The San Jose Sharks welcome the Vegas Golden Knights into SAP Center for a pre-season tilt.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m watching Musty, Cardwell, Misa, Chernyshov, Bystedt, Wetsch, Dickinson, and Thompson more closely tonight.<\/p>\n
Dmitry Orlov scored, but the Sharks lost 2-1.<\/p>\n
Period 1<\/p>\n
Orlov-Misa-Wennberg-Eklund-Gaudette start on power play. Dickinson-Mukhamadullin-Chernyshov-Bystedt-Musty follow.<\/p>\n
2 in: Misa able to shed F1 Sapovaliv carrying up, good. But loses it on entry, trying to force pass through two Knights.<\/p>\n
9 in: Wennberg clever center ice kick to Musty with speed. Subtle brilliant play, but the line is tired, so Musty just gets it deep, which is the wise play.<\/p>\n
10 in: Misa pulls up at center ice, recognizes he can\u2019t beat set Vegas defense, tries for pass up middle. But the pass doesn\u2019t connect, turnover. I actually like his thinking, not forcing action forward, but obviously execution has to improve, that is a dangerous area for a turnover. But I prefer that, in theory, to forcing play up wall, automatic turnover too. His only other option was dumping it in.<\/p>\n
7 left: Mukhamadullin with some nifty puck-moving on this long shift, but then you can\u2019t do that defensively. Puck race, knocks Bowman off stride before Bowman gets to puck.<\/p>\n
5 left: Looks like ref missed a high sticking call on Vegas, Cardwell struck. Cardwell does show good energy on the PK there, as usual, though he missed a drop pass to Gaudette on short-handed attack.<\/p>\n
Early Wetsch impressions, I think this AHL-level pace too much for him. That\u2019s OK, of course, first pro game, he\u2019s just 19. Warsofsky was very high in his praise of the 2024 third-rounder today.<\/p>\n
1 left: Chernyshov thinks that he has a little space along the wall, behind Schmid to work, but Sapovaliv rips the puck from him. Live and learn. Chernyshov size was effective along wall on this shift, but looking like he could use AHL seasoning in terms of pace.<\/p>\n
San Jose Sharks with just four shots, despite a couple power plays. Vegas has eight. Felt like the Sharks were reacting to what\u2019s essentially the Henderson Silver Knights out here, not dictating. Let\u2019s hope they pick it up.<\/p>\n
Period 2<\/p>\n
Orlov goal: Cardwell and Musty forecheck kept puck in zone for faceoff previous shift. Then Wennberg faceoff win, Orlov clapper, effective traffic from the young wingers.<\/p>\n
Schwindt goal: Chernyshov maybe hit high by follow-through stick, but he looks OK. Demek traffic.<\/p>\n
9 in: Musty forecheck gives San Jose Sharks the puck for a second. More of that. Feel like Sharks still reacting, not on top of Knights.<\/p>\n
8 left: Following Misa in DZ, he does credible job on 6-foot-4 Demek. Prevents Demek from shaking stick free net front when Vegas had puck at point. Nothing earth-shattering, and Demek is an AHL\u2019er, but he\u2019s big and Misa has consistently shown a clear defensive conscience. He\u2019s not being mauled in battle.<\/p>\n
6 left: Dickinson skates back in DZ to retrieve puck, Holtz F1 on him, hard cutback, Dickinson shakes Holtz, then hits Grundstrom for a long pass for easy entry. Impressive play there, and while Holtz is no forechecking beast, he\u2019s a pretty experienced pro player. Pro play from Dickinson, like.<\/p>\n
2 left: Goodrow coming out of box, beats I think Hutton to loose puck, Cardwell hustle makes him all alone in front of Schmid, Goodrow throws it to the speed, Cardwell spin-o-rama backhand beats Schmid\u2026but post. Inches away from a highlight-reel goal.<\/p>\n
1 left: Another impressive Dickinson shift. Retrieves puck after Chernyshov NZ turnover to Schwindt, calmly retrieves it, sees Musty up the wall, fires it past Knight along the wall to hit Musty for easy exit.<\/p>\n
Then Dickinson jumps up through NZ and gains zone, almost connects with Musty in slot for a Grade-A. Credit to Chernyshov too, while he did turn it over in NZ, he picked F1 Schwindt, a bona fide NHL\u2019er, to give Dickinson an easy retrieval for that DZ exit pass to Musty. He also stood in front of a Knight as Dickinson entered OZ, paving way for Sam to find Musty in slot.<\/p>\n
Dickinson showing me that he\u2019s at least AHL-ready, which frankly is impressive for a 19-year-old. Eager to see how he does as opponents start playing more of their NHL guys soon (will be happy to be proven wrong in my early analysis of him).<\/p>\n
Period 3<\/p>\n
1 in: Orlov pinch, Misa picks it up, finds Musty in slot for good chance. Like. Don\u2019t expect Misa to dominate as an 18-year-old, but consistently, through scrimmages and his two pre-season appearances, he has time and space, will make plays. Seems basic, but not every teen can do that at this pro level.<\/p>\n
3 in: Orlov toying with this level, gorgeous bounce exit pass to Eklund, who hits a streaking Cardwell for partial breakaway.<\/p>\n
4 in: Thompson does a good job killing Reinhardt play along the wall, but Sharks can\u2019t get it out.<\/p>\n
Cormier goal: Dellandrea penalty, long shot, but traffic.<\/p>\n
6 in: That little play there, puck squirts to Musty near VGK blueline, just dump it in instead of lose it in NZ. Still just a one-goal game, still play patient.<\/p>\n
8 in: Eklund gets promoted next to Wennberg and Cardwell. It\u2019s well-deserved for Cardwell to stay on line.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s not a good pass by Misa through NZ, that\u2019s forcing it for offense. Turnover. Again, one-goal game, plenty of time. Don\u2019t like. Definitely situation for a young player to learn from.<\/p>\n
9 left: Dickinson mixes it up with Fleming, don\u2019t mind that, no question that he\u2019s got the size to deal with that.<\/p>\n
6 left: Wetsch goes after Fleming, credit to him, no fear, after cheap Fleming trip on Dellandrea. Love to see that. Sharks still come out with PP, clutch time, they have just 11 shots tonight.<\/p>\n
5 left: Pro PP work between Eklund on wall and Misa coming down slot, exchanging passes, Misa hammers it in slot.<\/p>\n
4 left: Musty a little too enthusiastic with his stick, breaks the Vegas player\u2019s in puck pursuit, there goes PP.<\/p>\n
2 left: 1:08 left, down 2-1, timeout, Askarov goes to bench, looks like Orlov-Musty-Misa-Wennberg-Eklund-Gaudette coming out for 6-on-5. Learning moment for the kids.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The San Jose Sharks welcome the Vegas Golden Knights into SAP Center for a pre-season tilt. I\u2019m watching…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":258065,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[88500,1322,135619,293,12641,1328,62,67,132,68,3116],"class_list":{"0":"post-258064","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-2025-26","9":"tag-featured","10":"tag-game-notes","11":"tag-nhl","12":"tag-notes","13":"tag-san-jose-sharks","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-vegas-golden-knights"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115274868597893650","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}