Having lost the previous two games, the Sharks would have liked to gain some momentum before heading out East for a six game road trip next week. Unfortunately, the Sharks were on the wrong side of a blowout, as the Pittsburgh Penguins (8-2-2) defeated the San Jose Sharks (6-6-0) 5-0 on Saturday night at SAP Center.

Quickly, the Sharks found themselves in a hole. Chris Kunitz opened the scoring less than 5 minutes in. He came down the left wing with some space, and buried it top shelf past Martin Jones. The Penguins weren’t done yet, though. With just under two minutes left in the first, Sidney Crosby found a loose puck in front of the net and managed to bounce it in off the skate of Martin Jones, giving the Penguins a 2-0 lead.

Despite out-shooting the Penguins 12-5, the Sharks trailed 2-0 after the first period.

Just seconds in to the second period, Martin Jones allowed an easily stoppable puck to get past him. Trying to defend the puck, Vlasic allowed Crosby to get a stick on it, and somehow the puck slipped past Jones.

After a bad performance, Jones was pulled and replaced by Aaron Dell. Things went from bad to worse quickly, as Eric Fehr scored to give the Penguins a 4-0 lead less than 3 minutes into the second. Late in the period, Nick Bonino scored a shorthanded goal to give the Penguins a 5-0 lead into the intermission.

Neither team would score a goal in the third period, but the 5-0 shutout loss at home was nonetheless an embarrassing way to finish up the homestand. Heading into the road trip with momentum would’ve been big, but the Sharks will need to figure things out pretty soon to have any chance of winning games on this upcoming trip.

Notes

• After looking great last year, Martin Jones has struggled with consistency so far this season. It’s still early, but Jones’ 5-5-0 record heading into tonight’s game is nothing to get excited about. We’ll see how he adjusts on the road trip.
• It may not be that obvious, but the Sharks are having a real problem scoring goals. They haven’t scored more than 4 goals in a game this season, and have only scored 3 goals in the past 3 games.

Fear The Fin Three Stars

1. Sidney Crosby
2. Carl Hagelin
3. Connor Sheary

Hopefully this isn’t a start of bad things to come. This upcoming 6 game road trip will be a real test for the Sharks to get back on track. The trip begins on Tuesday night when the Sharks face the Capitals.