Californian Rivals Anaheim Ducks, San Jose Sharks showdown on Monday -NHL Match Preview
Anaheim Ducks and San Jose Sharks, both some of the most competent team’s in the National Hockey League (NHL), will be meeting up for the second time this season with entirely different interests at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, California, United States,
on Monday night, October 17, 2011.
The last time these teams met was earlier during the 2011-2012 NHL regular season and it was Anaheim which shutout the Sharks, 1-0, but that was a different time and in their own home town. Now Ducks will travel down to San Jose and come face-to-face with
the Sharks on their turf, which could be a different story altogether.
Since their first matchup, an interest aspect of looking at their situation up to the point of them meeting again is that they both faced St. Louis Blues in-between their meetings and seeing how each team played against the mutual opponent might just allow
for a concrete future prediction.
Anaheim managed to overpower the Blues, 4-2, with ease, while San Jose had the total opposite outcome from the match by losing, 4-2, to St. Louis. Losing in the way that Anaheim beat them, San Jose just might be heading into their third consecutive loss
of the season, only having won their season opener against Phoenix Coyotes.
Ducks were down against St. Louis midway through the match but made a surprising comeback later on, which they hope to change around and take control earlier.
"We knew we would score eventually", coach Randy Carlyle said, after the matchup. "But the longer you go, the more the pressure mounts and guys start squeezing their sticks".
After the matchup against St. Louis, San Jose coach, Todd McLellan, did not see any visible flaw in his teams’ performance but considered them to be there since the other team took the match.
"We didn't make a lot of mistakes", coach Todd McLellan said. "But we made enough for them to score".
Anaheim and St. Louis will be meeting for the second time and still have four matchups to go throughout the regular season Jonas Hiller, Anaheim’s goalie will certainly be a contributing factor if they manage to win on Monday because of his concrete goaltending.
Last season, home-ice advantage played a big role in winning for both teams as San Jose and Anaheim had three wins each out of a total six, two of each which were at home and one away contest.
At the moment, Anaheim’s line-up, Bobby Ryan, Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf along with NHL legend, Teemu Selanne, have a high potential to carry their team to victory and are capable of making them Stanley Cup contenders next year when the playoffs begin.
In regards of points, St. Louis is only one matchup behind Anaheim as the former has four points while the latter has six. It will be exciting to see which team will emerge victorious on Monday as the match kicks off at 10:30 PM ET.
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