The Sharks own this division, and everyone else knows it. Only the Anaheim Ducks really have a chance to catch San Jose, and they are six games back with a split in the two games of the season series.
Even with 58 games to go, that hill is a tough one to climb. If the Sharks play .600 hockey the rest of the way (they are currently playing .854 hockey), they will earn 70 points and finish with 111. That means the Ducks would have to get 82 points (and at least seven more wins than San Jose) to catch them, a .707 clip—over 100 percentage points higher than they currently are playing.
In other words, if the Sharks do over one-quarter worse than they currently are, the Ducks still have to do more than 10 percent better than they currently are. What do you really think the chances of that are?
And it's worse for the other division teams. Los Angeles is in third place but has lost both of the season matchups; they are eight games out. The Coyotes have split in the two matchups so far, but are now nine games back. Dallas has lost both and is 10.5 back.
The latter two teams are the Sharks' latest victims. On Friday evening, the Stars were no match for the Sharks, being thoroughly gutted 6-2.
The Sharks out-shot Dallas 30-27 and still blocked twice as many shots (12-6). Despite losing the face-off battle 32-31, the Sharks had possession of the puck more, thanks in large part to the Stars having 15 giveaways to the Sharks' nine. Yet despite being on the attack more, they were only out-hit by Dallas 17-16.
The Sharks made the most of their early opportunities, while Dallas did not. In the first seven minutes of the game, the Stars had two prime chances.
On the first, Brad Lukowich was able to tie up the stick of Landon Wilson. On the second, Mike Modano had a shot at the open net at the backside and could not get good wood on it.
But with just over eight minutes remaining in the first, Ryan Clowe intercepted Matt Niskanen's attempt to advance the puck out of the zone and kept control of it in the offensive zone even though his feet were behind the blueline. He stick-handled his way around Mark Parrish, skated back in and let go a shot from above the circle on the left wing; Joe Pavelski deflected it home.
Dallas did answer back 91 seconds later, with Brad Richards feeding Loui Ericsson the puck from behind the net and Ericsson putting it home off Rob Blake.
But the Sharks earned a power play 1:11 later, when Wilson high-sticked Dan Boyle; it took only 10 seconds for them to get a score. Joe Thornton won the face-off back to Marc-Eduoard Vlasic, who advanced the puck up to Patrick Marleau on the half-boards. Marleau fed it across to Boyle, who slapped it home from the point through a Thornton screen.
Four minutes later, Jeremy Roenick took a pass from Devin Setoguchi and chipped it back to him behind the goalline. Niskanen had a body on him, so he poked it to Thornton on the other side of the net, who found a wide open Boyle pinching down between the circles; Marty Turco never had a chance to make that save, and the Sharks went into the locker room with a 3-1 lead.
The Sharks extended a couple streaks...
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