SAN JOSE — The Sharks knew the test they had ahead of them Thursday night, with the fast, skilled Toronto Maple Leafs coming into town.
“We talked about what their strengths were and what we wanted to do to try and negate them,” coach Peter DeBoer said.
San Jose tried to do just that for the first 20 minutes, skating into the dressing room at the first intermission with a one-goal lead. Then in the second frame, the wheels came off. San Jose allowed Toronto to use its speed to dictate the pace of the game and tilt the ice in their favor.
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“It was the one thing we talked about not doing, and then we did it,” DeBoer said after the Sharks’ 5-3 loss at SAP Center. “We turned pucks over. Gave them a short-handed goal. Let them in behind us on some breakaways. Allowed them to play to their strengths."
“I thought we beat ourselves tonight.”
[RELATED: Sharks fall to Leafs]
This isn’t the first time the Sharks’ bench boss has said something of this nature through the 20-game season. San Jose now is 9-3-3 on the season when it scores first, meaning it has given up the lead six times on the early campaign. That’s not even counting each time the opposition has rallied from a deficit and left the Sharks making a late-game push.
San Jose Sharks
After the loss, DeBoer revealed he didn’t believe the Sharks should’ve even had the lead against the Leafs.
“I thought — yes, we had the lead in that game. But I didn’t feel like either we deserved to have a lead or played well enough at that point to be in that spot,” he said. “I think when you find yourself in that spot and you haven’t really earned it, you probably end up getting what you deserve.”
This hasn’t necessarily been the case in every game where the Sharks have given up a lead to a tough team. In their contest earlier in the week against the Nashville Predators, the Sharks’ first period easily was the best period of hockey they’d played all season.
A similar scenario occurred in the second frame of that game as with the second period of the Toronto game. After a period playing up to their strengths, the Sharks started giving up too many odd-man rushes and let the opposing team make a comeback.
It’s a habit the Sharks don’t identify as being part of their game philosophy. Unfortunately for them, it’s happening with some regularity.
“The frustrating part is just that we haven’t played to our identity,” Joe Pavelski said. “We do it for a few minutes ... and then all of a sudden there’s a breakaway, and another breakaway. (Martin Jones), we’re just hanging him out to dry at times with these odd man rushes and chances.”
Brenden Dillon agreed: “We have the foundation. When we’re playing at our best, we see how successful it makes us. We’re really not doing that for a full 60 minutes right now. We’re doing it in spurts.”
Both Pavelski and Dillon said the uneven play likely is a mental block the Sharks have, and that it’s something they’re both confident the team can improve upon. As the hockey season rolls on, it’s something they’re going to need to improve quickly.
“We’re only 20 things in, but we are 20 games in,” Dillon said. “It’s something we just have to continue to emphasize.”