SAN JOSE – Attendance figures for San Jose Sharks home games this season have ranged from sellout crowds of over 17,000 on some nights to others where it looks like there’s not even half that number of people in the building.
They’ve all more or less been treated to entertaining and close games, ones that all too often have seen the Sharks give up a boatload of goals in frustrating losses.
The latest was a 7-4 loss to the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday, as the Sharks rallied to tie the game midway through the third period, only to allow the final three goals.
Going into Saturday’s game against the New York Rangers, the Sharks own a 1-5-3 record at SAP Center this season, the worst mark in the NHL and their poorest start at home in close to 20 years.
That record doesn’t include a 3-2 loss to Nashville on Oct. 8 in Prague when San Jose was considered the home team.
“The whole thing is you want to be able to win at home, whether it’s for your home fans or whatnot, you want this barn to be a hard place to come into and to play,” Sharks goalie James Reimer said, “and right now, unfortunately, it isn’t.”
The Sharks have played well enough at home to earn more than five points, particularly on a six-game homestand that ended earlier this month with a 1-2-3 record. Travel and fatigue may have also played a role, as the Sharks went to Europe and back — and the East Coast and back — in the first three-plus weeks of the season.
Nevertheless, while the Sharks have a winning road record at 5-4-0, the previously formidable Shark Tank has mostly been a safe haven for visiting teams so far.
“We’ve just got to manage the puck a little bit better in certain situations in the game,” Sharks forward Kevin Labanc said, “and if we do that, things will take care of themselves.”
It’s easy to see why the Sharks (6-10-3) have just one win on home ice – a 4-3 overtime victory over Toronto on Oct. 27.
Through untimely mistakes, puck management gaffes, or just spotty goaltending, the Sharks have allowed 40 goals in 10 games as the home team, the fourth-highest per-game total in the league.
Turnovers led to the Red Wings’ first two goals, and the Sharks had trouble managing the puck for parts of the final two periods. Game-changing mistakes also cropped up in losses at SAP Center to Carolina, Chicago, Vegas, Tampa Bay, and Anaheim.
The Sharks have scored 30 goals in 10 games as the home team, right around the league average.
“Even in that last homestand, I thought we played a lot of good hockey but just didn’t win,” Sharks coach David Quinn said Thursday. ”We talked about the big mistakes we made at crucial times, so it was more that from the homestand where we only won one. Tonight it was the turnovers and the mentality entering the offensive zone.”
Reimer also had an off night Thursday, as Moritz Seider scored a go-ahead goal in the third period after the Sharks rallied to tie the game 4-4. Reimer had just 14 saves on 20 shots, continuing a perplexing trend.
Reimer is 5-2-0 with a .921 save percentage in seven road games but 0-4-2 with a .873 save percentage as the home goalie. Kaapo Kahkonen has only played six games this season but has also been better on the road than at home.
All told, the Sharks are off to their worst start at home since the 2003-04 season when that team went 0-3-5-1 – the last two columns represented ties and overtime losses – at what was then HP Pavilion.
The Sharks that season finished 19-13-5-4 at home and later advanced to the Western Conference final. This year’s Sharks team will presumably get better at home, but there’s been scant evidence so far that such a drastic turnaround is in the cards.
After Saturday, the Sharks complete their three-game homestand on Monday against Ottawa. After a game in Seattle on Wednesday, the Sharks return home for games against Los Angeles and Vancouver on Friday and Sunday, respectively.
“(The home record) definitely is not where we want it to be, but if we keep playing the right way, these wins are going to start adding up,” Labanc said. “Just the culture in the locker room, we’ve got really good guys and great teammates and good players. So we can get ourselves out of it just as quickly as we put ourselves in it.”
TRANSACTION: Defenseman Scott Harrington cleared waivers Friday and was assigned to the Barracuda, the Sharks’ AHL affiliate. Harrington had played in just two of the Sharks’ first 19 games and did not enter the lineup after Radim Simek was placed on injured reserve earlier this week. Nick Cicek played the last two games instead and is now one of six defensemen on the Sharks’ active roster. Simek skated Thursday morning and is eligible to come off IR on Monday.
Source: www.mercurynews.com