Sharks can't keep giving shorthanded opponents scoring opportunities

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Danton Heinen’s first goal against the Sharks on Thursday was a formality, and an anomaly.

It was a formality, in that Heinen became the 95th player in NHL history to score their first career goal against the Sharks, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. It was an anomaly, in that it was the first shorthanded goal the Sharks gave up all season.

Heinen’s tally was the first, but it was probably overdue. Why?

Because San Jose is among the league’s worst teams in allowing shorthanded opportunities.

Only three teams (Colorado, New York Islanders, and Columbus) allow shorthanded scoring chances at a higher rate than San Jose, and only one (Colorado) allows shorthanded opponents to generate more high danger scoring chances, according to Natural Stat Trick.

The second unit was the culprit on Heinen’s shorthanded goal on Thursday, but the top unit has been the bigger problem all season. San Jose’s “leaders” in the rate of shorthanded scoring chances are all members of the first power play unit.

Goaltender Martin Jones has masked the power play’s defensive liabilities. He stopped the first ten shorthanded shots he faced, before allowing his first shorthanded goal on Thursday night. Jones has never given up more than three shorthanded goals in a season, and has only allowed six on the 123 shorthanded shots he’s faced in his five-year career.

The bad news, however, lies in Jones’ backup. Aaron Dell’s allowed three shorthanded goals on the 13 shorthanded shots he’s faced since debuting last season. Dell has not been worse necessarily when facing shorthanded shooters, but the fact he allowed more shorthanded goals than Jones in so many fewer starts last season shows how much variance is possible. These are extremely small sample sizes, after all.

If the Sharks continue to allow shorthanded chances, and Jones falters even slightly, they will allow more shorthanded goals. That would be costly for any team, let alone one that’s only managed to score 13 five-on-five goals in nine games this season.

As long as San Jose struggles at even strength, special teams become especially important. The power play has overperformed, the penalty kill has been among the league’s best, and the two units have helped keep the team hovering around .500 this season.

If allowing shorthanded goals becomes even remotely as normal as allowing a rookie’s first career goal, those groups simply won’t be enough to carry the Sharks.

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