Wild vs Sharks 11/2

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After a rough start, the San Jose Sharks appear to have found their stride.

The visiting Sharks look for a third consecutive victory while trying to continue their recent dominance over the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday night.

San Jose (5-3-1) totaled nine goals during a 1-2-1 start but has since scored 20 times in winning four of five. The Sharks posted their second straight 5-2 win, Saturday against Anaheim.

"It was only a matter of time before we got our offense going," said captain Joe Thornton, who has three goals and five assists the last two games and tied a franchise mark by recording a point on each of the Sharks' last eight goals.

"Don't get used to it, though," Thornton said. "We're not going to score five goals every night. I think we were still shaking off the rust from earlier in the season."

The Sharks can credit the reunion of one of the NHL's top lines from last season for the recent turnaround.

Split up to start the season, Thornton, Dany Heatley and Patrick Marleau combined for 13 points in Wednesday's 5-2 win over New Jersey in their first game back on the same line. Heatley had two goals and an assist while Marleau added a goal Saturday as the line accounted for seven points.

Heatley has four goals the last four games after scoring once in his first five.

San Jose has converted a league-high 31.8 percent of its power-play chances, and is 3 for 9 with the man advantage over the last two contests.

"We feel pretty good about ourselves and now we can go out on our road trip," defenseman Niclas Wallin told the Sharks' official website.

The Sharks are in good position to continue their success with a stop Minnesota (4-4-2) to open a two-game trip.

San Jose has won five in a row over the Wild and is 13-0-2 since its last regulation loss in the series Oct. 21, 2006. The Sharks are 8-0-1 at Minnesota since last losing in regulation Oct. 19, 2005.

Thornton has three goals and two assists in his last four games versus Minnesota, while Heatley has seven goals and five assists in 10 games.

Antero Niittymaki, 3-0 with a 1.96 goals-against average versus Minnesota, could make his third straight start after stopping 22 shots against Anaheim. In his first season with San Jose, Niittymaki is 4-0-1 with a 1.87 GAA.

The Wild look to bounce back after a 3-1 loss to Chicago on Saturday dropped them to 1-1-1 on a five-game home stretch.

Marek Zidlicky scored his second of the season for the Wild, who have totaled six goals while losing three of four.

Though Minnesota ranks among the NHL leaders by converting 30.2 percent of its power-play chances, it is 1 for 16 in that area the last four games.

Minnesota's Mikko Koivu has a goal and five assists in his last six games but has been held without a point in his last four versus San Jose.

Niklas Backstrom, 4-3-2 with a 2.08 GAA, likely will be in goal for the Wild despite a 2-7-3 record and 3.19 GAA against the Sharks. He has allowed 15 goals while losing four in a row to San Jose -- three of which were at home.

I dunno man, I think we got a fair chance at these guys. Wild win 3-1

Wild vs. Sharks post-game report

Wild suffocate the Sharks in 1-0 home victory

Written by Derek Felska
Tuesday, 02 November 2010 07:54

You turn on the TV the last month or so and it has been real difficult to bear with political ad after political ad from the positive ones where a candidate tries to tell you how much better our nation will be with them in office or attack ads where they tell us how terrible it would be to vote for the other candidate. Its relentless, its phenomenally expensive and there is almost no relief from it. The news broadcasts obsesses over it, it cranks up the hype machine and at the end of the day we all know what will happen. Life will go on regardless of who or who isn't the winner in today's elections. The world will not end, the trains will not stop, the days will keep rolling along as if these elections never took place. That's the irony of it all. Despite all the grave warnings about so and so being a horrible mistake to vote for (insert candidate of your choice here) on November 2nd in the grand scheme of things it doesn't really change the way we live all that much. Sure it gives the news something to discuss, but they always find something to prattle on about. I say this as a teacher who teaches civics and tries to instill in our nation's children the importance of voting but let's be honest after you vote (and I'd encourage everyone to do so that legally can) its out of our hands unless you're in office. So do I worry about what will happen with the changes or non-changes that take place? No, not at all. Like most people I just flow with it and make the best of whatever happens next. Yet, won't it be great (at least for a little while) once this election tomfoolery is all over? If anything to get away from those annoying TV and radio ads? I know I'm looking forward to it. So since we're talking elections (since it is Election Day in the U.S. afterall) how about we propose a new sort of election for the guy you'd like to see coaching the Wild.

First we start off with our incumbant, current Wild bench boss Todd Richards. It has been a rough first year for the Minnesota-native where many of the fans have begun to question his ability to match lines as well as the effectiveness of his up-tempo system with a roster that seems to suffer from a limited amount of speed. Richards, whose liberal set of rules for the team's defenseman last season led to an uncomfortably high amount of odd-man rushes that saw goaltender Niklas Backstrom's goals against average balloon to over 2.7 goals per game was a side effect of the fact the team gave up 42 goals more than it did under the previous regime in 2008-09. Adding to that consternation was the fact the Wild managed to score the same amount of goals as they did in 2008-09 was frustrating to those who always touted the need for a more wide open system that Richards' liberal mandate was supposed to provide. Enter in Richards' challenger in the figurative sense, in his predecessor former Wild Head Coach Jacques Lemaire. Lemaire never seemed to struggle all that much with matching lines and his system demonstrated rather convincingly he could even make a roster filled with NHL journeyman and almost no star talent and make them a stifiling and competitive team. Many Wild fans, even those who once criticized Lemaire's style in the past when he was coach of the team now admit he was able to get a lot out of his players by playing a defensively responsible system (some would say conservative) known notoriously as the neutral zone trap. Lemaire was certainly not the only coach that used the neutral zone trap or the many variations of it, but his strong conservative leadership and insistance upon its use made him the poster boy / whipping boy depending on which expert was chiming in about its effect on the game. Well it wouldn't be a political race for office without an outsider or 'third party' candidate so let's toss in newly hired Wild scout Michel Therrien. Michel Therrien is our maverick. An independent minded coach who some may think is closer to Jacques Lemaire than Todd Richards (in that way maybe you'd call Therrien a hockey version of the tea party), Therien has already shown in his previous tenure with the Pittsburgh Penguins he is going to coach his way regardless of the star talent that may or may not be on the team he is coaching. Many Wild fans have speculated that the addition of Therien is perhaps a sign the team is wanting to change back to a more defensive style of hockey, and it is no secret that Wild General Manager Chuck Fletcher has shown a strong connection to his days with the Penguins organization, something that both Therien and Richards share in their previous positions as coach. So who will win our 2010 Wild election? If Minnesota can manage to win tonight over San Jose, Todd Richards' former team (where he served as an assistant coach) would go along way to helping his chances. That being said, be sure to vote in our poll, and this is at least a place where you can stay home and still exercise your right to vote. We shall see how it all turns out tonight. (click on the link for the rest of the article)

I have a poll asking you to elect the best coach for the Minnesota Wild. Also, I have a prospect report on Kris Foucault. Enjoy!

I thought the line pairings last night were pretty good. we lucked out on the wide shot taken by the Sharks and Nik had to stand on his head a bit, but for the most part pretty solid defensive play by the Wild.

This is the way the Wild have to play to win games. Nothing flashy, just play a solid high percentage game, keep most of the shots at the perimeter, and try to cash in when the opportunity arises.

i agree Tal. these guys are showing nice flashes of good things, so i hope it turns out to be more consistent on that part. A win over Calgary would be huge for us.