San Jose Sharks Come out with Bang, Rout Kings

After missing the playoffs for the first time in 10 seasons, the San Jose Sharks got off on the right foot to begin the 2015-2016 NHL season, where they came away with a big 5-1 victory against the Los Angeles Kings.

Los Angeles started the game off with a quick goal in the second minute of play when Nick Shore got a shot past new Sharks’ goalie Martin Jones.

The Sharks wouldn’t let the Kings lead for long however. Joe Thornton got the Sharks on the scoreboard for the first time this season when he lit the lamp on Jonathan Quick just eight minutes after the Shore goal. Newly appointed captain Joe Pavelski, who is coming off of a 37-goal season last year, scored his first goal of the season on a re-direction on a power play to put the Sharks up 2-1 late in the first period.

After killing off a penalty early in the second period, Brent Burns doubled the Sharks lead to 3-1 on a brilliant shot to beat Quick.

Tomas Hertl joined the goal party just 2:07 after the Burns goal to extend the Sharks lead to 4-1.

After allowing the first goal of the game Martin Jones begun to settle into a groove against his old team. His old teammate Tyler Toffoli tried to get a shot past Jones, but he had other plans.

Joonas Donskoi, who was the Finland’s professional hockey league’s playoff MVP last year, scored his first NHL goal in his first career NHL game on a tipped deflection in front of the Los Angeles Kings net early in the third period to push the Sharks lead to 5-1.

Donskoi became just the fourth player in San Jose Sharks’ franchise history to score a goal in their NHL debut in the opening night game, joining Marcus Ragnarsson, Brad Stuart, and Milan Michalek.

Following Raffi Torres‘ 41-game suspension handed down by the NHL, it will be interesting to see if the NHL does anything with Dustin Brown‘s dirty hit on Logan Couture. It looks like Brown blatantly takes a step forward into the area that Couture is skating and dives head first into Couture’s head in what could very easily be labeled as an “illegal hit”.

All-in-all, it was a very impressive opening night of hockey action for the San Jose Sharks. San Jose outshot Los Angeles 32-to-20, went 2-for-7 on the power play, while killing off all six of the Kings’ power play attempts.

It was a penalty filled affair with the Sharks finishing with 24 penalty minutes and the Kings finishing with 36 penalty minutes. Mike Brown led the Sharks with 9 penalty minutes and Milan Lucic led the Kings with 10 penalty minutes.

The Sharks will head home next and will take on the Pacific Division favorite, the Anaheim Ducks, on Saturday night.

Three Stars:

Third Star: Brent Burns… One goal, one assist, +2, four shots on goal, 24:21 time on ice

Second Star: Joe Thornton… One goal, one assist, +3, two shots on goal, 15:57 time on ice

First Star: Joe Pavelski… One goal, two assists, +3, seven shots on goal, 18:19 time on ice

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