The Sharks can't keep doing this...

The Sharks can't keep doing this as going into tonight's game against Nashville, we need to learn how to control the game and not be hemmed into our zone as much. We're going to break this down, talk about everything you need to know heading into tonight's game so you're not going to miss this episode of Sharks Digest. Before we dive into everything here, I just want to say we're on the road for 4,000 subscribers here on the channel, so if you're new here, you want to stay up to date on the latest news around the San Jose Sharks, we're your home for it here on YouTube, so go below, hit that subscribe button, it is completely free to do so. But yes, today we are here talking about the San Jose Sharks as they go into tonight against the Nashville Predators looking for a bounce back win, right? It was a last time out. We didn't end up coming away with the win against the Boston Bruins. So tonight we're coming out trying to get some momentum our way by beating the Nashville Predators. And a big way to do that tonight is by cleaning up the defensive, you know, kind of blunders that we have been having. i think when we've been hemmed in the zone though our defense has been solid it's just getting out of the zone which has been our problem a lot of giveaways and you know a lot of um board battles lost we just need to win those battles and we'll win hockey games so hopefully this is something we're seeing them work on in practice and they just you know as the team gels together the team will get better and this team will be a playoff team there's just it's just early in the year they're all still trying to you know play together learn chemistry and stuff like this so it will come with time and hopefully tonight we'll see a big change in in that case and let's just talk about it here like it sounds like sharks seek cleaner defense you know we just need to you know obviously not give the puck away as much right and we see here from Darnell Nurse's scouting report they have about 1.6 giveaways a game right now so you know he's passing the puck and turning it over about almost two times a game at this point which is crazy like that that is a alarming amount i mean you know for a guy who is you know supposed to be like our puck moving kind of two-way guy hasn't really found success getting out of the zone this year but in saying that has been good defensively you see here his block shots a game are at two so you know he as is playing good defensively but getting the puck out is something that every defenseman i believe has been struggling with here this season here we see with the goaltending uh you know stats here the high danger saves have been great like when nine and in nine four three uh on the high danger scoring chances is a big big number and a big number that jumps off the page at you it's eight four three sorry uh but yeah it's it's big and then the medium danger and low danger are lower than what you would would have wanted i mean low danger is still 925 you know that's fine but we're way below league average on that medium danger see we're 859 so we're way below that so we'd like to see that come up tonight we're going to talk about the goaltending in a bit uh but yeah we need we just need some big changes tonight we just need to make the saves we need to make just not give away the puck so much and just kind of slow the game down right we just need to slow it down and just find those passes that are going to work right even if it's keeping it simple going short right getting it out of the zone that way i But looking right now, the Sharks are fifth in the Pacific Division with six points right now. They're going to need to start winning some games here to start competing with some of these top teams in the division. It's looking like Vegas and Edmonton are the teams that we thought they were. Obviously, Edmonton's 5-0-1 here to start the year, which is unbelievable. So we need to start picking it up to compete with these guys. Looking at our competition tonight, the Predators are ranked seventh. They also have six points, so we're about the same points. both teams need a spark, both teams need two points tonight so hopefully we can come away with the win in regulation and just to kind of summarize this topic you know we just got to win the next possession right we got to give the puck carrier a short outlet keep a forward above the puck and clear rebounds before chasing contact right like we've been kind of going into the boards you know trying to you know kind of hold up against the boards but it just hasn't been working we've been losing a lot of pucks that way and teams have been regaining possession like that So we just need to, you know, try to not play as high up, right? Like there's a lot of players that are going above the blue line. Come back in. Have an option there for the defense and it will be better, right? But obviously there is some uncertainty around Darnell Nurse. It's not something that I'm very concerned about going into tonight's game. He didn't play the other game after his fight with Nikita Zadorov and it was kind of an undisclosed injury right now, day to day. I'm assuming game time decision at this point, but I wouldn't worry about it. I think this is just going to be, you know, obviously he might get hurt in the fight, but I think he'll be good to go tonight. I haven't heard any updates on him today, but I really hope that he is good to go tonight. But looking at the lineup with Nurse in it tonight, this is kind of what we're looking at. You know, this is kind of what we ran with last game, and I really like that Stenberg-Mises-Shearwood line, to be honest with you guys. So I'd run it back, and I think Chernenkov looked way better than Marchment on this top line. And Marchment-Wenberg-Tafoli didn't really impress, but, you know, they had their moments in the last game and the fourth line you know they did they just do them their job uh then obviously the defense stays the same Nedeljkovic is going to get the start which we're going to talk about in just a second but without