From: nlu@Xenon.Stanford.EDU (Nelson Lu)
Subject: Sharks lose to Canadiens 4-1
Organization: Computer Science Department, Stanford University.
Date: Tue, 5 Jan 1993 07:53:36 GMT

Monday, January 4, 7:00 P. M., at Arco Arena:

The Sharks, playing a neutral-site game for the first time in franchise
history, initially looked impressive, as they contained the Canadiens' high
scoring forwards well, but eventually got tired, sloppy, and perhaps unlucky
as the Canadiens defeated them 4-1 in the first game of a two-game
back-to-back series, to be culminated tomorrow night at the Cow Palace.  Jeff
Hackett initially stopped everything in sight, but got frustrated and careless
later on, surrendering 4 goals on 36 shots for the loss, while the Sharks never
really threatened Andre Racicot, who stopped 17 of 18 San Jose shots for the
victory.

The first period was very one-sided as far as skating goes, as the speedy
Canadiens thoroughly dominated puck control and used their speed to out-shoot
the Sharks 14-4 in the period, but Hackett was out-standing, stopping a number
of close shots, and the Sharks, while short-handed, got the only goal of the
period.  After a Habs pass in the Sharks zone bounced off Mike Sullivan's
stick, Neil Wilkinson took the puck, and went on a 2-on-1 with Pat Falloon,
feeding Falloon with a headman pass just outside the Canadiens zone, and
Falloon returned the pass quickly to Wilkinson, who shot it low past Racicot.

The teams were fairly even early in the second period, but later on, the Sharks
seemed to begin to turn weary from the amount of skating they were forced to
do, and the Canadiens, out-shooting the Sharks 10-8 in the period, tied the
game at 16:59.  Benoit Brunet, fighting a check off to hold the puck in at the
left point, sent the puck deeper along the left boards to Stephan Lebeau, who
then sent an angled centering pass in front to Vincent Damphousse, who one-
timed Lebeau's pass past Hackett.

The Sharks got very tired in the third period, getting just 6 shots on Racicot,
and while the Canadiens didn't really pepper Hackett either, getting 12 shots,
they also caught a couple lucky breaks.  The took the lead that they would not
relinquish, at 7:51.  Mario Roberge had just shot the puck in from outside the
Sharks zone, and with Doug Zmolek distracted by a confrontation with Todd Ewen,
Mattieu Schneider went in unchallenged, took the puck, circled the net, and
poked the puck past Hackett on a wrap-around.  Later on, on a power-play
created on a disputed call by Denis Morel on Wilkinson, after Brunet and
Schneider exchanged passes on the blue line, the pass went to Lebeau on the
left boards, and Lebeau moved in just a bit, and shot a hard shot past Hackett,
at 16:02.  The Habs' victory was assured when they struck again at 17:52.  A
Guy Carbonneau attempt at shooting the puck went wide, but somehow took a
strange bounce behind the net, and came back out to the slot, where a waiting
Kirk Muller simply slammed it past Hackett.

Tonight's three stars:

1.	Mattieu Schneider
2.	Neil Wilkinson
3.	Stephan Lebeau

Tonight's lines:

Johan Garpenlov		Kelly Kisio		Rob Gaudreau
Michel Picard		Pat Falloon		Mike Sullivan
Mark Pederson		Dean Evason		Jeff Odgers
Yvon Corriveau		David Maley		Robin Bawa

Tonight's defensive pairings:

		Jayson More		Neil Wilkinson
		Tom Pederson		Rob Zettler
		David Williams		Doug Zmolek

Scratches:	Arturs Irbe (knee), Sandis Ozolinsh (knee),
	Pat MacLeod (shoulder), Doug Wilson (foot), David Bruce (groin),
	Larry DePalma (back), Perry Berezan, John Carter, Lyndon Byers,
	Ray Whitney.

Notes:

1.	Initially, Dan Rusanowski had remarked that the ice, within a rink
	of standard dimension, was of surprisingly good quality for a neutral
	site game; however, it appeared that by the third period, the ice
	quality had gone really bad, as there were bundles of strange bounces
	all around the rink.

2.	And, with that in mind, the Canadiens' practice this morning on the
	Arco Arena ice may have helped them discover some of the subtle points
	of the rink; the Sharks did not practice there, as they practiced at
	the Cow Palace.

3.	Yawn.  It was a pretty boring game; but no, it's not just due to the
	low scoring (well, before the final minutes anyway), it's that it
	seems like that nothing's happening.  Unlike the close, low-scoring
	games that the Sharks have played with the Habs before, it seems like
	that nothing seems to happen for the entire game.

4.	It was almost like playing at home, in a way, for the Sharks.  The
	crowd, although not quite as much as the Cow Palace crowd, was
	noticably pro-San Jose, and they even did the Chomp, as the game had
	the same announcer (I think), same organist (but a different, inferior
	organ), and even the same guy singing the anthems (Dennis Leach) as at
	the Cow Palace.  (Pretty much the only different thing in these aspects
	is that Leach, for the first time I've ever heard anyone do at an NHL
	game, sang "O Canada" in French in its entirety; I've heard of the
	split French/English a lot of times, but have never heard of it
	entirely in French.)

5.	Some netters have remarked that Pat Burns, the former coach of the
	Canadiens, can't tolerate individuality; but looking at this game, it
	appears that there's something about the team that seems to make the
	Canadiens a monolithically very good team; the individuals Vincent
	Damphousse and Brian Bellows, for example, were noticably different
	from the same Damphousse and Bellows that I saw with the Oilers and
	the North Stars, respectively, last year.

===============================================================================
[Under construction; I have to think about who to jinx next; I have already
jinxed Gretzky, Hackett, and Ozolinsh]
===============================================================================
Nelson Lu (claudius@leland.stanford.edu)
rec.sport.hockey contact for the San Jose Sharks