Sharks 7, Capitals 2.

PJ at Sharkspage, as usual, has some nice stuff on last night’s game, including post game comments by both coaches. My view of the game closely mimics those of the coaches (scary as that may be).

The Sharks started off with slow legs, and score notwithstanding, the Capitals really carried the play in the first. The ice was sticky, which tends to give the Sharks some fits, but I thought as the game went along they did a good job of adjusting to it. Precision passes were tough and the puck was bouncing a lot, the team reacted by carrying it more and closing the gaps.

As good an enforcer as Jody Shelley is, Donald Brasher pummeled him. Not even really close, although it was a long, classic, trade punches and grapple fight, really kind of a classic — except Shelley really got out fought. He went off for repairs for a bloody nose, and the coaches mostly kept them apart the rest of the game. That was helped by Brasher doing something in the 2nd to earn a 10 minute misconduct and spending a good chunk of time in the penalty box; his skating after that penalty was extremely limited.

The Sharks do something in the later parts of games I find interesting; rather than not sit the Thornton line and risk a team getting feisty with them, they put Jody Shelley on the line, so you end up skating Thornton/Setoguchi/Shelley. And that seems to keep anything untoward from happening, and gives Shelley some time to skate and play some hockey, too. It also seems to discourage the other team from placing their big guys out, since as far as I can tell, the Caps never put Brashear out once Shelley was on the ice.

you’ll never see it from the score, but Brent Johnson had a pretty good game. His biggest problem is (and always has been) rebound control, but to be honest, you can’t really blame a goalie if he lets in a rebound and his own player fumbles it around and then sticks it in his own net. He didn’t get a lot of help last night, and I think it was telling that the team left him in for the entire game.

You could see the momentum shift as the Sharks found their legs, adjusted to the ice, and the Caps turned into the team at the far end of a long road trip in their third game in four nights. The 2nd goal killed a lot of the enthusiasm, and as the 2nd period went along, you could see the Sharks just sort of take over.

At one point, I actually turned to Laurie and said “See, Ovechkin is actually taking shifts”. He was actually a lot more noticeable later in the game than earlier to us. Well, we actually noticed him, probably when he got frustrated and started taking runs and cheap shots (and penalties) — prior to that, he didn’t even hit the radar screen for us.

And then there was the Joe Thornton unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. Did you know that snowing the goalie was a penalty? Well, some vestigal part of me actually did — but damned if I’ve ever seen it called. On the other hand, if ever a player deserved to get it called, Joe did, because he came in alone, angled his skates and threw up a rooster tail that Warren Miller would approve of, and then basically stood there and started smiling and laughing. Until he found out about the penalty. Blatant doesn’t begin to describe it.

And honestly, I thought the refs had a tough job — Brashear and Shelley. Brashear running around chasing tiny guys like Setoguchi. A game with a score seriously tilted out of control, and tired, grumpy players. I don’t blame them for calling things fairly tight. By getting Thornton into the penalty box there, they defused a situation that could have escalated the game into chaos. they did it a couple of other times as well (the coincidental minors with Blake’s slash for instance), and that discouraged either team from getting stupid. Overall, I liked the reffing last night. (B+)

All in all, a rested team vs. a tired team. If Washington scores early, maybe a much different game, but once that own-goal hit, you could really sense the Sharks coming on and the Caps thinking about getting on the plane. But it was still a fun and entertaining game to watch…

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