Positivity has been hard to come by for the San Jose Sharks over the first two-plus months of the season, but at least they had a chance this weekend to carry some good feelings into their three-day Christmas break.
Instead, the Sharks arrived back in San Jose early Sunday morning bearing the weight of a five-game losing streak, while still in last place in the NHL’s overall standings.
The Sharks erased one Vancouver Canucks lead Saturday but couldn’t fully overcome another in what became a 7-4 loss at Rogers Arena.
Mikael Granlund and Tomas Hertl both scored first-period goals to tie the game 2-2 after Canucks winger Andrei Kuzmenko scored twice in the first 6:51. But Vancouver scored three times in the second period to take the lead for good, with Dakota Joshua’s goal at the 19:13 mark standing up as the winner.
During the skid, the Sharks lamented their lack of energy, their penalty kill, and how they sometimes cheated for offense.
Saturday, another issue cropped up.
“There’s a lot of things I liked about our game,” Sharks coach David Quinn said. “This group never quits. We’re resilient, we’re mentally tough. Just too often the goals come too easy for our opponent.”
Fabian Zetterlund and Jacob MacDonald also scored and Mario Ferraro added three assists for San Jose (9-22-3). Goalie Mackenzie Blackwood stopped 19 shots of 25 shots as his record this month dropped to 1-4-0 with a .847 save percentage.
It can be argued, though, that the Sharks’ passive play near their net played a role in three of the first four Canucks goals.
“We just were soft around our net too often,” Quinn said. “Puck management wasn’t great. Too many blind, hope plays, and it cost us.
“I think we’ve got to realize how close we are to winning hockey games. That’s the thing that’s frustrating, and we’ve got to take that next step. I feel bad for our goalie because you can’t blame him on any of them.”
“Just do the best you can and try and get big, take away the angle and if they beat you with a tip, I mean, I’m not a superhero. I don’t have frickin’ superhero reflexes,” Blackwood said. “So just try and get big and take away the angle and if they beat you with a good tip, there’s not much you can do.”
Of course, the Sharks’ issues of late — they’ve been outscored 23-9 on the five-game skid — go beyond any one player.
Kuzmenko’s second goal came on the power play as the Sharks are now 8-for-13 on the penalty kill in their last four games.
Ferraro’s giveaway in the neutral zone in the second period led directly to a goal from Nils Aman. The defensemen also felt he didn’t do a good enough job of taking away the stick of Pius Suter, who redirected a Quinn Hughes shot from the point past Blackwood to give the Canucks a 6-4 lead with 4:17 left in regulation time.
“I could’ve done a better job in the defensive zone, maybe boxing out and closing out guys a little quicker,” Ferraro said. “It shows little mistakes, and I made a couple of little mistakes, (can be) costly. I’m happy about the things I did well offensively, but I’ve got to take care of my end first.”
The Sharks’ 21 points after 34 games is the franchise’s fewest since the 1995-96 season when they had 18 with a 7-23-4 record. That year, San Jose finished 25th out of 26 teams.
The Chicago Blackhawks have the same amount of points as the Sharks but have played one fewer game and, therefore have a slightly better points percentage (.318 to .309).
The post-Christmas schedule doesn’t get much easier for the Sharks, either, as they travel to play the Los Angeles Kings on Wednesday and host Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday. Los Angeles is in third place in the Pacific Division and Edmonton has won 10 of its last 13 games.
For now, the Sharks are going to try and enjoy the downtime with friends and family, and not think about the record, the losing streak, or Saturday’s mistakes.
“It’s Christmas and a time to be grateful for the people that we have that support us, and our loved ones,” Ferraro said. “We’re going to do that and live in the now. We’re going to have a good time with them and then we’re going to be ready to go on the 27th.”
“It’s a time of year you want to spend with your family,” Quinn said. “These guys put an awful lot into it. It’s been a difficult stretch here for the month of December. They’ve earned (the break) that’s for sure.
“It wasn’t a lack of compete tonight. We competed. We’ve just got to get a little bit smarter.”
Source: www.mercurynews.com