That's a Wrap, Sharks Regular Season
2022-06-24At the end of a disappointing season last year, GM Mitchell sat in front of the Sharks season ticket holders and asked for patience as the team starts a rebuild. As the remaining teams in the league are still finishing up their schedules, the Sharks are surprisingly awaiting a first round match-up against the Pacific division leading Vegas Golden Knights. "Yeah it's a pleasant surprise for us to be able to extend our season into the playoffs" quipped Sharks head coach Jon Cooper. "I hate losing and this team rallied behind an this underdog story and ran with it." Cooper has definitely left his mark on this team.
Carl Hagelin again led the team in points with 82, this time getting good support from the teams number one center Alex Wennberg who was one point behind with 81 points. The crazy part is Hagelin spent the majority of the season on the teams 2nd line and even spent time on the 3rd line. Another surprise player this year was David Rittich, who looked equal to Bobrovsky's numbers as a Shark.
The GM made 6 trades this season, here's the breakdown of who's out and who's in:
Out: Carter Verhaeghe, Greg McKegg, Andy Greene, Sami Vatanen, Carl Dahlstrom, Sergiy Bobrovsky, 2022 SJ 4th, 2022 SJ 5th & 2022 NYI 5th
In: Jacob Perreault, Wyatt Kalynuk, David Rittich, Dmitry Kulikov, 2022 NYI 1st, 2022 COL 2nd, 2022 NYI 2nd & $1,500,000 cash
Vegas Match-up:
San Jose vs Vegas record: 1W - 1L - 1 OTL / GF: 11, GA: 12
All 3 games came in the first half of the season.
Game 1 was the overtime loss 4-3 that saw the Sharks out shoot Vegas on the road 33 to 27. Backup Alex Stalock got the nod in this game. Results can be found here: https://www.elitehockeysim.com/File/2021-RegularSeason/EHE2122-53.html
Game 2 was a 4-2 loss at home. Shots were close, 33 for Vegas and 29 for the Sharks. Previous Sharks starter Bobrovsky got the nod in net for this tilt. Results can be found here: https://www.elitehockeysim.com/File/2021-RegularSeason/EHE2122-159.html
Game 3 was an offensive slugfest in Vegas, seeing the Sharks win 6-4. Shots again were real close, 31 for the Sharks and 29 for Vegas. David Rittich got the start in this game. Results can be found here: https://www.elitehockeysim.com/File/2021-RegularSeason/EHE2122-461.html
Good luck to everyone who made the playoffs. Cheers!