Coming off of a convincing win on Thursday night against the Montreal Canadiens, the Sharks had momentum in their favor heading into their first meeting of the season with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
But Team Teal fell just short of sweeping through their back-to-back, giving up a goal late in the third frame and falling, in a 4-1 loss.
Here are three takeaways from Friday's game in Toronto:
On the back-to-back
Considering San Jose was playing their second straight night in a row, they didn't look too bad. After a dicey start in Toronto where the puck crossed the crease quite close to Martin Jones, the Sharks buckled down and did a better job taking the center of the ice away from the Leafs.
On the flip side, the Sharks' offense showed some signs of fatigue as the game went on. They had trouble generating offensive zone time and only put three shots on goal through the entire second stanza. That lack of energy, unfortunately, carried into the third and allowed Toronto to take over and score the go-ahead goal with less than ten minutes left to play.
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Jones
Not that the Sharks ever don't need a stand-up performance from No.31, but they really needed it from him on Friday night since the rest of the team played the night before. Jones rose to the occasion for the vast majority of Friday's game, although he ran into trouble in the final few minutes.
Jones was, however, strong on the penalty kill -- which the Sharks needed since they started making regular trips to the sin bin in the second period. Even with the kill unit getting some o-zone time in the third period, San Jose's perfect PK wouldn't have been possible without Martin Jones.
Speaking of players playing in front of the goalie ...
Is the blue line about to get a personnel change?
San Jose's d-corps has, admittedly, done a better job when it has come to limiting turnovers and not letting the opposition skate freely into their zone. However, there are only a couple of defensemen who are making that turnaround possible, as Tim Heed played less than 10 minutes in Friday's game -- the second night in a row he has been limited.
With both Brent Burns and Erik Karlsson logging huge minutes so early in the season, San Jose needs more defensemen that can pick up some of that workload. With Radim Simek and Dalton Prout on the mend, it's looking more and more likely that Heed's days in the lineup are numbered.
