Martin Jones and the San Jose Sharks kicked off the Peter DeBoer era with a victory, and spoiled the Los Angeles Kings' season opener once again. Jones made 19 saves in his Sharks debut and first game against his former Kings teammates and Joe Pavelski had a goal and two assists in a 5-1 win at Staples Center. It was the first regular-season game for DeBoer, who replaced Todd McLellan after the Sharks missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs last season. He couldn't have asked for a better beginning.
Jones, a backup to Jonathan Quick in Los Angeles for the past two seasons, made his best save on Tyler Toffoli's power-play bid from the right slot in the second period in a forgettable night for the Kings. Los Angeles looked lackluster in two trademark areas, defense and puck possession. Their biggest impressions were made on hits by Dustin Brown on Logan Couture and Matt Greene on Barclay Goodrow.
Goals
* Jones was beaten on the Kings' first shot of the season 1:49 into the game but was perfect the rest of the way. Jones said he approached the game like any other and held his composure after the initial score.* San Jose took advantage of sloppy play and penalties by the Kings for a 2-1 lead after the first period. Pavelski tipped in Brent Burns' shot for a power-play goal at 15:52 with Nick Shore in the penalty box for closing his hand on the puck. That came after Joe Thornton finished off a 3-on-1 with a wrist shot past Quick at 9:43.
* Burns and Tomas Hertl scored 2:07 apart in the second period to make it 4-1.
* Pavelski capped his first game as Sharks captain with an assist on Joonas Donskoi's first NHL goal, a rebound off the end boards at 3:31 of the third period that completed the scoring.
Stats
* The Kings gave the Sharks more than nine minutes of power-play time.* Milan Lucic received a match penalty for going after Couture near the end of the game. Lucic had one shot, and the Kings' top line of Lucic, Anze Kopitar and Marian Gaborik was a combined minus-6.
* San Jose won its sixth straight season-opener, the longest active streak in the NHL. That includes a 4-0 victory in the Kings' Stanley Cup banner-raising opener last season at Staples Center.
Sharks Bites
Peter DeBoer: "Not much went wrong tonight. Like I told the team, that game tonight was a culmination of a month of hard work. We showed up at camp and really worked and paid attention to detail and the guys had a real captive audience. Tonight we played like we're going to have to play: with four lines, six defensemen, great goaltending, great special teams."Martin Jones: "I've been scored on before. It's not the way you want to start a game. I thought we showed a lot of character as a group, not letting that spiral. We could have easily done that."
Joe Pavelski liked how San Jose managed the puck and pressured the Kings.
"We just controlled it well. We put it in good spots all night, where we had chances to get back or chances to get on the forecheck and create that pressure. Game 1. Great job by the guys, and there's a lot of good things we can take from it. There were some hits out there that were questionable. It's part of the game. It's part of playing the Kings."
Kings View
Darryl Sutter sounded like the Kings were ill-suited to play against their Pacific Division rival, an alarming performance out of the gate. Los Angeles had 12 shots in the first 38 minutes and was outshot 32-20."Flat." he said of the top line.
"We're playing against a big, fast team [and] we didn't play like a big, fast team. You've got to check. If you don't check, you can't score. We had a lot of guys, especially top guys, that weren't interested in that part of the game."
Anze Kopitar: "It's definitely not the game we drew up, and our special teams were not good. We just talked about them but we didn't execute them. We didn't play the way we should. It was very sloppy."
SJS Lines
8 Pavelski - 19 Thornton - 27 Donskoi
12 Marleau - 39 Couture - 42 Ward
83 Nieto - 48 Hertl - 57 Wingels
89 Goodrow - 50 Tierney - 18 Brown
44 Vlasic - 61 Braun
7 Martin - 88 Burns
4 Dillon - 80 Tennyson
LAK Lines
17 Lucic - 11 Kopitar - 12 Gaborik
70 Pearson - 77 Carter - 73 Toffoli
23 Brown - 21 Shore -22 Lewis
13 Clifford - 15 Andreoff - 71 Nolan
6 Muzzin - 8 Doughty
55 Schultz - 10 Ehrhoff
2 Greene - 27 Martinez
Press Cuttings
San Jose Mercury News: 'Sharks open DeBoer era by pounding Kings'http://www.mercurynews.com/sharks/ci_28938822/sharks-open-deboer-era-by-pounding-kings
Penalties
| 1st Period | ||
|---|---|---|
| 01:51 LAK | Kyle Clifford Fighting (maj) against Mike Brown | |
| 01:51 SJS | Mike Brown Fighting (maj) against Kyle Clifford | |
| 11:48 SJS | Barclay Goodrow Slashing against Trevor Lewis | |
| 12:23 LAK | Marian Gaborik Tripping against Logan Couture | |
| 15:46 LAK | Nick Shore Closing hand on puck | |
| 19:50 LAK | Christian Ehrhoff Interference against Chris Tierney | |
| 2nd Period | ||
| 02:00 SJS | Brenden Dillon Hi-sticking against Christian Ehrhoff | |
| 07:00 LAK | Alec Martinez Holding against Chris Tierney | |
| 11:55 SJS | Marc-Edouard Vlasic Roughing against Tanner Pearson | |
| 17:57 SJS | Chris Tierney Holding the stick against Jeff Schultz | |
| 3rd Period | ||
| 05:11 SJS | Mike Brown Roughing against Matt Greene | |
| 05:11 LAK | Andy Andreoff Roughing against Barclay Goodrow | |
| 05:11 LAK | Matt Greene Roughing against Mike Brown | |
| 05:11 SJS | Barclay Goodrow Fighting (maj) against Andy Andreoff | |
| 05:11 LAK | Andy Andreoff Fighting (maj) against Barclay Goodrow | |
| 05:11 LAK | Matt Greene Interference against Barclay Goodrow | |
| 11:13 LAK | Christian Ehrhoff Interference against Joel Ward | |
| 16:00 SJS | Mike Brown Interference against Dustin Brown | |
| 16:30 SJS | Logan Couture Interference on goalkeeper against Jonathan Quick | |
| 18:41 LAK | Milan Lucic Match penalty against Logan Couture | |
No comments:
Post a Comment