NASHVILLE \u2014 \u201cThat was our best game of the year by far, start to finish.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alex Nedeljkovic<\/a> wasn\u2019t just talking about himself, though he was certainly a star in the San Jose Sharks\u2019 3-2 shootout win over the Nashville Predators. Nedeljkovic stopped 32-of-34 shots and turned away every Predators\u2019 shootout attempt.<\/p>\n And it wasn\u2019t just the headliners carrying the load, though Macklin Celebrini<\/a> did net the shootout winner and Will Smith<\/a> sniped a beauty.<\/p>\n Sharks tools<\/p>\n The Sharks flashed their depth, per Stathletes\u2019 micro-stats, with significant contributions up and down the line-up from the likes of Sam Dickinson<\/a> and Michael Kesselring<\/a> and the Alex Wennberg line. This is a promising sign, early in the season, for a squad that was just a little too dependent on Celebrini last year.<\/p>\n On defense, Dickinson and Kesselring helped take up the load for minutes-muncher Darnell Nurse, out with an upper-body injury.<\/p>\n Sophomore Dickinson played a career-high 24:13.<\/p>\n A tribute to his skating and being around the puck a lot, according to Stathletes, Dickinson dominated on the Sharks with 31 5-on-5 Successful Passes (three Sharks tied for second with 18) and 1:12 in Possession Time (Mason Marchment was second with 00:58).<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t a perfect game for Dickinson \u2014 a couple of his miscues led to the Preds forcing OT late \u2014 but for a 20-year-old who was benched to start the season, perhaps a light has turned on? He\u2019s played four solid games in a row.<\/p>\n As for Kesselring, head coach Ryan Warsofsky thought this was his best game of the season.<\/p>\n It was a two-way effort: Kesselring was solid defensively and moved the puck well, not just on his assist to Smith.<\/p>\n Kesselring led all San Jose Sharks defensemen with five Passes Leading to Shots (Dickinson was next with three).<\/p>\n The San Jose Sharks acquired the 26-year-old Kesselring over the summer to provide top-four value on both sides of the puck, and he looked the part on Thursday.<\/p>\n Up front, the trio of Mason Marchment-Wennberg-Tyler Toffoli was excellent.<\/p>\n I know, among the fanbase, there\u2019s lots of consternation about young center Michael Misa not getting enough ice-time, but last night was perhaps veteran pivot Wennberg\u2019s finest game of the season. Give credit where credit is due.<\/p>\n Wennberg was a two-way force, leading the Sharks with four 5-on-5 Turnovers Forced (six Sharks were tied with two) and nine Passes Leading to Shots (Toffoli trailed with six). His 00:24 OZ Possession was second on the team.<\/p>\n Last year, Warsofsky called Wennberg a defensive \u201ceraser\u201d, and while the 32-year-old center has got off to a slow start this year, he was back to his old tricks last night.<\/p>\n Jonathan Marchessault (81) steals it from Marchment (27), but Wennberg (21) has his linemate covered, stick checking Marchessault to take it back.<\/p>\n Toffoli is another popular whipping boy for the fanbase, but again, he showed that his brain and hands play faster than his feet.<\/p>\n Toffoli (73) tosses a beautiful stretch pass for a Wennberg breakaway, perhaps San Jose\u2019s best 5-on-5 scoring chance all night.<\/p>\n The 34-year-old was also second on the Sharks with eight 5-on-5 Slot Involvement plays \u2014 that\u2019s four Slot Shots, two Slot Passes, and two Slot Carries. He was all over the puck, too.<\/p>\n But no Sharks forward was more around the puck last night than Marchment.<\/p>\n For a San Jose Sharks squad sorely needing to improve 5-on-5 OZ possession, Marchment led with 00:30. He had 10 5-on-5 Slot Involvement plays, five Slot Shots, a Slot Pass, and four Slot Carries.<\/p>\n 6-foot-4 Marchment is typically a puck possession force, but he\u2019s been off to a slow start this season, in that regard. Hopefully, this game sets the 31-year-old in the right direction.<\/p>\n These first period shifts, including Marchment\u2019s goal, were great examples of the Wennberg line being both a forechecking and offensive trio to reckon with.<\/p>\n Can they keep it up? Wennberg and Marchment, especially, had been off to slow starts.<\/p>\n If the vets keep it up, it\u2019ll be better for the San Jose Sharks on the whole, even if it keeps young guns like Misa and Ivar Stenberg a little more on the bench.<\/p>\n This lengthens the Sharks\u2019 line-up and forces the youngsters to polish their games if they want to take jobs. Nothing wrong with that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NASHVILLE \u2014 \u201cThat was our best game of the year by far, start to finish.\u201d Alex Nedeljkovic wasn\u2019t…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":498688,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[102274,4215,4216,2094,90987,75543,13519,1035,55945,66125,3259,1036,1037,88,90,89,98,189729,44566,3809,3578],"class_list":["post-498687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-2026-27","tag-alex-nedeljkovic","tag-alex-wennberg","tag-alexander-wennberg","tag-darnell-nurse","tag-ivar-stenberg","tag-jonathan-marchessault","tag-macklin-celebrini","tag-mason-marchment","tag-michael-kesselring","tag-michael-misa","tag-ryan-warsofsky","tag-sam-dickinson","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-san-jose-sharks","tag-sharks-insight","tag-stathletes","tag-tyler-toffoli","tag-will-smith"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=498687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498687\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/498688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}