Where Sharks missed Alex Wennberg’s veteran presence most in loss to Senators originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
OTTAWA — Here’s another area where the Sharks missed Alex Wennberg.
“You make a mistake, you try to correct it immediately, and then, you just compound it,” Collin Graf said after the Sharks’ 7-4 loss to the Ottawa Senators on Sunday at Canadian Tire Centre.
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Graf (51) was referring to this Tyler Kleven (43) goal, which gave the Senators a 4-3 lead in the second period.
The initial mistake was Graf’s turnover, forced by Warren Foegele (37). The compounding mistake was the defensive coverage, in a 3-on-3: In the end, Vincent Desharnais (5) and Shakir Mukhamadullin (85) covered Foegele, Graf was closing on Fabian Zetterlund (20), and nobody had Kleven. Desharnais had signaled Graf to cover the backdoor.
The Sharks — all NHL players, really — know this simple concept for winning hockey games. But the young Sharks are still working on their execution, at a high pace, of this concept. That’s what the better teams do more consistently than San Jose.
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