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Instant Recap: Sharks Take a Bite Out of Jets

The Winnipeg Jets were dealt a cold shot of reality on Saturday night. After a great start to the season in Arizona on Thursday there was suddenly hope in Winnipeg. The Sharks took that hope and crushed it 3-0 in dominating fashion.

Sharks backup netminder Alex Stalock made 30 saves, although he was rarely challenged on the night. Even in the 3rd, where the Jets outshot the Sharks 14-0, there were very few tough saves for the sophomore goaltender. The Jets best chance was spoiled by veteran grinder Chris Thorburn as he whiffed on a great cross ice pass by Mark Scheifele. Thorburn was filling in for Dustin Byfuglien, who got himself an early end to the night with a 10 minute misconduct earlier in the 3rd period.

The Sharks opened the scoring in the first on a point shot from Marc-Eduard Vlasic that squeezed by Jets starter Ondrej Pavelec. Less than 2 minutes later, a one touch pass by Joe Thornton sent Tomas Hertl in alone to make it 2-0. After being beat on that play, Jets defenseman Zach Bogosian would follow that up with a bad turnover at the offensive line in the 2nd period that eventually sent Patrick Marleau in alone for the game’s final goal.

The Jets were led offensively by Dustin Byfuglien and Jacob Trouba, as they both used their size and speed to get 5 and 4 shots on net respectively. Overall, the Jets outshot the Sharks 30-26 however, most of those shots came after the Sharks let up on the gas pedal. The Sharks outshot the Jets 15-3 in the first period. A positive for the Jets is that they held the talented Sharks PP goalless on eight opportunities on the night.

10 Thoughts

1. Jets may have looked impressive against the minnows of the Pacific in Arizona, but the Sharks gave the Jets a lesson in what the division is really going to be like. It only gets harder from here in LA tomorrow who, despite a poor 0-1-1 start, are still the class of the league.

2. Have the Jets done any work at all on d-zone coverage? It looked like a peewee house league team out there chasing Sharks star players around in the d-zone while applying little to no pressure. The Sharks managed to set up their offense every time they came down the ice.

3. Why does Zach Bogosian seem to be getting worse each season instead of better? He looked downright foolish out there tonight. Not only was he horrendously out of position on the Hertl goal and turned the puck over on the Marleau goal, but he was beat one on one several other times including once again by Hertl. I'm still not sure Bogosian has found his jockstrap.

4. Ondrej Pavelec was, like he often is, adequate. Didn't do much to hurt the team, but certainly wasn't there with the key save when the team needed it.

5. Wouldn't it be nice to have some scoring on the 3rd line to help out Perreault? Where could we possibly find that? It's not like we just regularly waive players who are proven offensive weapons at every lev…oh wait.

6. Jacob Trouba is a beast.

7. Amazing how San Jose can consistently pull out guys like Nieto and Tierney for there 3rd and 4th lines while the Jets opt to continue with Thorburn, Peluso, Halischuk and Galiardi's of the world. Any wonder why one team wins and the other doesn't?

8. Gotta give credit to the PK unit. Got the job done. Now if only the PP unit would answer the call.

9. People may disagree, but I like when players do what Byfuglien did mouthing off and getting angry. I love that passion to hate losing. Need to see more of it (and more productive use of that passion).

10. It's a long season. Not the end of the world.

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