Road Trip Deemed Great By Sharks Head Coach
Despite losing to the Vegas Golden Knights in a shootout last night, the San Jose Sharks positively finished their six-game road trip.
Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports - Road Trip Deemed Great By Sharks Head CoachDespite losing to the Vegas Golden Knights in a shootout last night, the San Jose Sharks positively finished their six-game road trip.
San Jose overcame a multi-goal deficit to force overtime for the third straight game. The Sharks scored four goals in those three games with their goaltender on the bench.
When Sharks head coach David Quinn spoke to the media before the game, he said it was an opportunity for the team to make a good road trip into a great one.
"It's been a good road trip. But let's not be satisfied with having a good road trip. Let's have a great road trip. That's really what we've been talking about," Quinn said pregame.
After the 5-4 shootout loss, THN asked Quinn if the road trip was deemed a great one.
"I do. With the schedule we've had, the way our season started, not having a road win, coming out here and scoring the way we are, and just changing our season in a lot of ways," Quinn said postgame. "I thought we took it to another level during this trip."
When the Sharks lost 3-0 to the Boston Bruins, their road record dropped to 0-10 and the team had scored six goals on the road.
Through the final five games of the trip, Team Teal scored a combined 26 goals. Mikael Granlund had 11 points (2 goals, 9 assists) across those five games.
Tomas Hertl had his fourth career hat trick against the New York Islanders. He responded by scoring two goals in the next game against the Detroit Red Wings.
"We've created a blueprint of how we're going to have success over the last month," Quinn said. "We've been doing it, but not as consistently over the last two games."
San Jose outshot the Golden Knights 39-27 and wasn't hemmed in for an extended period.
"I thought we defended pretty well, not a lot of big-time chances," Quinn said. "I thought they had a five-minute stretch in the third where they had us hemmed in a bit, but a month ago, that's 25 minutes of hemmed-in hockey that we were trying to fight through."
San Jose will have a day off today to travel home for the first time since Nov. 29. They will face the Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday night.
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