LOS ANGELES – It was a tale of two games, a tale of two teams.
For 22 minutes, the last-place San Jose Sharks were able to scrap a 1-0 lead against the Cup-contending Los Angeles Kings, courtesy of a Fabian Zetterlund goal, his 10th of the season.
Then, the mighty Kings woke up from their holiday slumber, scoring two goals in 13 seconds, on their way to a 5-1 thumping of the visitors.
“It really was a tale of two games. I thought the first 25 minutes, we played well. Created some great chances. Got blitzed with two goals in [13] seconds,” San Jose Sharks head coach David Quinn said. “Just got away from us. We got demoralized.”
That’s putting it nicely.
Per SPORTLOGiQ, the Sharks were toe-to-toe with the Kings in the first period, eking out a 3-1 Slot Shots and 1-0 High-Danger Chances edge at Even Strength.
You could say Los Angeles was still in vacation mode, but credit to San Jose, they earned their early lead.
But it all fell apart, not just with the two goals allowed in 13 seconds, but in a final frame that the Sharks no-showed.
In the third period, the Kings dominated 11-0 Slot Shots, 7-0 High-Danger Chances at Even Strength.
One team, the Cup contender, turned it on when they wanted. The other, the contender for the first-overall pick, could not.
The San Jose Sharks will get a chance to bounce back tomorrow against the surging Edmonton Oilers at home.
Will Mackenzie Blackwood, too ill to back up tonight, be ready? Could Kaapo Kahkonen, who stopped 37-of-42 shots, go back-to-back? Or will Magnus Chrona get his first NHL start?
After the game, Mikael Granlund pumped Zetterlund’s tires, Quinn bemoaned the “slow” power play, and Zetterlund talked about the need to play “boring hockey” during stressful times.
Mikael Granlund
Granlund, on the San Jose Sharks playing good hockey, but not winning hockey:
We played good hockey for the first 25-30 minutes.
They scored their goal, then one right after. We’ve got to be mentally stronger in those kinds of situations. After that, our game went down, and it wasn’t good enough.
Granlund, on NHL-worst 15th time this season that the Sharks have given up two goals within two minutes of each other:
It has happened quite a bit. [We were] kind of deflated and we can’t let that happen. We were playing good hockey until those first two goals, and then the game kind of got away from us. We got to be better.
Granlund, on linemate Zetterlund:
Throughout the season, you can tell how much he’s growing. He’s establishing that kind of power forward [game].
He’s improved so much. He’s a strong dude out there. He skates well, and he can shoot the puck. He’s only going to get better.
David Quinn
Quinn, on the San Jose Sharks’ performance tonight:
It really was a tale of two games. I thought the first 25 minutes, we played well. Created some great chances. Got blitzed with two goals in [13] seconds.
Just got away from us. We got demoralized.
Power play really hurt us too. We had two chances to get on the board here or at least gain some momentum with our power play at key times in the game. If anything, we get demoralized from our power play.
Quinn, on the power play:
We’ve got have way more of a work ethic. We gotta have way more of an urgency. We’re slow. Went through this before, we’re gonna get back to playing [with] much more urgency and efficiency with our passing. Just mentally, physically slow on the power play.
Quinn, on giving up two goals in 13 seconds, and how forced passes caused them:
We try to get cute up high in the offensive zone, they go on a breakaway. Second one, it’s a goalie-D exchange, we don’t execute it, and it ends up in the back of the net. So really disappointing.
Quinn, on dropping Alexander Barabanov to the fourth line and using William Eklund less in the third period:
Barbie had been sick. So Barbie just [has to] kind of find his way through it.
Really, Eky, just more of the penalties [in that period]. Really wasn’t anything.
Zetterlund, on what the San Jose Sharks can do to stop giving up goals so quickly:
We have to stop it. When they get the first one there, we just have to have a couple of good shifts. Get the pucks deep and just play boring hockey. Then we can take it from there.
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