San Jose Sharks, improved since Mike Grier pow-wow; face Boston Bruins
SAN JOSE – Maybe the San Jose Sharks have reached a turning point in their season. Or maybe a big wake-up call is right around the corner.
But after getting off to one of the worst starts in NHL history, the Sharks are suddenly on a season-long three-game point streak and close to climbing out of the league’s basement.
Fabian Zetterlund and Luke Kunin both scored and goalie Mackenzie Blackwood finished with 33 saves as the Sharks got past the Washington Capitals 2-1 on Monday to close out a three-game homestand with a 2-0-1 record.
San Jose is now 5-5-1 — with all five wins coming at home – since general manager Mike Grier met with his players on Nov. 6. The Sharks have 12 points, the same amount as the Chicago Blackhawks prior to Tuesday’s games.
“It wasn’t our best game by any means, but we found a way to win,” said Kunin, whose third-period goal gave the Sharks the lead for good. “So hopefully we can build off some things, learn from some things, and keep that good feeling going on the road trip.”
The Sharks now begin a six-game, 11-day road trip on Thursday against the Boston Bruins (14-4-3), who enter Tuesday tied for first place in the NHL with 31 points. In fact, four of the six teams the Sharks face on this trip are presently in a playoff spot.
That should present a significant challenge for a San Jose team that is 0-9-0 on the road this season, getting outscored 39-6 along the way. Most recently, the Sharks were flattened 7-1 by the Seattle Kraken at Climate Pledge Arena, a loss coach David Quinn and others felt was unacceptable and embarrassing.
But the Sharks should be able to get some players at some point during the trip. Center Tomas Hertl, who missed Monday’s game with an undisclosed injury and is considered day-to-day, is traveling with the team, along with winger Alexander Barabanov and defenseman Jan Rutta.
Barabanov, a top-six winger since he was acquired by San Jose in April 2021, hasn’t played since he suffered a broken finger on Oct. 24 in a game against the Florida Panthers. Rutta, who has averaged 18:37 in ice time per game, was injured in that Nov. 22 game against the Kraken.
“I’d like to get some bodies back here to really get our team together and we’ll see how we look,” Quinn said. “We haven’t had that all year. But we’ve been scratching and clawing here over the last three weeks and really proud of our guys. We’re showing some characteristics that you need if you’re going to have a successful season or is a team that has a chance.
“We’re doing a good job checking some boxes.”
The Sharks gave up 55 goals in their first 11 games as they began the season with a 0-10-1 record. Since then, the Sharks have given up 3.18 goals per game, thanks in large part to their goaltending. Blackwood has a .924 save percentage in his last eight games and Kaapo Kahkonen has a .903 save percentage in four games.
That’s allowed the Sharks to stay competitive in most games, with the exceptions being the defeat in Seattle and a 5-0 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights on Nov. 10.
“We’re still figuring out how to play together,” Blackwood said. “We have a lot of guys that have never played together before. Lots of teams have the same guys year after year, so they build some chemistry. It’s hard when you have so much turnover on a team. There’s so many new guys here, but they’re doing a good job of building that chemistry, meshing together and it’s becoming a team.
“It’s nice to start to see some things go our way.”
How much turnover has there been? Eight of the last nine goals scored by the Sharks have come from players who came to the organization before the start of the 2022-2023 season. In fact, 27 of the 36 goals the Sharks have scored have come from players who were not on the roster two years ago. The exceptions are Hertl and William Eklund with four goals each and Thomas Bordeleau with one.
“It takes time,” Quinn said. “We all know, early on, we weren’t getting the results. Injuries certainly played a role without (Logan Couture) and (Mikael Granlund) and the schedule was brutal. I’ve never said that really much, but it is what it is. We were in a tough spot. A lot of things that could have gone wrong did.
“We’re .500 since then and playing much better hockey.”
After Thursday, the Sharks’ trip continues with games against New Jersey, the New York Rangers, the New York Islanders, Detroit, and Vegas.
“Hopefully we get Hertl back, which would be nice, and maybe Barabanov,” Quinn said, “and all of a sudden we get a little bit of depth, give us a chance to get our lineup together the way we thought it was going to be when the season started or throughout the summer.”
