Not So Overreactions from Game1

Thrun Bordeleau Eklund
- Each looked good, I would rank their performances Eklund 1, Thrun 2, Bordeleau 3. Eklund imo should be on Zadinas and Herls line. The Sharks surely would have had two goals from that line. Thrun had plenty of mistakes but nothing due to being a bad player. Just evident youth mistakes (strong armed, stumbles, fumbles). He’s clearly the Sharks best defender in terms of where he could land. His prowess in both ends shows consistently. Bordeleau played good but wasn’t very noticeable compared to the other two, but he competed very well and I don’t have much criticism.

Zadina; early candidate for best off-season deal?
- Zadina had a fantastic debut. Obviously a great goal, which only feeds his confidence. You almost always knew when he was on the ice (#18 for SJS), and I really like his saucer pass. He opted to use the saucer nearly dozen times and he created many chances. As chemistry develops more with his new time I’d only guess it will result in more assists/ offence.
He was one of the best players on the ice (including VGK players; the Knights players were by far better overall than the Sharks obviously).

Kaapo Kahkonen
- I can’t say he had a bad game but he didn’t have an amazing game. He played good, that five hole goal was one he NEEDS to have and it made a difference to where it broke the Sharks right then.

Zetterlund and Duclair
- They both had decent showings. Zetterlund has some real potential to be a serviceable mid6 and Duclair just had a slow night but not much you can do.

Who I didn’t like/ issues
- Hoffman was not brutal. But he needs to show some offensive threat to be serviceable (does need to score every night but needs to get looks and he didnt). Rutta just had a bad night and bad luck. Looking to see a better game. Smith had plenty of give aways. Barabanov surprisingly did not have a good night, need to see more from him.

For the next game - I’d change the line up as follows.