I suppose there are worse ways to start out a season than 1-0-1, but the Sharks certainly didn't impress me very much right out of the gates as they took on the Blue Jackets in a pair of games overseas. As expected, the top forwards were spread out amongst the first three lines at even strength, but the Marleau-Thornton-Heatley-Pavelski-Boyle power play that we saw throughout most of last year's Stanley Cup Playoffs carried over to this year. Meanwhile, Todd McLellan kept the Boyle-Murray and Demers-Huskins pairings from last year as well, meaning that Vlasic was the one who skated with Wallin.
It seems that Todd McLellan acknowledges that something needs to be done about the defense, and the ATOI through the first two games for the six guys that got in there seems to illustrate that. To wit:
Dan Boyle - 28:04
Douglas Murray - 20:35
Marc-Edouard Vlasic - 18:43
Jason Demers - 18:04
Niclas Wallin - 17:08
Kent Huskins - 13:24
Some thoughts about this wide disparity, after the jump.
On one level, this certainly makes some sense - Douglas Murray and Dan Boyle will clearly get the lion's share of the minutes as the top pairing, with Boyle getting additional time because of his role on the power play. But if you compare these numbers to last year's full-season ATOI numbers, there's clearly something up. Dan Boyle played 26:13 a night last year, already a staggering figure; 28:04 a night over 2 games is certifiably insane, and there's no way he can keep that up for the full year. Meanwhile, Vlasic was last year's second-leading minute-eater with 22:05 a night, with Blake at 21:21 and Murray at 20:20. Murray's minutes over the first two games are about where they were for all of last year, which begs the question of why Vlasic is getting so few minutes and why Demers has so many.
I think the answer is that the Sharks can no longer throw Blake and Vlasic out there on the second power play unit, and there is nobody else that can fill that role (certainly not Wallin). Because of that, and because of the decision to keep Joe Pavelski at the point on the top power play unit, Vlasic will probably get less time on the power play than he did last year; Dan Boyle will likely play for full power plays, with the other slot being taken alternately by Pavelski and Demers. Vlasic is clearly the third option on defense, but I'm guessing he'll only get spot minutes. True to form, Dan Boyle played 7.5 more minutes than his even-strength partner Murray, Demers played 4.5 more than Huskins, and Vlasic only got an extra 1.5 or so over his partner Wallin. These games were a bit heavy on the power plays, especially the first game of the year, so I expect the minutes will even out as time goes on.
Sadly, I think that these two games also showcased pretty much what we can expect from our goaltenders this year. Antti Niemi's numbers look fantastic, but the timing on the two goals he gave up in the first game was horrendous - just fifteen seconds apart, torpedoing the momentum the Sharks had built throughout most of the first period. At least those goals were defensible, though; Rick Nash's goal against Antero Niittymaki was nigh unforgivable, and Moreau's routine-looking shot apparently found a hole in Niittymaki's glove. As I stated a few days ago, it's pretty much a given that both goaltenders will go through consistency issues this year because both men are somewhat flawed; I think we saw a little bit of that in Sweden this weekend.
As a final note, Thomas Greiss has been put on waivers and I fully expect him to get claimed by someone in need of cheap goaltending depth - heck, maybe it'll be Chicago, as they could certainly use an NHL backup of Greiss's caliber and (more importantly) for Greiss's cap figure. If he doesn't get claimed, I will be very surprised. Then again, a few years ago the St. Louis Blues snuck one of their goaltender prospects through waivers at the beginning of the year because nobody was quite ready to make a change in net yet, so there is a nontrivial chance that Greiss will remain in the Sharks' organization, at least for now. Given the logjam of similar talent the Sharks' organization has in net, Alex Stalock knocking on the door, and the fact that Niittymaki is signed for another year, I very much doubt that Greiss will choose to stay in the organization after this year anyway. But just in case this is the last we'll see of Greiss in a teal sweater, I wish him the very best.
UPDATE: Thomas Greiss has cleared waivers and is headed to Worcester. Good from an organizational-asset point of view, potentially bad for both Alex Stalock AND Thomas Greiss, as they will now almost assuredly be fighting for playing time and feelings could get hurt. Although, again, given the crowded crease up and down the Sharks' organization, I have a sneaking suspicion that Greiss won't be around next year anymore.
Until next time!
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