing a good move to run their PP thru EK at the right wall. Thats not a spot he is used to playing, he is by far the best up top as the QB moving across the blueline.
That would also give them the threat of his onetimer when the pass gets up to him which often makes the goalie more aggressive in net which again makes it easier to create something when EK passes it to the guys at the wall, because the goalie has to move around more.
That threat isnt there now because Burns rarely takes onetimers from that position.

EK is also a much better playmaker than Burns and Burns lose the puck way to often for him to be a smart option as the only defensemen up top. Which was obvious in preseason with all the shorthanded goals against.