SAN JOSE -- The Sharks spent part of Thursday’s practice just watching. Hours before the team flew to Los Angeles to open a five-game road trip, the penalty-kill and power-play units took their positions inside the blue line on the south rink at their practice facility, while assistant coach Dave Barr went to work.
Barr directed the power-play unit to pass the puck below the goal line, then to a wide-open man in the slot, all while instructing the penalty killers on their proper stick-and-body positioning on a play they should have immediately recognized.
It was the same one in which Adam Henrique gave the Anaheim Ducks a two-goal lead over San Jose the night before.
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SIGN UP HERE “You’ve gotta make that pass tougher to get down to the goal line,” Sharks center Logan Couture said after Thursday’s practice, breaking down the goal. “Once the puck’s on the goal line, you’ve gotta recover with your stick on the inside to take away that quick pass, and we didn’t do it.”
That’s precisely what Barr tried to demonstrate. Henrique’s power-play tally was Anaheim’s second on as many opportunities in San Jose’s 5-2 loss. The Ducks scored on both of their shots with the man advantage on Wednesday, each after the Sharks failed to take away a passing lane.
Last season, the Sharks killed the second-highest percentage of penalties (84.8) in the NHL. San Jose was middle of the pack in allowing scoring chances when down a man, but goaltenders Martin Jones and Aaron Dell stopped a higher percentage of shots than all but four teams’ goalies. On Wednesday, Anaheim’s two scoring chances on the power play resulted in two goals against Jones.
Couture said that Thursday served as “a reminder of coverages,” and that San Jose’s penalty killers know where they should be to prevent those chances. Sharks head coach Peter DeBoer added that, even after a long training camp, such reminders are necessary.
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“There’s always more time for practice, more time for detail,”DeBoer said. “It was just a refresher, a walk-through on the ice -- as opposed to in the video room -- on our responsibilities just so everyone’s clear.
“Obviously, we gave up two power-play goals and that’s not something you want to see on a regular basis.”
Neither is what the Sharks saw from their power play, at least based on Thursday’s practice. DeBoer mixed up the power-play units again, utilizing different five-man groups than he did after mixing both up the night before.
Defensemen Erik Karlsson and Brent Burns skated on the first unit, along with Couture, Tomas Hertl, and Joe Pavelski. Marc-Edouard Vlasic ran the point on the second, with Joe Thornton, Timo Meier, Kevin Labanc, and Evander Kane up front.
San Jose managed just one shot on goal and failed to score in three power-play opportunities on Wednesday. Two of those were shortened, a result of a Sharks penalty on the first, and the Ducks cutting short their own power play to ensure the second.
Although its power play converted on only the 16th-best percentage (20.6) in the league,San Jose finished with the fifth-best shot rate (58.95 per hour) and fourth-best scoring-chance rate (56.35) on the man advantage last year. So the Sharks have some work to do to, and DeBoer said it will take some time to find the right combinations.
“We’re moving some things around,” DeBoer said. “We’re gonna get it going in the right direction, I don’t have any doubt about that. But I don’t know if it’ll be [Friday night], or the next night, or the night after that.”
As for the penalty kill, Couture said the details that San Jose missed Wednesday night against are within San Jose’s grasp. Or should be, at least.
“We’re all good enough players in here,” Couture said. “Guys are gonna make mistakes throughout a game and throughout a season, but structurally, we should figure it out.”