After starting January with a perfect seven wins in seven games, the San Jose Sharks have fallen back to earth and are on a four game skid. The Sharks will look for their first win of February when they take on the Columbus Blue Jackets on Monday night.
The Sharks fielded the most dynamic offense in January with 27 goals in seven games. In February, the offense has been negligible at best as San Jose has scored just five goals in four matches. The team hit rock bottom on Saturday when it was shut out by the Phoenix Coyotes in a 1-0 shootout loss. Top line players Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau have been stuck on 14 points since Jan 29, a span of five games. Marleau, who scored nine goals in the opening five games, has not scored in six games. Fortunately, the team's goaltending duo of Antti Niemi and Thomas Greiss has been splendid for the Sharks. Niemi has played in nine games and has a goals against average of 1.82 while Greiss has played in two and has a 1.01 GAA.
The Columbus Blue Jackets are starting to reflect last season's 30th place finish. The team has lost three straight and five of six. In their most recent defeat, the Jackets were taken down 3-1 against the Edmonton Oilers. The Jackets went 0-7 on the power play and looked disorganized on the offensive.
"You've got to score more than one goal in this League," said Columbus forward R.J. Umberger. "For us, we can't make the blatant mistakes because they're just always in our net. We've got to find ways to score more than one goal and help out our goaltending."
The Jackets' goaltending continues to struggle; Sergei Bobrovsky gave up two goals on just 13 shots against Edmonton. He currently holds a 2.98 goals against average in seven games played. Backup Steven Mason has a 3.00 GAA in six games played.
This is the first of three games between these two teams in the 2013 season.
Start Time: 7 PM EST
TV: FS-O,CSN-CA
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