2023-11-24 00:17:00
Follow the game between the Canadiens and the Sharks Friday on RDS and on RDS.ca. The Hockey 360 pre-game will begin at 3 p.m.
The Montreal Canadiens’ lean years in San Jose now appear to be behind the team.
After a drought of almost 22 years without a victory in the Californian fortress of the Sharks, during which the Habs lost 12 games in a row between 1999 and 2021, the CH now seems to be back on the right path.
Winners in their last two visits to San Jose, in 2021 and 2022, the CH will try to extend their recent successes once morest the Sharks on Friday followingnoon, in front of a team which presents figures which might be described as dismal this season.
Let’s just say that their poor record of 3-15-1 in 19 games this season is no accident.
The Sharks’ nightmare began at the start of their season on October 12, with the first game in a series of 11 outings without a win. With this start to the season to forget, the Sharks flirted with a sad NHL record for the most games without a win to start a season. The Sharks’ 11 games without a win place them second in history in this regard.
A porous defensive performance
For a player like Cole Caufield, who is desperate to unlock offensively, Friday’s clash once morest the Sharks is certainly welcome.
With 83 goals allowed in 19 games – an average of 4.3 goals allowed per duel – the Sharks comfortably occupy 32nd and last place in the NHL in this regard. Teams that face the Sharks have a habit of adding to their offensive records as the Sharks have allowed five or more goals on eight occasions this season.
Worse still, two teams managed to reach ten goals in a single match. When things go wrong!
The Sharks’ defensive failures are obviously reflected in the personal statistics of their goaltenders Mackenzie Blackwood and Kaapo Kahkonen, who are languishing in the depths of the NHL at all levels.
Both goaltenders have efficiency ratings below the .900 mark and the goals once morest averages of Blackwood (3.96) and Kahkonen (4.30) place them 52nd and 54th respectively out of the 54 goaltenders to have played in the least six games this season.
And to put an end to the Sharks’ defensive problems, the team allows more than 37 shots per game on average – the worst performance in the NHL – in addition to being 30th in the NHL on the penalty kill with an efficiency of 72, 5%.
Not better offensively
If he just sticks to statistics, Cayden Primeau was probably relieved to learn he was the starting goaltender once morest the Sharks.
San Jose is the team that takes the fewest shots per game on average, with 24.2 shots on target per game, and is the only team to score fewer than two goals per game on average. With only 28 goals in 19 games, let’s just say Sharks players haven’t often celebrated a goal since October.
Even though the season is still young, the Sharks’ average of 1.47 goals per game is currently the sixth lowest in NHL history. In fact since the 2000s, only the 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 editions of the Buffalo Sabers have finished a season below the threshold of two goals per game. The Sharks might obviously join them in this sad list.
The Sharks’ best offensive player with 12 points, Tomas Hertl is only 148th among NHL scorers. The Sharks are one of three teams on the Bettman Tour, along with the Calgary Flames and Washington Capitals, to have no players among the top 100 in scoring this season.
It’s only the Sharks’ numerical advantage that allows us to see a glimmer of hope… to be generous. The Sharks’ 16.4% performance with an extra man on the ice places the team in 22nd position in the NHL. It’s not great, but it’s still less worse than any other facet of their game.
All the information now accumulated, we can say that the Habs have a golden opportunity to win for a third game in a row in San Jose and to inflict a third loss in a row on the Sharks.
1700791994
#NHL #Canadiens #face #opponent #ground #Sharks
