At 5:29 of the first period, Michael Misa was credited with an assist on Ivar Stenberg’s even-strength goal. Six minutes and four seconds later, Stenberg appeared in the opposite role, assisting on Misa’s goal for San Jose.
That exchange gave the Sharks’ 10-0 preseason victory over the Anaheim Ducks at SAP Center a detail more valuable than its cartoonish score. Stenberg and Misa kept showing up together in the scoring, and their production ran both ways. For a Bay Area club still using exhibition games to examine combinations, that is the part worth carrying into the next assignment.
The final margin will attract attention in San Jose and across the region, naturally. Ten goals tend to demand a little ink. But preseason results are especially vulnerable to strange proportions: San Jose scored ten times on 27 shots, while Anaheim recorded 21, and the Ducks’ goaltending numbers became increasingly unpleasant as the night went on.
A 10-0 result can say a great deal about one evening’s execution and rather less about what follows.
The Stenberg-Misa connection rests on more specific evidence. After their first-period trade of scoring contributions, Misa assisted Stenberg again at 3:04 of the second period. Kiefer Sherwood also received credit on the play, but the recurring names were Stenberg and Misa. Those three goals came at even strength. Stenberg’s later power-play goal would complete his hat trick, with different teammates supplying the assists.
The pattern was complementary rather than one-sided. Stenberg finished with three goals and one assist. Misa had one goal and three assists. Each participated directly in the other’s scoring, giving both players four points. That does not prove they have found a permanent place together, but it does show a combination producing offense through shared involvement instead of merely benefiting from a lopsided night.
There were productive performances elsewhere, too. Chernyshov finished with three points, including two goals; Marchment scored twice. Bystedt and Leason each contributed a goal and an assist. Stenberg and Misa were prominent members of a much larger scoring cast, which should temper any attempt to give their partnership sole credit for the result.
Still, the broader attack also supplies the best counterargument. San Jose received goals from six players, scored twice with the man advantage and ended the game with Alex Nedeljkovic stopping all 21 Anaheim shots. Stenberg’s third goal, at 16:57 of the third period, came on the power play with Brett Leason and Jimmy Huntington assisting.
It counted in the score, but it belongs to a different evaluation from the even-strength exchanges that first made the Stenberg-Misa pairing interesting.
San Jose scored on more than a third of its 27 shots. I would be wary of building a regular-season forecast around that rate. Stenberg scored on all three of his shots, a perfect return that gave the night its unusual proportions.