Nurse uh Nolan Allen will draw in tonight and he'll play with Jacob Truba which is who we play with in the preseason maybe we'll see Dickinson with Kesslering and we'll keep Orlov and Cagnoni together so in the case where we don't have Nurse tonight this is kind of what we're looking at but one guy I did just want to talk about too is Jacob Truba uh you know obviously bringing him in as a big defensive guy has three points on the board so far has a goal as well which is great uh now 10 10 uh 10 blocks 12 hits he's been doing Jacob Truba things is just tightening up those passes and those zone exits and i think out of all the defensemen Truba has maybe been the most solid maybe him and Cagnoni uh but you know i think there's obviously all six defensemen out there on the ice need to clear up their their exits and just have better passes out of the zone seems like when they're getting pressure they're they're struggling with making a decision so hopefully we can see that cleared up tonight because that'll be something that will really impact this game I wish you guys support the defense as well centers like I said come down low give them an option right weak side winger protects the middle so just you know keep that way right like just go up high you know get in front of the slot try to block some shots do whatever you had to do and avoid both defenders pinching together because we have seen instances where the defender has pinched him and then they come down on a two-on-one and score on us very easily so we need to start stop that tonight and obviously we got a big test tonight in Phil Forsberg who has had a pretty solid start to the year uh for the Nashville Predators uh he's a guy who has five points uh through their first like five games maybe six now uh but yeah he doesn't have a goal yet so he's still looking to get back on the sheet as you see here he's expected to have almost two goals at this point in the season so he's gonna be looking to get his first one here tonight so we really need to uh shut him down but looking at Marchman he's our top player against Nashville he's a point per game player against them in his last eight meetings so hopefully we can see him uh come out tonight and put on a big performance but like i said marchman has had a slow start for this year he has don't have a point since he scored the opening goal of the season for the Sharks so hoping for him to get back on the on the on the board tonight because obviously that uh now that he's playing third line minutes you know he obviously got bumped down because he wasn't producing offensively so hopefully we'll see to get him back to producing here tonight just looking at some of the things that we need to make Nashville do is make them defend b we got to be the team in control we got to be the team hemming teams into their own zones so hopefully we can take control of that tonight and do those things because when teams do it to us we lose games and when we do it we're going to win hockey game so let's start that tonight and obviously i've got to talk about the goaltending situation uh yeah Sharks need saves and discipline can't be taking penalties we just need to you know make those saves and tonight as i am recording this video popped up on my screen uh via notification that Ned is starting tonight so we'll see Nedelkovich in his second start of this season so .923 save percentage for Ned he had a great first outing and going into tonight i have a lot of faith in Ned i think it's going to be a win for us tonight so let's go for that and obviously uh nashville nashville's goalie options they got Juuse Saros who's uh rested up i'm assuming that we will see him in tonight's game if not we will see Matt Murray who is having a good start to the season for them as well so uh hopefully we will see uh you know a good game tonight and hopefully we'll see Ned kind of come out and and have a great game like he did last one and get us a regulation win because that's what we really want and just looking at our special teams power play has been great almost 24 percent uh penalty kills and 83.3 percent you know the penalty kill or the power play numbers went up after we scored on the on the last in the last game so it's looking good now I like the way the unit looked with Stenberg up there so hopefully they keep that going tonight the penalty kill has been solid all year for us uh so you know I'm not worried about that and then just kind of looking at the Predators special teams at this point uh they're playing really well you know they're penalty killing 84 their power play at 27.3 so we need to shut them down and not allow them to get on the power play tonight uh so just be disciplined that's right we need just to be disciplined and just looking at our keys to the victory for tonight's game just clean exits protect the puck in the middle just we just got to get out of the zone get out of our zone over the blue line and just carry it up through the zone do that little like give and go they've been doing as soon as they get over the blue line that's been working so just getting out the zone easily not getting hemmed in as much and hopefully not coming out flat in the first period because that's something that you know everybody has watched the games this season we've seen like the first period has been atrocious almost every single game after every watch along uh this year i've been after the first period i've had a huge huge rant so uh hopefully we're doing a watch long again tonight so i hit the subscribe button put notifications on so you're you're uh you're ready for that and then obviously we just gotta stay out of the box like i said screen the goalie and get rebounds and that'll kind of be our you know a key to the win tonight let me know what you guys think do you think the sharks are going to go out get back on the win column tonight and beat the Nashville Predators watch your score predictions let me know down below in the comment section while you're down there leave a like subscribe to the channel as always I've been your host Casey keep your stick on the ice