BOSTON — How do we quantify how the Boston Bruins beat the San Jose Sharks on Saturday?
There’s the obvious, scoreboard, 6-4.
“Starts with protecting our net front,” head coach Ryan Warsofsky said, of four of the six goals surrendered.
Sharks tools
Defenseman Dmitry Orlov put a finer point of emphasis: “We [don’t] battle, [don’t] win the battles when we have to. We’re not playing more hungry for the battles, for the puck, and [lose] focus sometimes.”
One Stathletes’ micro-stat underscores all this: The Sharks gave up seven rebound shots last night. That’s their worst total of season.
Just for comparison, the Utah Mammoth give up 1.25 Rebound Shots Against Per Game, best in the NHL, followed by the New Jersey Devils (1.73), Dallas Stars (1.9), and Carolina Hurricanes (1.92). These are, as of now, some of the better teams in the league.
The San Jose Sharks, however, are among the worst teams in this department: Their 3.42 Rebound Shots Against Per Game is fifth-worst in the NHL, better than only the Columbus Blue Jackets (3.44), Calgary Flames (3.5), Philadelphia Flyers (3.62), and Vancouver Canucks (3.75).
That’s, uh, not the company that you want to keep in this league.
It’s a small sample size, but the Sharks will either have to get better in this potentially fatal flaw…or they’ll have to outscore their problems.
Pacific Division leader Edmonton Oilers, for example, are just ahead of San Jose at 3.18 Rebound Shots Against Per Game. But they also have Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl and Evan Bouchard, the leading scorers in the league so far.
But the San Jose Sharks? They can win this way, and they have been so far, but it’s probably not going to last.
It’s not just about winning puck battles, as not all puck battles are created equal. As Orlov suggested, it’s about winning the battles that matter.
Stathletes has a Puck Battles micro-stat, and it’s useful, but it doesn’t separate a puck battle by location, say in front of the net or at the point.
“All that is, just outwilling guys and wanting to defend harder than the other team wants to score,” San Jose Sharks goalie Alex Nedeljkovic suggested. “All it comes down to, no X’s and O’s, and we had bodies in the area, I think, on all of them, it’s just outwilling them a little bit more, just being a little harder on our sticks.”
Nedeljkovic also pointed to his own rebound control: “I can do a better job, maybe swallowing up another puck or two there and killing plays or putting rebounds in better spots as well.”
But reality is, it’s not that simple. Sure, there’s will and goaltending involved, but there’s also a question of talent.
San Jose Sharks GM Mike Grier spent a lot of money on defensemen Darnell Nurse, Jacob Trouba, and Michael Kesselring over the summer, in part, to help with this net front defense problem. Obviously, it’s not just on the blueliners, it’s a team thing.
San Jose was ninth-worst in the NHL in this category last year at 2.89 Rebound Shots Against Per Game. Just two bottom-10 teams made the playoffs last year, the Montreal Caandiens and Bruins.
So will or skill, the Sharks will likely have to figure out how to defend better, without sacrificing any offense, which they’ve struggled to do so far this season.